7/4/2013
Need bottom of locus 9, top of locus 13 elevations (as well as 4, 5, 6, 7, 14, 15, and 16).
We planned to begin by removing 15-20 cm at a time from locus 13, in order to expose the base of the SE wall (locus 5) and, hopefully sooner than that, culture materials in situ, and then the floor. I expect to have 3 workers employed in locus 13, while the fourth follows the soil change we discovered in locus 10. This will be locus 14 (the cleaning, that is—the lighter soil will have a new number).
Above plan was cancelled/postponed, due to rain.
Today, Nareg was working for Sahag, Edo for Boris, and Gor and Gago were there, Artur, Vartan, and another Nareg also helped for most of the day.
We began by removing locus 12, because rain overnight made it unwise to work on loci 13 and 14, as planned.
We came down on the soil change relatively quickly at the NE edge of the operation. Locus 12 is now defined as the soil above the lighter brown soil, as is locus 14. Not long after that, the same soil change was identified near the SW edge, near the wall (locus 15), just next to the place where it was identified yesterday. In the center of the operation, the light brown soil was more difficult to find.
Our next step was to bring locus 13 down to the soil change—we did not expect it to be very deep, judging by our first impressions of locus 12. However, it was also difficult to find the soil change in the center of locus 13.
After lunch, we took out some of the rocks in loci 10, 12, 13, and 14. To prepare for this, I took elevations for loci 5, 7, and one additional in 14.
We followed the lighter soil through loci 12, 13, and 14. It is very clear long the walls, but not near the “door” in locus 13. However in the “alcove”, there is a distinct soil change. The alcove was accidentally included in locus 13, but it will be given a new locus number tomorrow.
After removing some large stones that had been blocking it, we began to excavate locus 6, also.
The elevation of the floor in Elizabeth Hardy’s trench WSDA2 was -86.2 cm from her datum 1, while the depth at my SW wall was -145.0 cm, from WSDA2 datum 1.