| Entry: | Today I continued work on F. 3342 and found 3 iron nails in the burial fill 15385. Thus far, it has been very compact up until I reached this iron nail level, possibly indicating that the initial mudbrick upper layer is discontinued, and this is the layer with the coffin fill that is left. I did not get to work on this too much longer, before having to finish the other burial F. 3347 Sk. 15390 that was still exposed. HRS came to sample the elbow joint that was left in situ, and I took out the rest of the burial fill and human bones that I could, and due to the loose nature of the soil in this section that the skeleton goes into, we cannot safely remove it without compromising the tent structure, so the rest of the skeleton will have to come up next summer before the tent is put up. There was a strange pink and white layer located over where the right hand would have been - the majority of the skeleton was in fragmentary condition, and the right hand was in very bad condition. The pink and white layers were taken for a sample, as it is unknown what this could be. Later on in the unit, when RHB was finishing the burial fill 15391 and located a bone pin - which it is unclear if this dates with the burial, or the other disturbed layer material from the Chalcolithic. It was located on the right side of the body, outside the perimeter of where the right hand would have been. While our workers were pick axeing through the unit just adjacent to 15390, they came across a human skull that had been badly crushed and scattered a bit through the unit. After taking a look at the area, I found other human elements such as vertebrae, ribs, and more of the skull over an area of approximately 60 centimeters. It was determined to make this a cluster unit of bone, 16935, which was photographed and removed. Other human remains have been coming out of this southwest area of the trench, but have been highly scattered throughout the fill as we have been increasing in depth. I highly dislike when this happens, since predicting where bone fragments will be is difficult and impossible, breaking the bones is almost a given. I was also really disappointed in the condition of 15390 skeleton when I lifted it, as most of the elements fell apart when I tried to remove them whole. Maybe tomorrow will be better. |
