Today's work took us first to Mirak, where we examined the site, planned trench locations, and took some initial drone imagery. The fortress wall, which encloses a very large space, perhaps a "citadel," was quite impressive, double-faced and 2m thick most of the way around. Terraces on the western (gorge) and southeastern edges also presented potential trench locations, but we settled on two flat, grassy areas in the western and eastern sides of the "citadel," just inside in the main. Excavation work will start on Wednesday with three workers from Aparan for Salpi. We will survey nearby as excavation progresses.
After Mirak, we surveyed the upper reaches of the drainage where Levon's 2015 trench recovered early EB vessels. Within the dry bed and on its western edge, we collected several bags of obsidian and 10-20 sherds, mostly of them undecorated and broadly assignable to the EB. There was much disturbance from road clearance in this area. And no evidence of stone architecture was visible. The materials were mostly positioned on a slope, meaning that a potential site may be located above them and to the west, but tree cover prevented us from systematically evaluating that. From the collection points to the north, the drainage becomes more heavily forested and more deeply cut. Additional survey for EB remains in this area will require remote sensing techniques such as thermal camera aerial imaging or magnetometry.