| Entry: | It seems its well over a week since my last diary entry so I had better make another one now, before I head off to Ankara for a week. Anyway the burial F460 has been completed, and I think Basak said it was a male in its early 20s. With the removal of the burial, further removal of infill has been possible. A little more of 4325 in the north-west quadrant of space 163/170 has been taken out, though this was delayed by the discovery of a large animal scapula which was conserved. I think Sheelagh said it was Bos.
I have also started to remove the infill in the north-east quadrant of the space, this has been numbered 4416. Because of the unfortunate habit developed in 4325, of finding burials with large steel tools, the upper levels of 4416 were carefully cleaned down. At one point a large oval discoloration was noticed and treated as a negative feature, but turned out to be nothing. After this, infill removal continued at an accelerated pace as no more features were apparent. Not that is until the discovery of a baby skeleton's ribs and vertebrae. Once again the difficulty in detecting burials prior to their being accidently excavated raised its ugly head, and itseems this cannot be avoided. Maybe once there is a cover over the area, very subtle contrasts in sediment colour and texture will be observed prior to excavation. Anyway, back to the burial. Careful cleaning did reveal an edge of sorts and a cut into the wall plaster of space 170 (the burial had been placed against the eatern wall of the space). This suggested that the burial had been cut during later activity in space 163, indeed all of the burials so far in this space appear to have been cut during a phase post-dating the infilling, i.e. Mellaart phase 8.
The burial was given a feature number (F475) and more careful cleaning revealed it to have been in a much more restricted space, furthermore it appeared to have been buried in some type of basketry container, as below the upper grave fill (4422) a basket lid, preserved as a clear phytolith impression was revealed (4423). This was extensively sampled (conservation was not practicable given the location close to a delicate skeleton) and the grave fill below (4428) carefully removed to expose the rest of the skeleton (4424). This appeared to be of a very small child and actually filled an area as little as 20 x 16cm. It had clearly collapsed in on itself and was in generally poor condition. Cleaning of the skeleton had also uncovered more of the basketry container in which it had been interred (4429). The skeleton has now been removed and conservation of the basket is underway. Again this has been preserved as a concentrated phytolith impression.
Whilst Basak was removing the skeleton I started carefully removing more of the infill 4416 and just before lunch on Thursday scraped the skull of another baby, no clear cut having been observed previously. Cleaning of the surrounding area after lunch in the shade of an umbrella revealed quite a clear edge around this burial, picked out by a fine white line, which a little extra cleaning revealed to be another phytolith concentration. It seems we have another baby in a basket. Anyway this burial has been covered and will probably be dealt with by someone else while I am away.
Also during the last few days I have helped Kent and Charlie with the lifting and removal to the lab of the baby with the bracelets etc. and have almost completed the recording of the elevation of the northern wall of space 163, prior to its lowering to increase the safety of working in the space. I will shortly be going to Ankara where I shall be attending the archaeological symposium, so it may be some time before my next posting, cheersEntered By: Peter Boyer |
