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Code
SB17.24
Season
2017
Narrative

Today the survey team was present all day to help. As a result I was able to fully draw operation 02 as it was today as well as the W baulk section of Operation 03 (the side containing evidence of the pit and the soil change it held). In Operation 02, we continued to clean the exterior of the room. This involved cleaning Locus 04 of the packed clay across the NW side of the trench to reveal a soil bedrock bench outside the NW wall. Through this we understood that outside the NW wall the bedrock was made more level and utilitarian (in order to support the wall) by packing clay and gravel where the bedrock was uneven. Along the much lower SW side of the trench, where the bench cut into the bedrock ends and there is a steep drop, we expanded the extent of Locus 08 although it continues to be sterile. We descended another 10 cm, at least, here to reveal some darker soil also ending at bedrock. Between the NW baulk and the NW wall, we cleaned and finished and re-measured Locus 06 and it’s expansion. All the packed clay was removed to reveal the bedrock bench, the wall, and where the two met. This Locus was sterile today although previously it had resulted in sporadic materials. In the interior of the room we removed quite a bit of rock collapse along the SE baulk of the interior of the room. On the E half of the room new materials will belong to the existing Locus 14 under the removed rocks, on the S half of the room they will belong to existing Locus 15 under the removed rocks until the soil under the rocks of both Loci is level with the bottom of these Loci. In the E corner, something resembling a large paving stone was revealed, protruding from the SE baulk. There is a nice cromlech-type formation around the rock (these were later removed and the soil belonged to Locus 14 as well). This is potentially a pit, but an extension would be required to reveal it in the future. Two new Loci were created in the interior of the room. Locus 16 is below Locus 14 and is sterile and ends at bedrock. Locus 17 was created under Locus 15 and corresponds to Locus 16. Although while Locus 16 was sterile, ended at bedrock, and consisted of a packed clay soil, Locus 17 was of a darker soil, contained materials, and we have not yet reached a floor or bedrock. A possible reason for this is that we do not understand the potential SW wall yet or there is a pit of some sort here. Tomorrow we will finishing cleaning the bedrock in the exterior and interior of the room, finish our investigation of Locus 17, take final photos, and take final depths and measurements for several Loci (06, 08, 16, 17).