| Entry: | This is my first diary entry for the 2012 season. I have been here for two weeks already, so this is long overdue. I have been working with Burcu in the North area, and I have been excavating two burials.
The first one was a small Neolithic child burial (F3622) with a child of 4 to 6 years (skeleton unit 19437). It belonged to an eroded building (B108) that is preserved only by the lowest parts of the walls and some burials under eroded platforms, of which this is one.
The building was probably eroded early on, or at least during Byzantine time, as there are Byzantine burials at the same level nearby. Also, there seem to be some disturbance of this burial at that time, as a small cut was filled with the same orangy material as the Byzantine burials. Also a sherd of pottery was found in the top of the infill in the burial, which may be a sign of later disturbance.
The cut was not very clear from the top. Actually, the fill seemed to be more irregular in paln and also it seemed to bi larger than the acctual cut. That is why the plan of the fill is not exactly the sam as the cut. When I excavated the infill, the cut appeared much clearer.
The skeleton was poorly preserved, as it had been uncovered already in 2008, and since then it has been covered by a cloth and some soil. This meant that it was very fragile and really difficult to lift. The human bone lab staff helped me identify many of the bones, and interpret the position of the child. It was lying on its side with the head to the west and its back to the North, with his or her knees pulled up, probably with the arms around the knees. I have made a drawing of how I think it was lying on the daily sketch of 20120703.
The bones of the lower legs were found a bit further from the other bones than I would expect, (10 to 20 cm) and first I thought it was an additional person, but it makes more sense that it is the same individual.
I lifted the skeleton myself, and put separate identifiable bones in separate bags numbered 1 to 10 with the equivalent numbering on the plan (12/301). Hopefully this will be enough to understand the bones as they enter the lab. One of the feet was really nicely articulated. Jason took some close up photos of this 20120703_JPQ_8791 to 20120703_JPQ_8796.
There were a few pieces of obsidian in the infill, but nothing that I would understand as gravegoods.
At last, a short note on the documentation system. We have been discussing the documentation system lately. This is a very complex site, which means that the documentation also will be complex. However, there are some concerns about how this documentation can be used and how to find certain pieces of information in this complex system. I can take this little burial as an example. I do know that someone has taken off material above it as the exposed bones were protected, presumably by the excavator that exposed them, and I have been told that this happened in 2008. But when I look for information about the material that was taken off, even if it was just a surface scrape, with finds linked to it, I cant seem to find it. There is nothing linked to the space no that can give me an idea of what has happened previously on top of the burial. It may be a case of me not knowing how to find the information, as I assume it is in there somewhere, but I wish it was not so difficult to find it.
Now it is dinnertime, so I will continue with my second burial later. |
