| Entry: | The stratigraphy as absolutely fascinating in that it is clear – to see at least; however, in interpretation, it (as all sites) becomes more difficult. What has baffled me the most is that everything appears to be so predictable - appears is the key word, it's not always clear. The first day I arrived, I was given of the space in which I would be working. It was amazing that Mike could go through and not only say what everything was but also what should appear in next layers…though there were (as always) some surprises. Beneath the bins in space 337 that were excavated out in 2008, there was a strange cut with a clay (?) infill with nothing in it. It was expected to be a burial or cache, but ended up being maybe a retrieval pit. It seems that the absence of material culture is just as interesting as the presence of material culture in this case. One morning we came up and were working for approximately an hour before we realized that a panel of red had fallen revealing a panel of painted incised decorations. The building is crumbling. Just in the time that I’ve been here it seems that we are trying to retrieve as much data and learn as much as possible before it completely collapses. It’s almost a rescue excavation at this point. In the southeast corner of space 336 another series of red panels has appeared. The uppermost layers of red paint appear to be only slightly older than the feature, while others are behind the platform and were separated from the platform by a layer of mud plaster. This same layer of mud plaster was cut out about 20cm north of the platform and patched with a comparatively shoddy mud patch that was then painted over. The inhabitants of the house may have damaged the panel somehow. It would be interesting to test for phytoliths or pollen on the alternating plaster and paint layers to see if there was any correlation between seasonality and painting/plastering of the houses.
Clearly I am not writing every day. My bad. I, along with Ashley, continued the cleaning of the incised painted panel, which is larger than was expected. Cool beans. An undetermined ammount of time later, Mike and I worked on the amazingly convoluted series of ovens and bins (features 3606, 3607, 3608, 3609). The inhabitants of the building seemed to remodel this area with annoying frequency.
I nearly deleted everything I just wrote by using the scroll wheel on the mouse.
Mike's a cool guy.
It's soooooooooooooooooo hot and humid here. |
