| Entry: | Today went very smoothly and the work went very well in Trench 5. Excavators are becoming familiar once more with the Catal recording system and samples (archive and flotation) are beginning to be taken more consistently. We now also have a sieve, that arrived after lunch, which means we can commit fully to the Catal practice of dry sieving the remainder of each unit after it has been sampled, and also approximating the volume! This makes me feel much more releived, knowing that our records and sampling practice is following the Catal system.
The Selcuk team are moving at a fast pace lifting the remainder of burials 2419 and 2420. They are also making good progress on units 16826 and 16827 (cut and fill respectively), which may turn out to be another late burial. They've produce so many drawings so far that I've been impressed with their speed and efficiency - maybe they'll be no burials left before we know it!
Jana and Katy continued in their area located in the centre of Trench 5 (690 E, 970 N). Having finished units 16810 and 16811 (fill and cut respectively) of a possible pit, they moved on to a second pit with fill 16833 and cut 16834. I think that 16834 may be truncated by the first pit they ecavated (truncated by unit 16811).
Jemima and Alex were working on different units today. Jemima was defining a wall in the north-eastern quarter of Trench 5, feature 2413. Whilst it is early speculation, I am sure that once we have cleaned off more of the layer lying above and within feaure 2413, that we will have a space, or even a room. The layer lying on the west side of this wall is probably room fill and been given the unti number 16838. We think that feature 2413 is the same as feature 2426, as both walls line up in the section provided by the grave cut of feature 2416.
Alex was excavating an animal burrow, unit 16824. This burrow contained disarticulated human bones and so Alex took great care to record it, finishing it no doubt tomorrow.
Dan and Sonia continued to work in the negative of former grave feature 2416. They knocked down the baulk that was separating the area from the eastern side of Trench 5. In doing this, they began to expose and define the possible outline of a wall running E-W. I was supposed to help Sonia this afternoon draw feature 2426, mudbrick 15320 and mortar 15321, but was sidetracked quite frequently. I felt quite bad, but she was incredibly patient and very understanding. Dan will be helping her tomorrow morning.
Maxim continued to record his pit fill and cut, 16822 and 16823 respectively, and then was cleaning in the afternoon to follow a line of mudbricks and mortar just a metre of less to the south of his pit.
An infant/baby was exposed just before lunch today during the cleaning out of the brick lining of feature 2420. Some of the bones have been left in the mortar in which they are imbedded (between two dark ashy mudbricks from feature 2424 - most likely a chalcolithic wall). Most of the skeleton was exposed, and evidently disturbed, by the cut of feature 2420, and so were removed and taken to the human remains lab.
Overall today we made excellent pogress as a team. Everything ran uninterupted with the total station and photography and the team has gelled very well. |
