With each passing day T38 continues to grow. Today we turned our 5x5m unit into a 6x6m. Extending a meter north and a meter east, the Gegharot team continues to trace the architecture and high concentration of cultural materials. In this morning alone we were given ample reason for such pursuits. In the northeast part of the unit we found a bronze ring (Ar/Ge.T38.06.M.01)! While this find was not situated on a surface, it was in close proximity of a high density of ceramic materials including a decorated (almost complete) vessel. This area also proffered two small obsidian blades (Ar/Ge.T38.06.L.01 and Ar/Ge.T38.06.L.02). The style of the ring confirms that it was in fact EB Kura-Araxes. This continues the trend of exclusively EB materials in the unit.
While the finds continue to amaze, the architecture in the trench continues to be a bit of a puzzle. Flanking the curvilinear wall there are two lines of stones, one in the NE corner running NE to SW and the other in the SE corner running E to S on a diagonal . The corpus of materials has been found east of the large curvilinear wall in locus 6. This matrix, which began immediately under the topsoil in the eastern half of the unit, is a dark brownish black matrix with some (albeit not many) loose stone inclusions. Beginning at about 50cm depth, it is consistent and surrounds the architecture. While it does not look it, it has an overtly clay feel to it. There is no root activity, but the materials found do not appear to be in situ. Despite our best efforts to find a surface there does not appear to be one to be found. While all the "walls" do connect in a mess of a U-shape, it is difficult to differentiate interior from exterior or to ascertain if these walls comprise a room or terracing efforts. Moreover, the cluster of large stones in the south central area do not demonstrate a clear relationship to that of the architecture in the rest of the unit. While it is possible that they could be some sort of capstone or tumulus for a burial (and are surrounded by a distinctly different color soil), this seems unlikely given its proximity to the neighboring architectural features. Tomorrow we will continue our work in this area, bringing down the recent extension -- and hopefully clarifying the orientation and configuration of the architecture.