One Wall, Two Walls, Three Walls, . . . More??

18 May, 2013
When I last was able to write we were frustrated trying to follow the corner of the building platform we discovered in the previous 2012 field season.  Last year, if you recall, we had a lovely front of the structure complete with a beautiful curved corner (figure 1).  One of our primary objectives for this year’s work was to excavate units to the south and follow the wall with the intention of determining the size of the platform. 
 
However, one of the truisms of archaeology is that you never know what you will find until you find it.  This objective fulfilled that statement is spades.  What should have been an easy, academic activity turned into a much more complex endeavour. 
 
Our attempts to uncover “The Wall” resulted in us uncovering SEVERAL walls (figure 2).  The lowest wall in the photo turned out to be a large retaining wall holding back the rubble fill that formed the core construction of the “new platform” (Structure D-P1).  The second wall (embedded in the white marl and which you can only see the back of [Str. D-P1-4th]) was a bit more problematic but I had my suspicions about it which, as I’ll mention later turned out to be true. The third wall (running through the middle of the photo [Str. D-P1-1st]) was a nice solid, but single course of stones that sat on a plaster floor.  This floor turned out to be the one that buried the 2012 platform (visible in the top left of the photo).
 
This new, and much more extensive platform, proved to be the focus of the 2013 field season.  Our investigations of this construction revealed that the “middle wall” (Str. D-P1-4th) that I was suspicious of was in fact an earlier platform wall.  This was a surprisingly high wall (figure 3) that actually extended into the plaza floor below—the same floor that our 2012 platform sits on.  This wall was later buried when the platform was remodelled and the plaza floor was raised. This is when the northernmost wall was added and oddly the platform became lower, becoming a single course of stone high. 
 
In the end we never found the east wall of the 2012 building platform (now tentatively identified as part of Str. D-P1).  We did discover that it was comprised of at least two constructions (visible in figure 4 as plaster floors; D-P1-3rd and D-P1-2nd).  It is quite likely that this “platform” was in fact and extension off the front of the larger 2013. 
 
This situation unfortunately leaves us with as many questions as answers.  When was the D-P1-4th platform built? Is this the “original” platform, or is then another below it?  When was it modified to add the northern extensions?  What was the purpose of the D-P1-3rd and D-P1-2nd extension?
 
Regrettably these questions will have to wait for the 2014 field season as we have finished our allotted five weeks of excavation time.  The students left for home on Saturday and we remaining few (Dr. Sagebiel and two Ma students) have rolled into the lab.  Now is the time for us to examine the artefacts and analysis the implications of the season’s discoveries.