| Entry: | On my own for the second time today due to Simon's recent departure. On the morning he left (17/07/04), in the feature that he left (F1515), we happened to come across the most amazing find.
Since last week he has been excavating the feature, first seen after the removal of plaster surface (10461), and cutting into make up layer (10465), and platform F1502. Initially we thought it may represent an early bench, but upon excavation it became something else, and he didnt really know what the something else was. Taking out a fairly loamy fill full of plaster and brick he came down onto human bone. Lori was called in to help and soon had some more bone exposed. It appeared to represent a juvenille (10476), very disarticulated within a cut that couldn,t really be found. A plan was started, and thats how it was left for the weekend.
Come Saturday morning, Simon had gone and it wasn,t until I had finished the plan, and Lori had started to lift when the discovery was made. Within the fill (10475) around the skeleton was a complete Mother Goddess figurine!!!!! You can imagine the reaction. Everyone was called round to see, and it was taken to most other people before it was sent to the conservators to deal with.
An almost perfect example, fairly big (approx 0.1m) in height, and seemingly carved from a form of marble (perhaps coated?). Reasonable amount of detail is there (although it was caked in mud last i saw it) including hair and folded arms. The most obvious feature though has to be her backside! Its huge! To quote Pia 'no boobs, just a big butt!'. An amazing find, and even more special as it was the first of its kind found since we started here 10 years ago.
The only downer to the day (it could only go downhill after starting the week like that) was the security, or lack of, of its context. We are yet to establish whether it belongs to a grave, which would make it the first of its kind, or part of a disturbed fill that has been deposited into the ?grave. Just had to stop taking it all down, and to try and establish a cut after the removal of plaster surface (10486).
Keep you posted as we found out.
Still not sure how to tell Simon what was found in his feature.Entered By: Gareth Chaffey |
