Today marked the completion of the major portion of the remaining upland survey region in our NE Aparan inter-ridge bay. The weather was warm and breezy, rather perfect for survey activities.
We began walking transects along the contour lines in the north-central portion of the bay, recording some additional hydrological features. By the end of the morning we had descended to the gentler slopes towards the center of the bay, where we flagged and recorded numerous paved and mounded cromlechs, as well as kurgans.
Once that area had been completed, we walked south across the flat expanse east of the primary bay drainage, towards the burials and architecture we recorded on July 3rd. Architectural features here skirted the base of the slope. A 3- or 4-sided potential structure was also identified here, a possible house pit or foundation.
We logged burials north to south and before arriving at the edge of our prior work we encountered a highly disturbed area of furrowed rises and turf slump, suggesting intensive disturbance.
The hydrological management of the gullies in this bay seems significant and potentially contemporaneous. The contrast between a Soviet-era sluice and the upper elevation stone check dams is quite interesting. Clearly, these spring heads and seeps are capable of producing a significant amount of flow volume and velocity at particular times of the year.
The north bay burials we recorded today connect the northwestern burials of the bay with the central portion recorded last week. Whether this bay consists of multiple clusters, and how many clusters total may be represented here, is an interesting question that we will approach through discussion, topographic dependency, and statistics.