| Entry: | Jez Taylor 18/04/1999
This morning , I began excavating a further , approx. 0.10m. spit , within midden deposit 4121 , in the SE. corner of Space 115. We’ve noted over the past week , that this area has produced a slightly higher percentage of bone , including a few cattle teeth which are to be sent for DNA analysis. Today I revealed a large cattle horn core , mostly intact , though a section is missing close to the skull , and an area has been partly damaged by a mattock blow , also near to the skull. Animal bone specialist Sheelagh , compared dimensions of the core with those of one discovered in 1997 in Space 117 - Building 2. She found that although the overall length of our core is shorter - 580mm. , ( x 160mm. max. width ) , when the length of the outer curve is measured , our core is considerably larger. This debunked speculation that both cores were from the same animal. However , much of the bone we have removed from the SE. corner of Space 115 , may well have been. During videoing of the excavation , I said that we planned to lift the core today , to avoid any damage to the bone from dehydration. We later decided that it was too fragile to lift without chemical treatment , so we have protected it with acid - free tissue paper , and reburied it , while we await the arrival of the conservator in a few day’s time.Entered By: Jez Taylor |
