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Code
CS17.07
Season
2017
Narrative

The majority of our day was devoted to transecting the area just east of Mirak village. Very little was found outside the village area in the adjacent fields but we found the bulk of today's sites within Mirak. The entire village is basically an archaeological site, consisting of a series of terraces with walls made from boulders on one of the northern slopes going down into the village. There was no detectable masonry so the periodization was difficult to deduce. Ian suggested possibly Bronze Age, but without any artifact scatters it is merely speculation at this point. This same transect led us to a very fascinating cemetery atop the hill near the southern end of Mirak village. We hadn't looked at this area before because we could only observe the metal roofs of modern-day burials. Walking through the cemetery, however, gave us a far clearer idea of not only the size but the variation in periods represented here. There is a high-density field of cist graves, (possibly) modern "cromlechs", outstanding carved horse monuments, and two well-made mausoleum-type structures, one of which had caved in, destroying the southern wall which exposed the interior. The variation and density mirrored that of Rya Taza's cemetery. I would venture to say the area was used from medieval times and later since there is no evidence of Bronze Age burials here.