Today began with Transect #12 where we moved northward from the western side of the Mirak gorge toward the current soil mine area. Talin joined me as Ian was not feeling well and I taught her how to use ArgGIS collector and the navigation system we use while transecting. We moved northward and Alan called us down into the gorge to inspect a really interesting cave at the bottom. It had already been surveyed but it would be a really unique "locus" to do some excavating. Alan pointed out that the amount of animal excrement and the bits of rock falling from the cave ceiling would have created a decent amount to work through to get to the actual cave floor, if it were indeed occupied and used. There is a shelf-like feature at the rear of the cave that, if occupied, would almost certainly have been utilized in some way. In fact I think it would have been perfect for presenting a body before burial or perhaps another form of ritual. Moving on from the cave, I assisted Talin in recording a cromlech before reaching the end of the transect.
The next transect, #13, was N to S, just parallel of the previous one. I located an artifact scatter about 250m south / downhill from Ian's burial cluster Ar/Mi.ICL14.12. There was a good balance of obsidian an (possibly) EB ceramics in a natural drainage area. Although it doesn't have a direct association with a particular burial/cluster it does provide a small sample of what we would expect to find in the immediate area, were we to excavate the aforementioned cluster. Nothing else found after.
Lori gave me the official 2017 Aragats Foundation t-shirt today and I'm super excited :D