Today Maureen worked with me in Kurgan 2. The day was very hot and dry and it did not rain overnight. In the morning I removed the remaining bones from Locus 108 and 109 that were under Locus 26. Just underneath Locus 26, there was a rock resting on the forelimb on Locus 109. The rock may have been placed there to balance the vessel (Locus 26). I found a small obsidian chip just by the southernmost phalanx of Locus 109. Locus 108 has un-fused: distal radius, distal metacarpal. Locus 109 has un-fused: distal metacarpal and phalanges. After cleaning the floor in the western chamber, we took final measurements and photos.
In the central chamber, we are continuing to bring down Locus 102 down to the level of Locus 104 and the second skeleton (Locus 107). The matrix is the same yellow/tan and dark brown mottled silty-clay matrix that we’ve been seeing. There is evidence of suslik activity in the NE corner of Locus 102 (burrows and suslik remains). In the northern part of the central chamber, by early afternoon, we had come down on the packed orange clay that is lining the bottom of the chamber in the southern part. As we came down, we turned up very small amounts of material (obsidian chips and animal bones). We found bead impressions (ring-shaped), just north of the northernmost long bone in Locus 107. By the end of the day, we had begun to define the edges of the second skeleton (Locus 107).