| Entry: | After working for about a day and a half on unit 15192 suspected burial, it seems so far that this may not have been the primary undisturbed late byzantine burial that we thought. This disturbance was found by JMR investigating the southern reaches of space 310, below the already lifted F 3318 burial near the surface of this region. The cut of this disturbance is bell shaped, and seems to have been disturbed again since the human remains are scattered around the pit. There were a few localized neonate remains within 20 cm of the adult cranium that were crushed and disturbed by an animal burrow, it is unclear as to whether these neonate remains were brought in by the burrow or another disturbance (meaning they are probably chalcolithic), or if they were in the later burial with the adult skull there. Many of these questions may be answered tomorrow when we lift the flat burial stone that was found in this pit, probably placed on top of the later burial. There is another layer that JMR started to excavate that is more heterogenous in color and texture than the layer 19179 where the cranium and neonate remains were located (homogeneous layer of loose soil). I am hopeful that more of this adult individual will be underneath this burial rock, as this will provide more context to the person. This cranium had a maroon pigment directly on the skull on the occipital, on and below the nuchal line - the position of the head was odd, although if it is disturbed this would make sense. I sampled the pigment, and there was also some red ochre or cinnabar pigment around the skull as well. |
