THE URBAN SURVEY

Two weeks of fine May weather permitted substantial expansion of the Resistivity Survey in the lower, central portion of the city (Fig. 3). The ground was moist and soft so that on most days nine grids, each measuring 20 by 20m, could be surveyed. This broader survey area now makes it possible to recognise significant differences in spatial patterning across this central portion of the city. As a result of warm and sunny conditions the higher ground soon began to dry out and turn brown. By mid May only the marshy area between the western and central zones, which appears to be devoid of remains, remained wet. A month later the entire area was dry and parched with cracks appearing in the ground. It is striking how the environmental conditions alter from year to year because of variation in the levels of snow and rainfall throughout the winter and spring

Within the south-eastern portion of the Resistivity Survey, between the two main branches of the stream (Fig. 5 at right), large urban blocks characterise by numerous rows of cell-like units can be discerned. These structures, which were presumably for storage, had been discovered in previous seasons but extension of the survey area in 2003 made possible the identification of later enclosures, perhaps animal pens, their boundary walls appearing as thick sinuous lines some of which transect the Iron Age compounds.

In the central sector, where the shepherd set up camp in the spring (Fig. 4), one particular complex contains a variety of structures, including two megarons. These apparently exceptional buildings, which were first identified in 2000, were examined by excavation in 2003. The western portion of the survey, on the left of
Figure 5, revealed somewhat irregular urban blocks and enclosures of varying size. The shapes and proportions of these blocks were to some degree influenced by topography. Resistivity imagery confirms that each block contains a number of
structures, including one or more two-roomed buildings, but not the long parallel rows of cells seen in the eastern part of the survey area. The northern part of the western side, seen at top left on Figure 5 shows a plethora of small two-roomed buildings huddled together in a rather unorganised fashion.