7/17/06 Today was the first day that Elizabeth worked at Tsaghkahovit. With Adam's help, she laid out 20, 50 x 50cm test trenches and removed the topsoil from all of them. The first one, WSKa, was a deep silt level with very few materials and no floor, as far as I could see. Elizabeth then started in WSKd, but had to stop on account of the rain. The most exciting developments today were in WSG, where we seem to have come upon a floor with at least three large broken storage vessels in situ and a mortar in situ. Filled about seven bags of pottery from this one locus just today, I think mostly with sherds of these large storage vessels. On account of the rain, I had to cover the floor and the vessels with dirt, but will resume troweling it out tomorrow. In WSH, we continued to work in locus 22, expanding it to the north and northeast, on both sides of the possible burial. Material densities still quite high, particularly ceramics. This floor is still a challenge to excavate. I think we're probably excavating through the actual living surface to the packed, preparatory clay surface below. In WSH, we also continued in the extension, in locus 29, troweling around the rocks and deciding which to remove. The architectural situation here is still not entirely clear, but I think most of the stones in this area will eventually be removed. Finally, we continued to work in locus 24, in the area above the northeast wall, in preparation for Hasmik's arrival. Finally, in WSI we've just about finished excavating locus 12 and started breaking some of the large rocks along the southwest wall. This project will likely consume much of our energy tomorrow. Didn't have much time to work in WSI locus 13 today, the area of the probable doorway, since some workers were sent to work with Elizabeth. Started to rain in the late afternoon so we had to cut the day an hour short. Will make up the time tomorrow.