These palimpsests of specific activities are generally the smallest meaningful groupings that can be defined on architectural or stratigraphic grounds, and are the primary units of discussion and data presentation. In the terms discussed before, we can categorise these as use and abandonment episodes and as construction episodes. In some units only two or three episodes can be defined, in others five or six. As episodes refer to series of events within individual architectural or excavation units, broader discussions of site history linking episodes in different parts of the site require a third level of chronological grouping. We have been more conventional in calling these Phases.
Phases are very broad groupings of episodes.
They are generally defined by major construction episodes rather than smaller scale renovations which define episodes in individual architectural units. Four phases simplify the architectural history revealed by the first three seasons of excavation at the site. There is little surviving evidence of Phases D and C which represent two significantly different sets of early activity on the site. Most of the surviving architecture is placed within Phase B, which began with a major construction episode, but then includes minor renovations in different parts of the site. Phase A is the latest Bronze Age use of the site, with little substantial architecture preserved in the main area of excavation.