The aim of our 2016 excavations was to continue to record and clean up the site, as well as better understand the development of the various sections of the excavated complex. The results of the past seasons had made it clear that the excavated site had three main areas: the northern town houses, the central courtyard and its dependencies, and the barrel-vaulted storage spaces on the south. The main conclusion reached this season is that each area seems to have undergone a different development. Work during the 2016 season focussed on the excavation of 6 trenches.

Trench OPB 15, Space 49
We decided to re-open this area because of the number of foundation walls we recovered last year. In principle most of our early conclusions did not change very much, with the exception that we found an even earlier phase in the form of a cross-wall (US 15141) that acted later as a foundation for another wall (US 15131). The results indicate that Space 49 received a number of reorganizations. However, it seems that the spaces to the north (Spaces 34, 15bis, 15, and 14) were distinctly separate; some sort of dividing line must exist because the stratigraphy is so entirely different.

Trench OPB 19, Space 16
We only re-opened a part of this trench in order to check for further floors and their relationship to trench OPB 20. We also intended to look for the remains of any possible foundations or drains that could continue from trench OPB 15. We purposefully kept the trench only to the very western edge of what we opened last year. The trench did not reveal any further foundations. However, we did recover at least two previous occupation levels. As a result we have now documented four to five phases of occupation.

Trench OPB 20, Space 36
The aim of this trench was to find more of the drain that runs through the latrine feature in the southeast area of the courtyard and to see where it met up with any further conduits. We were also seeking to understand its relationship with the drain in OPB 15 and any possible previous wall foundations or phases. A further aim was to understand the little wall extending from the adjacent space 16.

Trench OPB 21, Space 35
The primary purpose for this trench was to clean up and record the remains of the house associated with space 35. Unfortunately we discovered that the area was disturbed during the reconstruction of the 90s: about half of the space included a modern foundation trench for the southern wall. The clean-up did reveal that space 35 is almost a mirror image to space 48. In particular we documented a base composed of upside-down roof tile. It undoubtedly served some sort of utilitarian function perhaps for cooking or washing. Together with this feature we recovered a hard floor level which covered most of the space where it survived