Today cleaning continued in L106 (which is the second course of stones from the wall between T22 from 2008 and T22 from 2010). Very few bones, ceramics and obsidian are coming out of this wall, however, an additional charcoal sample was taken from this locus as well (Ar/Ge.T22.106.C14.03)-- all come from comparable contexts and might be useful in dating the construction of this wall. We also continued to clean L103, as well as to remove the small stones/rock tumble which exists in the northern half of L103. We have decided that this is wall fall and should be removed, particularly because the large stone in the middle of L103 (and in a N/S line with another large stone) is double-faced. Armine suggested that this may be a corner stone for a gate (?), nevertheless, it is a substantial stone, aligned with another large stone, and sitting flat. We found a retouched obsidian flake in L106 (Ar/Ge.T22.106.L02) and a pierced, shaped bone object (Ar/Ge.T22.L106.B1) as well. Because we removed the stone with datum 1 on it during the cleaning of L106, a third datum (datum 3) was recalculated at 2296.64 m. A river pebble (polishing stone?) was found in L103, it is Ar/Ge.T22.103.L02.
In order to understand the nature of the wall between T22 2008 and T22 2010, and also to better understand the line of stones which includes the two large stones in L103, we have decided to open a new operation as trench 27, which is a 5 m (N/S) x 10 m (E/W) trench just to the north of T22. We left a 1 m baulk in between the two trenches so that we can evaluate the stratigraphy in the two trenches. I had some of the workers begin to clear the top soil of T27, starting at the most uphill (western) edge and working towards to East. A substantial amount of bones and LB (?) pottery is coming out of this top 10 cm level (which is T27, locus 01). We also found a groundstone (Ar/Ge.T27.01.L01) in the topsoil of T27.01. Tomorrow I hope we can finish cleaning and clearing the tumble in L103, close that locus as well as L105, and open a final locus which will sit beneath L103 and L105, and will take that area down to bedrock. We’ll also continue to remove the topsoil from T27, and hope to begin excavating there at full capacity by the end of the week.