We spent the morning with Ruben and Arsho at Mirak to drone the fortress and establish where we should locate Salpi's two test trenches. She'll have three workers from Aparan and will begin likely on Wednesday, when we continue surveying in the Mirak region so that we can drive her and her crew to the site on our way to survey. The drone data Arsho processed revealed an incredible view of a double-faced wall much of the way around the fortress. Should be a very interesting place to excavate in the years to come.
After dropping off Arsho and Ruben at home, we intensively surveyed the creek bed and drainage where Levon dug his anomalous EB feature last year. It seemed a good idea to go back to original find and trace any further evidence of the EB occupation, so we used tight spacing to walk along the edge of the dry creek upstream until the drainage becomes choked with oak shrubs. We recorded a couple of large lithic scatters along the western side of the creek in a dry strip between the creek bed and the wetter, boggier parts of this drainage. My lithic scatter was recorded as Ar/Lu.ICL17.06., and like the one Salpi recorded, I surface collected all of the obsidian flakes in the concentration on the off chance the lithic reduction technology would help us determine at least the range of possible periods in when the area as used. I also recorded and collected a weathered red and black EB sherd down stream from Levon's old excavation, and recorded it as an artifact scatter assuming Ruben would like us to retrieve any and all traces of EB material in this drainage. This portion of the survey took the rest of the day. Very hot today, and muggy due to the seeps in the soil nearby.