Our work today continued to focus on the northernmost portion of the Nigavan survey quadrant, just south of Shenkani (Chili) Bog and east of the M3 highway. We walked 5 transects over difficult, hilly terrain with 3 crew members (Ian was droning and Elizabeth F. only worked in the morning due to heat exhaustion).
Our site count and surface collections were relatively low and there was abundant evidence of Soviet amelioration in the form of boulder walls, bulldozer terraces, and cuts. Two interesting data points come to mind, however.
The first was a black tuff "mine," a small area with evidence for ethnographic, historical, or medieval tuff quarrying--the leftover mass showed the negative remains of previous tuff collection, blockiness, and the drilled holes used to prepare the next block for removal. This entire area north of the Nigavan road and west of the M3 highway appears to feature lots of flat, blocky tuff black tuff deposits along the drainage flanks overlain by basalt outcrops over the ridge tops.
The second was a likely rock shelter (Ar/Ni.SAB16.29), positioned 1.8 km west of the M3 road and 1.2 km north of the center of Nigavan Village. It is positioned in a drainage/small gorge crevice defined by a sheer west-east wall of rock some 30 m tall met by another, shorter gorge wall at 45 degrees SW-NE. The shelter is at the base of the SW-NE gorge wall and measures approximately 6 m long with two small "entrances." The front of the shelter is built up with a large amount of animal dung. We poked around the mouth and collected one obsidian piece and a rather undiagnostic sherd. This would be an excellent Paelolithic test excavation site.
With Elizabeth F now fully trained up on our team, we will be a 5-member crew most days. After completing the small remaining amount of the Nigavan survey quadrant, we plan to move across the road to the Mirak quadrant.