Place: Ar/Ge.K2.18

This locus is directly below Locus 9. This locus was opened because of a lens of orange clay along the southern edge of the locus.

The matrix in this locus is a medium brown clay gravelly soil.

Coming down in Locus 18, we discovered that the southern wall has a 5th course of stones.

While digging, we found another sheep/goat radius and ulna, which is the opposite side of the one found in Locus 9. It is not impossible (judging from size) that these are from the same animal, which would be an argument from combining Locus 9 and Locus 18.

While cleaning around the walls, we discovered a bronze belt(Ar/Ge.K2.18.M.01)and a sheathed bronze dagger (Ar/Ge.K2.M.02) in the NW corner of the southern part of locus 18, near the possible northern wall.

After discovering human remains near the north wall, we removed two large stones from the top of the eastern side of the chamber, so we could open the full extent of the chamber. While opening this part, we found a very friable sheep/goat scapula (right side) at an angle in the soil, resting just above the north chamber wall at 2211.133 masl, in the corner formed by the north wall and the eastern side of the chamber (see photos).

By the end of the day, in the SW corner of the chamber we had uncovered 4 whole vessels (Loci 28, 29, 30, 31), all EIA in type. We took a soil sample (Ar/Ge.K2.18.MB.01) for macrobotanical analysis from around the pots in that corner, because the soil had a slightly red tone. Just north of between Loci 30 and 31, we found at bronze pin (Ar/Ge.K2.18.M.04) at 2210.493 masl.

We found a group of carnelian beads (Ar/Ge.K2.18.L.01 – 47 beads) along the northern side of Locus 31, some of which were resting on the shoulder and others that were in the soil along the body. We also found a large animal skull (cow) to the north of Locus 31. There was one small blue paste bead on top of the skull (where it was broken). We exposed two articulated lower legs (Locus 36) of a sheep/goat (astragalai and metapodials) running north from Locus 28.

After we exposed the whole human skeleton (Locus 27) in the north part of the chamber, it became clear that the small radius resting against the wall is not part of the human burial but may be associated with the whole vessel (Locus 33) and the animal bones north of the northern wall (humerus, horse tooth, etc.) as well as the vertebra in the gap in the wall. At the end of the 2013 season, Locus 18 was higher in the area north of the wall.