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Context Description:
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Room 3 behind the supposed steps had a south wall of burnt brick (not more than two courses left) which was a continuation of the south wall of Room 2 but had its foundations at a level about 0.50 m. higher, resting on very solid walls of mud brick, and the same mud brick with burnt brick above continued along the east end of the room; the burnt brickwork was clearly that of the walls of the room proper whose floor was raised above that of Room 2 presumably to the level of the wall foundations; no trace of its pavement survived. In spite of the change of level the wall-construction seems to link up this room with Rooms 1 and 2, and to the east of it and to the south of Room 1 to 3 lay a number of other chambers of which the burnt brickwork had completely disappeared but there remained massive substructures in mud brick. It is not uncommon to find late walls based on mud brickwork that belong to older house-walls buried under accumulated rubbish, but such was not the case here. The mud-brick walls went down for at least 2.50 m. below what must have been the floor-level of the existing house No. 3. They were smoothly faced with mud plaster, and there were no communicating doors whatsoever; they were therefore not rooms. They were filled with light rubbish - chiefly ashes - quantities of burnt straw and, in some cases, carbonised grain and date-stones. The walls were thick, considerably thicker than the walls of burnt brick which, in the case of Room 3, were demonstrably built over them, so that along the base of each burnt-brick wall, on either side of it, there would have been a ledge quite sufficient to support the ends of floor-beams laid across these box-cellars; a trap-door in the floor would have given access to what were clearly underground store-chambers.2
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