Unfortunately, it apparently rained seriously in Tsaghkahovit last night, as we arrived at WSAC/WSAD to find inches of standing water in the western and southern corners of the operation, thus rendering screening today impossible (especially after bailing out water with buckets). Instead, we spent the entire day in WSAD, ascertaining the extent of the remaining overburden, especially in the eastern corner, and excavating and removing three large stones.
In the morning, the guys finished removing Locus 10 in WSAD (the medium brown matrix abutting the partition wall/NW wall). After that I declared Locus 11 as the linear formation of three stones in the eastern corner of the trench, c. 50 cm from the NE wall, and the soil between the two. These stones are intriguing because 1) they are standing upright, or what appears to be positioned straight, and 2) appear to be resting completely in the overburden without any course below them. See notebook for sketch and measurements. After photographing the stones and drawing them again, we excavated the soil between the feature and the NE wall, and then removed the stones after seeing that they were not resting on any built feature. Instead, and for whatever reason, perhaps as fall, they were deposited in the darker loamy soil of the overburden. However, the stone that is embedded in the SE baulk does have another substantially large stone beneath it, also embedded in the baulk. Locus 11 however quickly changed to the more medium brown matrix in the northern and western areas of the operation, so I closed the locus.
We then negotiated the removal of Locus 12, the wheelbarrow ramp, or a substantial portion of it that had been jutting into the center of the trench; Ardzrun made it particularly short and steep now, and the soil that was removed was the overburden seen in the rest of the operation. It produced few artifacts.
After lunch we took measurements for the entire operation as it had been leveled considerably with the removal of Loci 11 and 12. We then declared Locus 13 as the remaining darker soil of the overburden in the eastern corner and along the SE baulk, for about 4 meters, which also includes three very large stones. One of these was removed today, as it was abutting the baulk, and it appears worked on one side (see notebook for sketch). After one pass, Locus 13 remains very dark compared to the rest of the trench, especially in the eastern corner, however this is quite similar to the excavation of WSAC and likely indicates the slope of the room in the center. After leveling this area tomorrow I will open up the rest of the trench as a new locus, the more compact medium brown locus, as well as a new locus for the brown soil of the 'doorway.'