| Entry: | Monday 2nd of July 2007 - Day Seven
Today was an interesting day in terms of learning new things, even if it was not hugely productive.
Before breakfast we looked at the work currently going on in the TP area - where a large midden deposit between to substantial walls is being excavated. It looks impressive and I was hoping that the midden under 14217 might turn out to be something vaguely comparable. Having just seen the daily sketch and ben talked through today's interpretation it now looks as if this is not the case. Oh well.
I returned to 14238 - the mashed up grave in the N corner of the trench 5 extension with Maxime. The anthropologists think the liklihood of a comprehensible burial is small and so we set about cleaning the bones more throughly in the hope of finding more articulated parts and trying to find the grave cut. The soil was very similar in colour and the cut was found mostly by the feel of the earth under the trowel. Once it was located we set about clearing up for a photograph and for planning. This planning ended up taking up pretty much the rest of my day. Setting up a baseline with Frank was time-consuming as was the actual measuring and recording of the cut and the skeleton itself. Partly this was due to the relative inexperienc of myself and Maxime, who have done very few drawings before. The complexity of the bone deposit was also a major contributing factor. However, I am more familiar with the techniques now and plan to read the crib sheets on the central server to fill any gaps, as recommended by Eva.
Th grave itself seems remarkably similar to the one I dug with Alex, a mixed concentration of mostly upper body bones, lacking skull and the majority of the long bones, in the E edge of a EW orientated pit. There is still hope that the grave may be early chalcolithic but I confess I am a bit sceptical. Nice EC pottery is emerging at almost the same level as the bones themselves and the grave is very shallow - I feel it may originally have been a deeper grave dug into the EC layers that has lost upper layers through post depositional activity like ploughing. It almost certainly extends into the baulk somewhat and I shall be prepared to make a more assertive judgement when we have removed the fill and can clearly see the cut. I have no solid basis for my sceptism other than the fact the grave is so very shallow; perhaps I am simply feeling a bit pessimistic! And majority opinion certainly seems to be that this could be an EC burial. I am thus prepared to eat my words!!
Thoughts for today - wellness. After feeling really, really rough last night during the film we all watched (Pan's Labyrinth - worth a look!) I was scared I would be too sick to work today. However, it seems to have been the last attempt of this cold/sickness thing to take me out and I woke up feeling much better, and still do now. =) Also, sadly, incompetence. I was *so* slow today making the plan and constantly had to run to ask more experienced people what things meant, how I should do things etc. I hate annoying others who are trying to work, particularly when I feel I should know how to do these things. As Maxime has no more experience than me it was *much* harder sorting out the paperwork and what to do next than it was when I was working with Alex. It was also more difficult to negotiate who was doing what. While Alex was very considerate and never ordered me to do anything it seemed perfectly natural given his level of experience for me to look to him somewhat for instruction - and he was very good at picking up when I was a bit lost and making sure things were clear for me. With someone who is the same age/ experience level there was no clear "leader" for a lot of today and it made working a bit more difficult. I felt like I was too bossy at times and too timid at others!
On reflection, this is probably a good thing. There will be plenty of situations I will have to face on future excavations and in the Real World that will be similar and learning to deal with it now is a postive thing. I am just very aware, never more so than today, of my inexperience and also conscious of not wanting to rub people up the wrong way when we all live in such close proximity.
Hmm. I think I have over-thought this too much now. I think these worries may just be a product of my particular emotional state today rather than a tangible day to day issue. It will all sort itself out, I'm sure.Entered By: KH |
