Today was a slow day in many ways-- particularly because we have finished excavating in the upper part of T27, and the slope is basically all large rocks (wall tumble? rubble?), so it is slow-going. We are cleaning, removing rocks that are obviously tumble, and cleaning again, though no true cultural deposit is in site.
This morning we thoroughly cleaned the upper part of T27 (L54, L56-60) and took photographs, however because there were no clouds in the sky today, shadows were particularly tricky. We may take more photographs when the weather is cloudier. After the photos we did remove a whole (though now fragmented due to removal) ovicaprid (I think goat) skull from where the N and W baulks meet. This skull (along with a metacarpal and metatarsal) have been exposed since Saturday, but we haven’t removed them They are in the bone bag for L60, which is the only artifact bag for that locus since it is the clay platform along the W edge of the trench and we really didn’t excavate it. Nevertheless, the soil beneath the ovicaprid skull was particularly soft suggesting that it is a fill (to a chamber of a pit?). Since the skull itself was in the baulk, we’ve stopped digging and returned most of the soil to its place-- however if the trench is to be extended to the W in 2011, it may be worth also extending it a meter or two to the south in order to try and catch the entirety of this feature.
I also had some of Hannah’s workers today who were working in T22 removing the top layer of the wall which separates T22 2008 from T22 2010. Once the stones were removed, two workers stayed and began to excavate and clean the dirt beneath. Once we finished working in the downslope areas of T27, we will probably return to T22 to finish leveling.