The survey team work (me, Salpi, Chris, and Arsho) was accomplished in two parts today: In the morning we collected the GCP points for Aver Berd with the GNSS, while the afternoon was spent setting up new GNSS points at Berdi Chairner and getting the lay of the land for droning and surface survey tomorrow and over the weekend.
At Aver Berd, Arsho and one student collected the GNSS data while another student looked through pits and sections in order to potentially recover surface ceramics. We brought tools for scraping sections in the hopes of recovering pottery. However, none was recovered. Bummer!! The first four points were collected with one base point, while we moved the base for the fifth, lowest point, not far from the access road. Error levels were quite low for all points.
Following lunch, we left Aparan for Aragats village, where we promptly ascended the Aragats foothills toward Berdi Chairner. There, we laid in and collected 10 GCPs and explored the site more extensively than in 2016. (Tomorrow we will drone it.) The eastern, outcropy side of the hill hosts several recesses and caves, one that connects to the citadel (we saw light at the other end). The architectural layout shows a clear outer, western enclosure wall (not a terrace like I thought), a western gate or entrance, and several other architectural pieces and room spaces that need to be further evaluated. A pit located at the center of the "citadel" produced 4 sherds during section scraping--we will attempt to glean more from there tomorrow. At least two of them look "Bronze Age" to me and Ruben. Adam believes the architecture--plan, possible towers, etc.--looks late 1st millennium BC or early AD. The walls are truly exceptional in terms of how high they stand, their beautiful double faces, etc. Tomorrow we will attempt to collect more pottery during the drone flights, followed by khngali lunch and groundtruthing.