The first stop of the day was at Gegharot fortress, henceforth Gegharot. Being the first day of project work, Adam, Ian, and I sought to set up the TotalStation. First, the detector with 360º prism (?) was screwed into the rod and activated. Then, the tripod was placed over Benchmark 4 (?), denoted on the northwest side of Gegharot by a white cross on a rock. Benchmarks are positions of known GPS coordinates which the TS is placed over, so the TS can calculate the coordinates of the detector relative to its own, known location. Using a plumb bob and a level embedded in the tripod, the tripod was leveled. Following, the TotalStation itself was screwed lightly onto the tripod—screw slack was kept light to allow fine-scale mobility of the TS in the leveling process. This leveling process was completed by initially observing the TS’s position with respect to the middle of the white cross of the benchmark, through a viewfinder at the base of the TS. The TS was adjusted accordingly by manipulating 2 of 3 knobs, first. As the viewfinder showed the TS’s changed position, the level on the TS indicated horizontality—meaning, the TS must remain level while being centered on the white cross. After 2 of 3 knobs level the TS on one axis, manipulating the 3rd knob next levels the TS across the perpendicular axis, and the TS is level. I might have bungled the process in writing this. Anyhoo, after this is completed, we attempted and failed to instruct the TS to tract the detector. Hopefully on Tuesday we can get this puppy running. After setting up the TS, Ian and I walked around Gegharot again (we had previously walked the grounds—or the highs—with Hannah and Adam, the latter narrating the tour). Here, we talked about current theories as to what was going on at Gegharot in the Late Bronze to Early Iron Ages (what is proper designation?), from internal goings-on to its status amid the political atmosphere of the Tsaghkahovit Plain. We visualized potential hectares for mag survey towards the end of this season. Since the northern sector of Gegharot’s slopes I believe turned to be more-or-less archaeologically-sterile, and Tsaghkahovit’s (?) settlement equidistant to the citadel and cemeteries, we might use the magnetometer to survey the “flat” region in between Gegharot citadel and the cemeteries on the slope of the Pambak Range. This pretty much concluded my first Gegharot visit.
After driving to Tsaghkahovit, Lori and Ian selected workers from a large pool. The workers with me are Gor and Albert. I barely spoke to Albert, but conversed with Gor in mostly Russian. After Ian advised his workers to clear a portion of backfill of vegetation and large stones, Ian, Gor, and I set out to find 4 benchmarks for later TS use before we start mag survey. Unfortunately, we discovered that 2 of these benchmarks were temporary—emphasis on “were”. We thus set out to find the 2 rebar-set-in-concrete, permanent benchmarks, which Ian posited should be located on promontories or elevated locations. After a couple hours looking for the first benchmark, we discovered it atop the citadel, as marked on the large map. The map was somewhat helpful, somewhat only because it was difficult to correlate the map locations to our world. After it was located, it was spray painted with orange, and the nearest rock was sprayed with an ‘x’. The benchmarks’ locations relative to test pits were instrumental in discovering the former. The second benchmark was found after Ian and I decided to head back out (after a recently-abandoned time of rendezvous with Lori and Elizabeth). Test pit ET1 was found to point directly at the benchmark, located approximately 100 meters away, about 10 meters south of the concave bend of a snaking slope knoll. Unlike the first benchmark, this one was overgrown with vegetation, although only lightly. It too was spray painted, as was a proximal rock. On the way back, Ian and I walked round the N-W-S sector of Tsaghkahovit, postulated potential mag survey sites—5 in all. Hopefully, I can use the mag to survey a depression near a brick corral located off the western slope, at the request of Ruben. This concluded the work for the day.