Today's work at Gegharot picked up right where yesterday's left off. We continued our first transect of test trenches (T37 A, B, C, D) and begin our second transect 10 meters south of the first (T37 E, F, G, H).
The day began by closing T37 A and B. T37 A reached a depth of 1.17m. While we did not find bedrock the clay deposit had extended for about a meter and was sterile for the last 20cm. While there was a nice sized granite stone found in the NW corner this appeared in isolated and was not surrounded by any cultural materials. T 37B was considerably less clay-like, however, it contained very little cultural material. After .25cm of sterile deposits, it became clear we should close the unit. In T37 C there was more visible stratigraphy. In locus 4 (~71cm), however, we encountered a claylike surface that after 20 cm contained no cultural materials so we closed the unit. T37 D, in contrast to the other units on the transect was surprisingly shallow. We reached bedrock -- a granular, yellowish brown matrix -- after only 25 cm.
The second transect maintained the same bearing as the first (112 degrees W-> E). This series of parallel units showed many similarities to that of the first. In T37 E we also found another clay like matrix that became increasingly sterile with depth. After 1.3 m we opted to close the unit. We conducted work on T37 F for about 90 cm. It became clear that almost all of the cultural materials were in the 10cm directly until the topsoil. The few stones found in the unit were not in situ and between 5 and 7 cm in size. T37 G was distinct in that in the third locus I encountered a number of tuff inclusions. Just beneath this, however, we hit bedrock and closed the unit at 70cm. We ended the day by opening T37 H, the last unit on the transect. While we did not close the unit, it appears that like T37 D bedrock will be fairly shallow.
The only observable pattern to date is that there appears to be a higher concentration of cultural materials in the eastern units, situated more upslope. Given the lack of surfaces, most of these materials seems to be wash from the settlement above. Most of our finds have been pottery, with a little bit of bone and a few pieces of obsidian. Tomorrow we will continue this operation by finishing T37 H and beginning another transect 10 m south.