Today Lilit drew the pile of stones (Locus 7) and the cromlech in the NE quadrant. In the morning, half the crew began to backfill Kurgan 3. The other half removed the two uppermost capstones from the western chamber, revealing another layer of capstones underneath. We removed the upper course of the ‘fence’ surrounding the western chamber. The W chamber has a ring of granite stones that may be a cromlech around the chamber. It is not clear whether the chamber is oriented N-S or E-W. After cleaning, we photographed the western chamber.
In the afternoon, we began to remove stones from the pile in the NE quadrant (Locus 7), while Lilit drew the western chamber again. First, we removed smaller rocks from the top and sides of the pile, most of which were resting on soil. Then we began to remove larger stones, many of which were askew in the pile. Next, we broke and removed two large slabs (one of which was tuff) that were in the pile at an angle, sitting next to each other, and oriented roughly NW-SE. Below these slabs was a large stone that they had been resting on, which we also removed (see notebook for a schematic drawing). Underneath these stones was more of the same soil matrix seen in the kurgan mound. The area of stones underneath the pile is smaller than the pile was, but that are is not fully clear yet. Maybe the pile slumped off from its original position? The fact that the stones in the northern (downslope) part of the pile were sitting higher may support this argument.