| Entry: | Day 7.
I began the day working in unit 14213, Ben having finished 14223 the day before. Alex had found mudbricks in the southern part of 14213, and Eva and he believe a midden may be located elsewhere in the level. In order to get a better sense of how the mubrick related to the layer nearby, Alex, Ben, Katie and myself mattocked and troweled the layer down. Our worked paid off, since just before lunchtime Alex and Eva were able to determine the mudbrick was part of a very large (possible) burial, lined on all four sides with a mudbrick cap. The cap is topped by both grey fill and orange fill, hinting at the possibility that the grave was at some point looted. Since the grave is cut into the surrounding soil, the rest of unit 14213 likely predates the burial. We found two x-finds today: an iron nail-likely old, since the rust has made it very flaky and it has an hammered head- and a clay ball. We found human teeth in 14213 near (but not in/on) the potential grave, as well as two vertebrae. Also filled out the unit sheet for 14224 (the orange fill on top of the grave cap) so that we can excavate first thing tomorrow.
After lunch Frank and I took coordinates to map out the extent of the burial. We were able to use this to generate a 3d model of the grave and a print out for tomorrow. I also began filling out the unit and feature sheets necessary for the grave. Alex has agreed to show me the symbols for sketching tomorrow. He also introduced me to the Harris Matrix for recording relations between artifacts, something I believe will be useful for mapping units into GIS. I worked a bit more on a geodatabase today, but with the extracurricular readings for Friday’s trip and keeping up with daily recording I don’t know if I’d be able to get more than a demo up and running. In the meantime it gives me an opportunity to talk to Frank and observe his work with autocad and the raw coordinates.Entered By: RBW |
