Today Maureen and Levon worked with me again at Kurgan 2. We continued work in both chambers, with the goal of opening the complete situation in the central chamber and removing the skeleton at the end of the day. We were not able to achieve that goal, first because we lost an hour to rain in the morning, and then in the afternoon we uncovered part of a second skeleton in the central chamber.
The new human remains in the central chamber are now Locus 107. The skeleton is south of the first body and at a slightly lower level. Around the radius and ulna we found an in-situ bracelet of red carnelian beads and blue paste beads. Near to the arm we also found a bronze ring (Ar/Ge.K2.107.M.01), possibly in situ. The animal legs exposed in the central chamber appear to be sitting on top of the innominate of the second skeleton, and are accompanied by some ribs which are below the long bones. More beads came up in the spot where we found them yesterday.
In Locus 102, in the central chamber, we removed a small rock that was sitting above the whole vessel in the SW corner (Locus 33). The vessel is quite large, and according to Ruben is also Early Iron Age. There is a loose equid tooth resting on top of Locus 33.
In the western chamber, per Ruben’s request, we cut back the south-eastern portion of the pit wall, since the undercut of the shape of the pit was making it difficult to excavate the bones there. The animals bones in the SW corner of the western chamber are now Locus 108. The humerus articulated with the scapula is unfused, and we uncovered an articulated set of ribs