| Entry: | Today was quite a day for finds! I started excavating U. 7957 in the south west corner, behind the 'partion wall'. Initially, I wanted to follow the plastered line that had been appearing on the surface for a wall and see how it connected with U. 7954. Within minutes of starting, I had poped up several animal figurines and put them to the side. I had not really considered them anything special until I had mentioned it to Emma, who showed great excitement for them. There were 4 in the area just west of the plaster line, inside the 'structure' and I clustered them as U. 7958. One of the figurines had poped up several days ago and had just been sitting there waiting for us to excavate the unit. The last figurine was found about 10 cm from the cluster. UK had found 2 or 3 similar figurines in the units above U. 7957, (7935 x1, 7938 x1,x4). Who knew that finding a figurine cache would be such a pain? Soon, the 'figurines experts' were hovering over me like a protective mother of her younglings. Two of them just sat there for over an hour, cackling, and watched me excavate on the assumption that more figurines would appear. I felt as if I was somehow incompetent. One nameless individual was very upset that I had not photographed the figurines in-situ and that all the meaning of the figurines was lost since I did not know their orientation. He even criticised me that I was excavating improperly and that from this point forward I should continue to excavate with only a brush and a leaf trowel. All rubbish, in my opinion. I know the context of first 4 figurines within 10 x 20 cm area, the fifth one I found in the ground and recorded it as such and the first of the cluster was found out of context. There is nothing overtly recognisable about these things and the general context of the feature is difficult to follow. Overall, the context of U.7957 looks to be the packing under a truncated surface. Rissa made a comment that this sort of deposit is common under the SW platform and Ian made some noise about a 'foundation deposit'. All very interesting. U.7957 is an extremely rich deposit in general, with a very nicely worked obsidian piece, clay ball, a bone tool and an abundance of disarticulated animal bones. The ground is very soft- a simple scratch pops up several artefacts. I am having a bit of trouble desciding how far (how deep) to take this corner as I am now paranoid that it might be something rather particular. I will prioritise this unit tomorrow.
Directly behind me, in the NW corner, DGN is continuing to excavate U.7954. He found a great deal of ceramic pieces, one of which was a diagnostic rim sherd. Again, this area is really complex and riddled with rodent holes. There seems to be a sandy brown surface (of sorts) at the south end of the unit but the NW corner looks as if it could continue for quite some distance. Might ask for some help tomorrow and see if anyone can shed some light on all of this- this unit has sucessfully stumped us all.
On a positive note, SLS found yet another horn core. She was excavating U. 7955 the fill inside the bin along the south wall (F.1652). Again, the horn is in poor condition and is unattached to the wall, although it is right up against it. It appears to be quite a small one (in comparison) and is set inside the bin (U. 7959). The conservators were notified and will come around to consolidate it ASAP, after we excavate around it tomorrow. It is so nice to hav on-site conservation- that is certainly a great perk of being here- so I can't be blamed for things falling to pieces ;-)Entered By: SHL |
