| Entry: | Dear Diary,
This is first the diary entry for feature 1202, the mass burial in the extreme north east of the site. The feature was started by Emma, Pia and Lisa, who weren't overly keen about the seemingly random mass of human bone they had uncovered, and continued by my own (at the time) over enthusiastic self, Basak, Laurie and Meral.
I should have really started these entries when I took over the skeles but a mixture of unfamiliarity with the system and sheer forgetfulness brings me to this summary of the events so far:
The spread of human bone was discovered within the topsoil or hillwash but at this height the extent of the cut wasn't clear. To get round this problem we assigned the group an arbitrary fill number [7512] different from the surrounding topsoil [7506]. The spread of bone was in a poor state and seemed to extend over a c 2x2m area. The group appears to have been exposed by erosion at some point in its history, causing the exposed bone to deteriorate and scatter before the group was recovered with hillwash and the formation of topsoil.
And so we started the on going process of cleaning the exposed bone, taking photographs and making plans. Laurie described the proceedings as a complex game of pick up sticks, which was a good analogy for the mass of bone in front of us. In a normal stratified series of archaeological features you have a good chance of figuring out what's happening but in a mass burial pit which has been re-cut on numerous occasions it becomes a game of hunt the articulation. The true number of individuals and allocation of limbs won't take place until at least next year when Basak and Laurie can start analyzing the bone.
The combination of photographs and plans should provide the level of information required to piece back together the individuals in the grave/s. After the observable bones are planned and photographed Basak and Laurie number and describe the majority of bones on a print out, assigning them a unique number. The plans also provide a clearer representation of the situation and contain the positions of x finds and levels. We are currently up to photograph 9 and plan 10 arrrgggh! Don't get me wrong, its an exciting feature packed full of potential study topics and classy x finds but in my years of excavating skeletons its definitely the most laborious and complex burial I have ever dug.
The finds from the grave have been superb and raised more than a few questions. To date we have recovered several pendants, a bone needle, c 250 beads, an obsidian projectile point, bead bracelets and necklaces and stone and copper armlets. Yep you heard right, a solid and well made copper armlet encompassing the lower left humerous of skele [7557].
The date of the grave is at present un-decided but the late Neolithic to early Calcolithic seems to be the most likely. At present we are cleaning back the rest of the top soil from around the grave as our 'discrete' feature started producing articulated human bone in one of its arbitrary sections during the weekend.
Have also begun to digitise the plans in CorelDraw with a view to placing individuals, x finds and other data on separate layers to aid the features interpretation and produce a publishable medium, which can be exported into AutoCad and complete the digital archive of the feature.
In the future I promise to do more diary entries often, rather than lengthy monologues once a fortnight, honest.
Love
JonEntered By: Jon Sygrave |
