Today's work focused on the northern portion of our Nigavan survey quadrant, where we are walking transects up and down the mountain. While these were not the most productive transects in terms of data collection, they have been helpful in both defining the western boundary of our survey here and in helping to more effectively document and identify Soviet field clearance and amelioration. I walked the first transect of the day, transect 5, and then guided our new driver (Samvel today instead of Hovannes) to specific spot down mountain for lunch.
My transect 5 produced no archaeological sites or collections. However, we have developed a better sense of Soviet-era land clearance, supplemental to the irrigation perspective we gained between 2014 and 2015. Large linear walls of cleared boulders, according to local informants, frame fields of fodder, but also provide a protected avenue for cattle to transverse the growing fields and arrive at higher elevation pasturelands without intruding. We are recording these areas of disturbance with "other" points in the geodatabase in order to enable their discernment during future mapmaking.
We have also established a good western boundary for the survey here, as site densities significantly diminish and scree frequencies rise after about 2000m elevation. We are therefore keeping easting 440896 as the western survey boundary, as was done during the Tsaghkahovit Plain survey.
Finally, the day ended with some off-transect data collection just south of Nigavan village. There, we recorded a collection of low tumulus burials stretching W to E between an irrigation installation and a natural drainage, including one 8-10m diameter looted kurgan with a possible cobble cromlech. A large corral constructed from multiple courses of boulders was also recorded. Aerial imagery suggests more of the same kind of corrals are present in the vicinity of Nigavan.