| Entry: | Today Ros and I finished cleaning out the animal burrow that we started yesterday (unit 15300). I ended up sketching it while Ros sorted the finds, and the finished drawing looks like some sort of weird intestinal track, or the streets of Santa Fe, New Mexico, whichever metaphor you prefer. It does connect to the other animal burrow that Ros dug before (unit 14218), so I suppose there is some type of method to the madness that Meep and friends have created. In this way, the Santa Fe metaphor does not work as well. However, my confusion about the road system in Santa Fe may have resulted from the fact that the only time I have ever driven through it was with a dyslexic person navigating ("Turn right. No, left!")
After finishing this, I began helping Ray to clear out a pit in Unit 15306. This is the unit that he drew a plan of earlier today. It had a softer looking fill than the area to the West and also we were hoping to find a connection to the plaster line between the two mud brick sections that had been found just to the east of the unit. We dug down really far, about 40 cm, but still no plaster. However, we did find a big rock on the western side of the bottom of the pit. We pulled up some faunal material and a few human bones throughout the pit, including someone’s left calcaneous (I may have spelled that wrong.) On the eastern side, we started hitting some clay like material that was a bit harder than the rest of the stuff we were pulling out. Eva thinks this might be the same type of mud brick, especially since it is right next to the section in the next unit where they have identified the mud brick and plaster. Hopefully tomorrow it will have dried up some more so we can take a look at the walls of the pit to make sure we haven’t cut through anything. However, if there is something there, it can’t have extended that far into where we were digging since most of the soil remained dark and pretty soft throughout. It would make sense to have a long section of wall extending from the western end of the trench down to the other mud brick area. There’s just a problem of getting the plaster bits to line up since we have lost it both in this unit as well as further west in unit 14213. There is a definite edge to the pit on the southern end (I mean rather than just looking like a cut defined by soil change, there is a material border a couple of inches thick on that end), so that has to indicate some sort of meaningful dividing line between that area and the area to the south. I feel like I need to stay in this area now, because I am determined to figure out what is going on there, if for no other reason than spite. I would say that I try generally to not be a spiteful person, but apparently this section of our trench has driven to me to it.
Today I also took a few points on the total station, which was fun. I need to review all the menu stuff and setting up the machine (i.e., telling it where it is, etc). Apparently, I have an odd way of looking through viewfinders, because I don’t close the other eye. I have always found that it’s just easier to keep both eyes open, but only concentrate on what you are seeing with one eye. If I try to close the other one, it just gives me a headache since my forehead muscles work too hard. Ros commented on this the other day when she saw me taking pictures and Frank mentioned it today as well. I have no idea why I have just written this, since it is not a vital piece of information, or really even interesting.
On that note, I am going to end this diary entry before it becomes too painful.Entered By: KJK |
