| Entry: | 14273 has been abandoned temporarily, due to the concern that we may be unintentionally excavating Islamic grades. Until the government decides the best course of action the project has agreed to suspend excavations of Late Roman / Christian / Early Ottoman graves (especially as we don’t have an expert who can definitively distinguish between them). I understand that this may affect some of the Poznan team’s work as well. This sort of thing is unfortunate, but can’t really be helped. It’s still less complicated than dealing with NAGPRA issues in the U.S., and I think all parties involved seem to be behaving responsibly and with consideration of the others.
Moving on, I began working with Ms. Wallduck trying to define the extend of a cut and fill, unit 14277, which ended up being rather poorly defined, as once we removed the present surface area, we found a mass of rodent and root disturbances and discovered that the supposed cut boundary was in fact caused by this group of disturbances. We ended up taking much more down, including much which was part of 14213 in the immediate area. Peter was working with Katie and Ray nearby in a pit with a shovel after Frank moved the rock Ray thought was unmovable by one mortal man (perhaps Frank is not your average mortal man?) Peter seemed to be in a rather… progressive… mood, so we cleared out most of the disturbed area with a combination of trowel and mattock, periodically cleaning and checking to make sure we weren’t taking out any features or didn’t come across the supposed fill again. Everything was clear, and it seems to have been a good decision.
Taking that area down, I’m curious about the number of artificial lines we have established from either incomplete units or units which had arbitrary layers. Also, as the pit became quite deep, I became curious yet again about the single context versus American grid system, and whether or not it would be safer / more structurally sound to take the area around it out in arbitrary levels so it would be clearer if the pit expanded as it went deeper. It’s a trade off, and I think at the end of the day it’s just difficult to excavate pits which expand as they go down.
Eva and Peter seem quite happy with their competing candidates for Chalcolithic architecture, and I was stunned by the number of largely intact pots (well, considering the situation of discovery) at the deep sounding upon visiting it for the group photos.
Sadly, Alex departs today for his grandfather’s funeral. His is a voice of experience and reason, he’s an excellent excavator and colleague, and he will be missed. Hopefully I’ll have a chance to see him again if I return next year or spend any time at Cambridge over the next few years.Entered By: BK |
