Four Room House

This is a picture of an excavation and partial reconstruction of a fourroom house from Tall Umayri. It dates to the late Iron period just like the residence area we have been working in. It may well be the type of house we have been working on for the last month at Tall el Hammam. There are three rooms in the front with a back room over which is place wattle and daub (sticks and twigs) which form the roof then mud brick is placed on top. When this all catches fire and fall on the interior floor surface you have a mixed matrix of mud brick, burnt char, and usually pottery that it lands on. For us to recover an entire storage jar from the centre of the room is very rare and a beautiful example of late iron storage vessels. There was also a wonderful example of a Late Iron age rampart with the Middle Bronze Age rampart below it, resting on bedrock. The outer casement wall from the early iron age is evident which we anticipate to see in the near future. It is always good to see a finished site to see what we can expect to find in our site.