I began the day trying to get the workers to level out the trench in order to open a new locus. We're still in a sort of mixed wash and cultural fill (with plenty of organic debris, including burned wood that seems to be planks or beams). However, because of the complexity of the trench, and because we've left a number of broken ceramics in situ, it's difficult for my workers to know exactly what level to even out the trench at. By the end of the day we were approaching an even level, and will continue towards that tomorrow.
We're finally beginning to approach what I think is the cultural layer of the trench (but might have another 20-30 cm to go before we reach the floor), indicated by the fact that small, whole ceramics are appearing along the wall (Ar/Ge.T32.08). In fact, we found the rim of what is probably a bowl towards the end of the day-- the rest of the ceramic seems to be buried deeper down and we will work towards exposing it tomorrow. Additionally, a large pile of burnt wood/planks has appeared in the center of the trench-- it was not possible to take these as dendro samples, so I took three C14 samples just in case (Ar/Ge.T32.11.C14.03, .04 and .05). Finally, towards the end of the day, working in the NE quadrant of the trench, Adam discovered a relatively large (~13-14 cm long) bone needle or awl (Ar/Ge.T32.11.B.01), another good sign that we're approaching more artifacts and the cultural level.