Today began our first systematic transect walking in the Vardenis/Chknagh area. We walked one 2km transect W to E across the foothills west of Chknagh, encountering a clear EB settlement (Ar/Vd.KA17.01-03) with both curvilinear and rectilinear architecture. In a drainage cut immediately to the east of this settlement we recovered diagnostic EB pottery and obsidian debitage. Across the drainage to the east, the settlement continued, in terms of the presence of EB surface materials, although it appeared to have been significantly impacted by Medieval or Early Modern terracing activities.
To the south east, additional surface collections of EB pottery and obsidian confirmed the significance of the settlement to the west, potential intensive EB usage of local arable land, and/or the general "smear" of EB materials prompted by later land management and Soviet amelioration activities. (For example, there is a major concrete water canal that runs through much of this area.)
What remains unclear at present, is whether this new settlement is independent of the one recorded yesterday at Chknagh to the east. If these both represent independent EB settlements, they are quite close. If the Chknagh one represents the necropolis for the western settlement, it would be quite distantly placed compared to known EB settlement/necropolis arrangements.
Following the completion of our 2km transect, we investigated and recorded the Chknagh church and cemetery, as well as the local museum being assembled by the village. We also encountered a surface collection bag likely assembled by Kate Franklin's 2010 survey project at the museum.
We then worked for the rest of the day in Vardenis village, where we documented a church, chapel, and settlement. Some work remains in Vardenis village (another chapel, cemetery, etc.), which we will tend to at a later date.