Area DW-East Stratigraphy

Area D-West-East (abbreviated as dw-East), excavated in the 2013 season, represents an exploration of the area east of Kempinski's furthest investigation of the eastern palace. The aims were to uncover new portions of the eastern palace as well as to bridge the area between the exposed eastern rooms and the Kabri Archaeological Project's initial 2005 work in D-North. By concentrating on the final two phases (III and IV) of MB occupation, focus was placed on correlating stratigraphic events between the eastern and western/core of the palace. This focus allowed for excavation of a secured assemblage from within a single room, or courtyard, for detailed scientific analysis and to provide a larger dataset of mb assemblages. Greater exposure of Room 1434 to the north and east revealed a potentially expansive new courtyard that underwent a series of renovations in addition to a possible functional shift in the very last subphase of MB occupation. The expanded excavation east toward Area D-North revealed an additional room between the two areas. Together, this new information suggests that the palace substantially expanded to the east in Phase IV, and by Phase III grew even further from what was initially considered the core of the palace in Room 611.