| Entry: | Well its been some time since I put finger to keyboard, and its a little painful doing so at the moment, following a minor inconvenience with an umbrella this morning. Anyway I had an enjoyable time at the symposium in Ankara, though a holiday it was not.
After I arrived back it was straight into space 163 to do some more infill removal. This stopped when a fire installation and other possible near-floor features were identified. About a metre of material in total was removed in this quadrant. Infill removal then moved on to the south-west quadrant. Tops of possible platforms were recognised at a similar level to the features in the south-east quadrant, so infill removal was also halted in this area.
Infill removal then moved to the north-west quadrant and soon uncovered a large piece of charred wood. Cleaning of this revealed an object about 70cm (e-w) by 20cm (n-s), preserved partly by charring and partly as a salt impression. A little further cleaning around the object showed there to be a burial beneath. The edge of the cut of this was then located and removal of the upper fill (4450) commenced, and revealed that the burial lay in an unusual position on its back. The burial has been given feature number 492.
The wooden object (4460) was removed and found to be no more than 2mm thick, though species ID of the charred area seems likely, as does 14C dating of the material. The object had been placed over the torso of the burial, slightly offset to the right side of the body. Below this in lower fill (4464) was found a phytolith concentration, which appeared to a strip of matting compression. This too lay over the right side of the body. The phytolith material was 100% sampled as near as was possible and the skeleton (4593) cleaned.
Cleaning of the skeleton revealed the full position of the burial. It was lying on its back up against the west wall of space 163 with the head end towards the west, though the skull had been removed. Basak thinks this was after burial as the Atlas vertebra and hyoid bone were intact. The left arm lay down by the left side of the body with the left hand lying over the left side of the sacrum. The upper right arm lay parallel with the right side of the body with the forearm crossed over the lower ribcage, with the right hand lying over the left forearm. The legs were positioned in what can be best described as a 'squatting' position (albeit in a horizontal position). Both knees were drawn up wide of the trunk to about level with the lower ribcage, with the lower legs tightly flexed so that the feet lay just below the pelvis. With the obvious exception of the skull and a number of feet and hand elements which had been disturbed, the skeleton was in situ and indeed quite photogenic once cleaned. Recording of the skeleton is now complete and Basak has begun the arduous task of lifting it.
The whole burial has taken much longer to deal with than I had envisaged, partly because of the complications with the burial itself and partly because of external factors such as the interest shown and visits made, including a BBC film crew and another one from not so far afield. I also had to stand in as temporary surveyor for one afternoon. However, its more or less done now (except recording the cut) and further infill removal in the north-east quadrant has started, but guess what we've just found there?Entered By: Peter Boyer |
