We opened a probe in I. C11 on June 7th at an elevation of 184.59. Our original goal in this square was to find the northwest corner of the temple podium. We began digging L.C11000 in search of this corner.

By the end of the first day we uncovered two flat cut stones at an elevation of 183.43 and one more weathered stone at an elevation of 183.50. We thought that these stones might be part of the northwest corner of the podium, since the ornate corner capital is only 50cm north of the probe.

On June 8th we discovered four more large cut stones at an elevation of 182.90 underneath the first two at an elevation of 183.43. We also found that the third more weathered stone at elevation 183.50 was lying on soil rather than the next course of cut stones. The second course of stones at elevation 182.90 indicated that we had uncovered the northwest corner of the podium. We assigned it the wall locus W.C11005. We then changed locus from L.C11000 to L.C11001 due to the second course of stones, although we were still at root level and there was no soil change.

Jack pointed out that the 1st course of stones on the podium were broken and the other halves also rested on the 2nd course at the same elevation of 183.43. He hypothesized that the corner capital could have hit these stones and broken them before it landed in the northwest corner of I. C11.

After we uncovered the 2nd course of the podium, we had to open up the 2nd half of the square in order to dig further. The soil of L.C11000 and L.C11001 was mainly wind blown and we found very little pottery of which only two sherds were diagnostic. However, we did find a large number of architectural fragments mainly broken off of the corner capital.

We began digging the 2nd half of I. C11 at an elevation of 183.17. Our new goal for the second half of the square was to reach the pavers in order to date the temple. The difference in beginning elevation of the probe at 183.59 and the 2nd half at 183.17 indicates a tip line in our square that runs from the south balk to the north balk. We uncovered many large cut stones that appeared to be collapse perhaps from an earthquake that also caused the corner capital to fall. This collapse may have also caused the 1st course of stones to split on the podium rather than the corner capital.

We continued to find a lot of architectural fragments in the second half of the square. We uncovered a small column 25cm in diameter with a hole in its center in L.C11000, which we numbered #23. Andy pointed out that its small size suggests it came from an interior space.

The pottery from the second half of the square in L. C11000 ranged from the 3rd to the 12th century. The extremely loose, fine soil and the broad range of pottery indicates that this locus is mainly fill and wind blown material.

On June 15th we discovered a north-south oriented wall with cut stones of various sizes at an elevation 182.51. This wall, W.C11002, we determined to be Byzantine due to the reuse of the cut stones from the Roman temple collapse. We then changed locus on each side of the wall. The west side of W.C11002 we changed to L.C11003 at an elevation of 182.26 and the east side to L.C11004 at an elevation of 182.25.

We uncovered two column drums in L.C11004. One which lies flat in the northeast corner of the locus at elevation 182.35 and the other which stands vertical near to east balk at an elevation of 182.54. We also have a column drum located in the west balk at an elevation of 182.87. We discovered a burn layer near to the east balk and the podium W.C11005 in L.C11004 with a bit of yellowish soil, which Jack suggested might be melted limestone. This may be an area near a kiln where the limestone was melted down or a small fire may have occurred during the collapse of the temple. The soil in this locus continues to be very fine and the little pottery that has been found dates from the 2nd to the 12th century. This locus was very similar to L.C11000 in that it contained mainly fill material and more architectural fragments.

In L.C11003 we found another small column 25cm in diameter with a hole in its center (artifact #27). Similar to all previous loci, we have not uncovered much pottery and it dates to the 10th-12th century.

On June 21st we changed L.C11003 to L.C11006 due to a soil change. We had a change in soil color and it was more compact.

Our question currently is the relationship of W.C11002 and the collapse including the corner capital. We believe that the collapse of the corner capital, column drums, and many cut stones predates the wall W.C11002. The secondary use of large cut stones in this wall are evidence of this. We are establishing a north balk on the west side of W.C11002 in order to find more about the relationship of this wall and the corner capital. We also began dismantling the wall and sifting the soil within it, however we have found very little pottery which might help us to concretely date the wall.

Overall in the last week we succeeded in finding the northwest corner of the podium and we will continue to dig further in search of the pavers.