Day 4 of operation 01 at Aparani Berd presented some challenges. Sometime tuesday night (7/7/15) there was an act of vandalism wherein 15-20 large stones were thrown into the trench, including some which were known to be associated with the eastern wall. Given the large size of the rocks, the damage was clearly intentional.
After cleaning up the trench and removing the now loose stones, we continued our work to refine the perimeter of the eastern, northern, and southern "walls." What we discovered in this process was that there might not, in fact, be a full extension of the northern wall within the confines of our 3x4 trench -- it might reside a few cm north. This was determined by the presence of floating rocks (likely collapse) and high density of both root activity and material culture. In locus 7, characterized by its dark, loose (ashy) and large clasted matrix, we encountered an overwhelmingly large amount of fauna, as well as obsidian and an assortment of pottery that was diagnostic of everything from EB to LB and iron age.
Our stratigraphy started to get complicated upon the removal of locus 7. In some areas of the northern part of the trench we came upon what looked like the packed (clay) material at the bottom of locus 6. In other areas, we encountered the presence of flat stones abutting the wall (particularly in the northeastern corner). These stones could have been used as a floor surface. The stones seem to have been a preparation for a clay floor (which we believe to be the aforementioned end of locus 6). The large storage vessel fragment found in the northwest part of the trench, we believe, was lying on this surface. There is still considerable confusion about the relationship between the wall this floor surface, and the arced architecture within the room, which we hope to resolve in the next few days.
We also extended our trench one meter south. Given the uncertainty about our southern wall, we believed that this addition to the operation would perhaps bring greater clarity to the area we were working within. After removing the sod, it became clear that there are many large boulders within this area that could in fact constitute parts of both eastern and southern walls. As we excavated locus 9, the loose and dark predominately rock matrix in the northern region of the extension, we realized that the search for the southern wall would not be as straightforward as we had hoped. It seems we must remove a considerable amount of collapse.
Moving forward, we intend to clarify the perimeters of the respective walls (architecture) and decipher their relationship especially to the 6th locus.