Today marked the return to Aragatsi Berd excavations for the first time since 2008. Working with Levon Aghikyan (Institute of Archaeology RA), and Gegharot workers Emil Bayrakhtaryan, Avetik Muradyan, and [Sayat Petrosyan], we began be removing backfill deposited at the end of the 2008 season. This work began in trench east, where a tarpaulin was laid to cover the base of excavation (EB area), and the proceeded west to east from the mid-trench baulk clearing backfill soil and rocks to bedrock.
There is a clear distinction between the western LB portion of the operation and the eastern EB area. The AB4 wall (locus 4), which originally appeared to form a part of the room surface architecture to the south, now seems to compose a curvilinear portion of the next NORTHERN room space moving slightly northwest as it enters the western mid-trench bulk. Besides finishing the excavation of the LB pit at trench center and the EB area in trench east, we may open 2.5m more of the operation's western extent, the western bulk.
One possible new animal burrow in the northwest operation corner.
Weather was very windy and hazy, with heavy downpours right before the end of work.