| Entry: | Today was a day of cleaning up and exposing wall plaster. SLS and I completed exposing the plaster on the north wall (U. 7934) and SLS drew it. The plaster ledge on the northcentral jog finally fell and took the bone peg out with it. Unfortunately, the bone piece broke as it crashed agaist the plaster but we recovered the fragments and baged it as an X find. Once this was complete, we moved on to the east wall; removed the wall baulk and exposed the plaster wall surface. The wall on this side of space 100 is shorter than the west wall so I was hesitant to split the wall baulk into two units (top and bottom) as we had done on the north wall. The plastered horn core is lying in the middle of the east wall so I decided to made two units- one for the wall baulk in each corner (U. 7936) and a separate one for the middle baulk, just for the horn core (U. 7939). As I came down to the current level of excavation in the south east corner, I noticed there were several burnt mud bricks, similar to what I would expect an oven to look like. On that note- Ian mentioned that often large scapula have been found above ovens, similar to the one that we have in the south wall (U. 7922). I was unable to expose any more of this area today and hope to get to it later. In the northeast corner, I found that the burial cut (7917) had extended through our platered wall. This is interesting because the skeleton itself did not extend this far, leading me to think that perhaps the grave was originally cut for an adult but then used for a child . I did not invesigate just how far the cut extended (because it was leading into another space) but it would seem that the cut extended at least 30-40 cm beyond the last skeletal bone found.
We did find a late burial cut in the south east corner, as well. Emma found a large disk (copper?) protruding from her side wall and then noticed some bones. We scratched around and noticed that we also had a burial cut on our side. Lori came in and excavated it from our side but Emma is recording it as a part of her area. The burial cut made a bit more sense with what was going on in the corner- I did not find any wall plaster there and the wall seemed to just extend back. Now I know why!
SLS excavated U. 7940, the remaining (artifical) platform around the horn core, and discovered that the horn was not attached to the wall. Oh well- it was an idea worth entertaining for a while. However, she did find more of the horn exposed at a slightly different level and will continue to expose it tomorrow. Rissa came up to have a look and thought its possible that the two pieces are connected but it is also possible that they are two separate pieces. We'll find out tomorrow.
I also completed U. 7929- the fill above the plastered platform. I finished removing the fallen, painted plaster and defined the "depression" in the middle of the platform. Lori came over and looked for a burial cut but was not really convinced that one was there. Not too sure if we will be able to get to a point this year of taking the platform out and seeing if there are any burials under it- although being in the northwest corner is where they are expected. So maybe we do have them! I was also able to define the burn on the platform surface- it does not touch the wall. I saved a piece for Wendy and she took it as a sample for charcoal.Entered By: SHL |
