Today was a hot, and surprisingly muggy, day at Tsaghkahovit. The humidity meant that the soil was still rather damp when we arrived on site, but we had many projects, so it was not a problem. In WSDB, we took down the N corner (Locus 23) to the level of Locus 26, where we have started to find a lighter, very clay-ey matrix that may be at about the same level as the \"floor\" of the passage from WSDA1. In the process of taking down the N corner, we discovered that two very large rocks near the NW baulk are floating and will have to be broken tomorrow.
The overall effect of the work in Locus 23 (N corner) has been to suggest that there is not a continuation of some sort of narrow passage toward the NW baulk, but rather, that a burial chamber was constructed adjacent to the obvious wall that runs along the SW baulk north of Locus 9. So it seems now that, rather later than the room was built, people took advantage of the wall to construct a parallel line of small stones, on top which they put the large eastern rock that is parallel to the western rock. And between the two parallel rocks, then, they put the human remains.
There appears to be a worked stone in the \"floor\" matrix of the burial chamber (Locus 24) that may have bounded the burial, but at the same time, it is considerably lower in elevation than the human remains, so this is only a theory at this point.
We took final photos of Locus 24, the burial chamber, to close it at the level of the clayey matrix that has lenses of charcoal.
In Locus 26, we took 2 samples of charcoal today, and Ar/Ts.WSDB.26.C14.02 is in better condition than .01. We also dug the locus to a significant soil change, to a very light , very clayey matrix that we are trying to follow throughout the locus.
Overall, it was a productive day in terms of how much earth we moved, and it also now seems that WSDB must be the SW part of a larger room, but we still have considerable work to do to illuminate the room. We will extend the trench again tomorrow.