We removed some of the stones from the tumble in T27 today and continued to clean. It is still very difficult to see any real architecture between what was L06 and a line of very large granite stones about 2.75 m downslope (the face of which L61 is meant to clean-- though L61 only extends about halfway across the trench from S to N, so we’ll open L62 on Monday, 8/2/10 to cover the northern half). Between these while there are some promising lines of stones which extend for a meter or two along the hill, they eventually die out. In some ways, I wonder if this is just rubble or what’s left of the destruction of the EB occupation here by the LB people. We did, however, find some human teeth and an ear bone (?) in L09, about 1.50 m from the edge of L06 and L09, and at an elevation of 2296.248 m. The presence of the teeth and the external auditory meatus are probably not surprising since these tend to preserve best-- I am however surprised with the overall lack of any other bones-- but perhaps we just haven’t dug deep enough yet, or removed enough rocks. Belinda suggested that perhaps the skull was moved at some point (was it an EB skull tossed by the LB people?) and it fell apart, leaving bits and pieces behind-- could be.
We also finished cleaning/removing the soil that was in T22. This was L114, and it turns out that there were very few stones beneath this rock wall/platform we removed. In fact, it many cases it seemed as if the platform/wall was built on a soil layer which was sitting directly on the bedrock. Armine told me it is not uncommon for the LB constructions to sit directly on top of the EB occupation levels-- I’m inclined to believe that’s what we have hear, particularly because as we were cleaning just up against the baulk, we found what are obviously EB ceramic sherds (slab construction with raised designs). One piece in particularly (Ar/Ge.T22.114.CO.01) is unique in that it has flat edges on both its top and bottom sides, and have very nice raised designs. Perhaps it is a plaque or the facing of a small table (Ruben showed me some pictures of small Kora-Araxes ceramic tables found on the Ararat plain, so maybe it’s something like this?). In any case, it there are more pieces, they’re sitting beneath the baulk between T22 and T27.