| Entry: | The day in space 342 began with JFB removing the remainder of the neonate (the skull), and was filled with the continued excavation of unit 18328.
Along with ER and with help from JFB, unit 18328 has been largely - so far as we can tell - removed: during attempts to clarify our understanding of the stratigraphy the northern third of the unit has fairly clearly been entirely excavated, given that a significantly more colourful (brighter yellow) layer has been revealed underneath; the southern two thirds of the unit area has been intentionally left with roughly a centimeter of unit 18328's fill still remaining, to enable particularly careful excavation of the material underneath.
Space 342 still retains the sloping aspect observed previously - with all the potential interpretations this would entail - and my moderate confidence that this is not merely a result of uneven excavation was bouyed by the observation of a phytolith layer in the higher (southern) area of the space which was not underneath any discernable artefacts or features and which was directly upon a more homogenous, silty area. If this silty area is indeed the same layer as that exposed lower down towards the north of the unit, and the phytoliths were therefore marking the boundary between unit 18328 and the lower layer, then the conclusion of a genuine slope seems inescapable. This should be clarified during the removal of the remainder of unit 18328 tomorrow. |
