Page 9Scan 39 of 164
Continued from scan 38
… the cement floor destroyed and the red earth of the bottle layer continues down below the level of the floor, to which the excavation has so far been limited. Below floor level the red layer ends after c 0,20 m. It rests directly on another layer consisting of at most fist-sized white gypsum lumps (cf. the fill in room 3) without intervening earth; this light layer surrounds and encloses the cistern structure itself. The red layer is removed first northeast of the well opening and up to it. Thereafter the same area is dug deeper as far as possible, whereby the cistern structures are gradually exposed. The excavation is continued in the same way past the opening towards the southwest. Attention is kept throughout on the sharply cut trench wall. Once the actual cistern structure has been excavated in this way, it becomes apparent, however, that the gypsum lump layers continue toward the southwest (toward the large stairs) c. 0,20 m from the actual cistern structure square and roughly opposite the well opening a change in the layers is noted. Sunk below the floor- … continues
65 figures hard to readstruck struck outadded written in above” jug ditto, and what it repeatsword reading not certain