Place: Ar/Ge.K2.8

This is the western chamber of the kurgan.

The matrix is a medium brown sandy clay loam with lots of gravel and small bits of yellow clay. Going down, the matrix on the southern side of locus is increasingly clayey and shifting to an orange color, with lots of small rocks, making it very difficult to dig.

In the upper portion of this locus we found 3 whole vessels (Loci 10, 11, 12). Beneath these were a large vessel (Locus 14) with 3 small vessels (Loci 15, 16, 17) on arms (transitional MB-LB). The articulated vertebrae were resting on top of these pots, at a depth of 2211.397 masl.In addition to vertebrae, there were medium mammal ribs and part of a scapula (sheep/goat).

Next to these, we found a cauldron shaped vessel (Locus 13, possibly painted (also transitional MB-LB). We also discovered that this layer of pots continues under the upper layer (Loci 10, 11, 12). Underneath the upper level of vessels we exposed two whole vessels (Loci 21 and 22) as well as the 4th small vessel (Locus 19) associated with Locus 14. In addition we exposed a set of large mammal ribs and two humerii (sheep/goat or young cattle). The upper one is at the same level as the bottom of Locus 22 and the lower one is the same level as the dagger. We found a large bronze sword (framework Near-eastern style) running E-W in the western half of the locus (Ar/Ge.K2.8.M.01).

The articulated ribs to the west of Locus 10 were very friable and many of them broke while I was exposing them (they are bagged separately in the Locus 8 bone bag). The ribs run N-S and the rib cage is oriented vertically (see photos), at a depth of 2211.393 masl.

To the west of these vessels, we found a cache of 11 translucent obsidian projectile points (Ar/Ge.K2.8.L.01-11) at a depth of 2211.314 masl. We found another translucent obsidian arrowhead in the NW corner of the locus, at 2211.394 masl.

We were able to find the contours of the western chamber at the level of the upper part of the second layer of pots. It is smaller than the stone fence and is rectangular in shape with rounded corners. Given that there is no clear separation between the materials in theses layers and no clear border higher up, I did not start a new locus.

After removing the large mammal ribs and humerii, we discovered another layer of bones (more large mammal ribs, a sheep/goat scapula, part of a [bos?] humerus). Cleaning them revealed the rim of another pot below the level of the exposed vessels.

One complete vessel (Locus 23) was found underneath the large mammal ribs in the NE corner of the pit. We also found two broken bowls (Locus 24 and 25) in the SE corner of the pit and part of a broken vessel (Locus 26) in the SW part. We removed the large mammal ribs and a (sheep/goat?) innominate on top of Locus 23, which were at 2211.268 masl. We also found two more whole vessels (Loci 34 and 35) which went under where we previously thought the boundaries of the pit were. We expanded the pit to the east in order to expose them. We also found some human remains (Locus 32) which we partially exposed (see photos).

The ending depth for the locus is where we stopped in 2013, not the actual bottom of the feature.