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Code
AFG.08.12
Season
2008
Narrative

Having solved our total station problem last night, we will have to wait another several days before we can attempt to map Aragatsi-Berd again. Instead today, we focused on the excavation of AB3 topsoil locus 1, the excavation of the locus 14 construction fill in AB1, and the continued cleaning of locus 8 from the AB2 wall fall deposit.In AB3 we first removed all of the loose dirt remaining from yesterday's excavations. We then began a second 10cm pass with shovels at the southern extent of our 6m trench subsection while simaltaneously using trowels in the rockier northern trench portion. Trowel work in trench north revealed a wide, but linears spread of cobbles and boulders, no clear wall identity here yet, but still a strong contender for an outer terrace wall. Troweling work also revealed a matrix change in the form of a pale yellow clayey loam soil underlying the AB3 topsoil. We will clean locus down to this level and change to locus 2, perhaps as early as tomorrow. The southern removal of topsoil reveals multiple cobbles and boulders, but none seem to be articulated or aligned in any particular direction yet. Material frequencies continued to be moderate. In AB2 we spent almost the entire day cleaning the wall fall between built loci 4 and 5 in preparation for a photo (base of locus 8). The wall fall appaers to spread out as a semi-circle between the walls, ending rather abruptly at trench center. This may be related to taphonomic processes, it may be diving lower (but I doubt this), or it may represent a sunken area underneath, some kind of cirucular pit or structure. Ceramics and bone continue to turn up in this cobble jumple, including a couple LB pot bases. We took a 5th sample from this locus for C14, an excellent piece of charcoal. By end of day we were able to take the photograph and tomorrow we will pull many of the cobbles and excavate the jumble as locus 9.In AB1 we attempted to complete the excvation of the locus 14 construction fill behind the locus 3 wall, but instability in the matrix caused two minor collapses of the southern trench wall. Rather than risk an injury, we removed as much loose earth as possible and formally ended excavations there. The bedrock is visible enough to display how the rear-terracing wall was built abutting carefully sculpted bedrock and andesite cobble construction fill.