Today Maureen and Levon worked with me at Kurgan 2. It seems to have rained very hard overnight, and while the skeletons seem to be in good condition, the ground was very wet at the start of the day and we had to wait a bit for it to dry before we started. We continued to expose the situations in both chambers.
In the western chamber, we now have a sheep/goat leg (metapodial, carpals/tarsals, and phalanges) in the NW corner, as well as a humerus, just south of the skull in that corner. Extending east from the skull, we have uncovered articulate ribs and vertebrae, as well as a scapula. It seems likely that it is basically symmetrical to the situation in the SW corner of the chamber. Given this, I’ve designated the individual in the NW corner of the western chamber as Locus 109. It should be noted that some of the small pieces of the skull from Locus 109 were bagged with Locus 108.
In the central chamber, we uncovered a scapula and ribs belonging to the second skeleton (Locus 107). We are also continuing to find beads from the carnelian and paste necklace (Locus 111). According to Levon, there are ~5 alternating white and blue paste beads in between each larger carnelian bead. In the same spot, we are also finding very small round white paste beads. It appears that the second body (Locus 107) continues under the first body (Locus 27). The second body’s head is facing SW and the body is oriented SE-NW. It is lying on its left side. The sheep/goat legs in Locus 102 have calcanei and astraglai, but no phalanges. This may suggest that the animal was skinned and those were removed with the hide.
At 1 PM, we photographed the situation in the central chamber and began removing the first skeleton (Locus 27). While removing the skeleton, we found more beads from the necklace (Locus 110), including some gold and bronze ones. We removed as much of Locus 27 as was possible, the ribs and vertebrae were left in situ, because they continue under the low wall.
After talking with Adam, we have decided to make the two necklaces found in the central chamber their own loci. The necklace found in-situ on the first body (Locus 27) in the central chamber is now Locus 110. The carnelian and paste bead necklace found in between Locus 27 and Locus 107 is now Locus 111.