20 LUGLIO 2018  

Area 3000

Nella porzione meridionale l’abbassamento generale del settore ha permesso l’individuazione dei tagli di altre buche di forma circolare e di varie dimensioni. Nella porzione settentrionale è iniziata la rimozione degli strati UUSS 3906 e 3907, con lo scopo di mettere in luce i livelli di frequentazione più antichi.

Today in the Southern Section of B we dug five holes, taking soil samples from two. Hole 3972 which had significant depth and was one of the holes in which a soil sample was taken. The fill 3960 was partically removed from a hole and a soil sample was taken as well. In the Northern section the area was leveled to the level of the trench that bisects the unit and cleaned. 

Area 5000

Today was a very interesting day for area 5000. We stumbled upon what we think may be 2 adjacent seperate burials (at least one definite burial) to the East side of section C. We found this burial to be buried in the crypt manner from the East to the West. The bones consisted of a cranium and what we think may be 2 humeri and a shaft of a long bone. In Section D, we continued to level down the pit. While doing so, we found a tooth with a fragmented root (possible a left upper second molar) and numerous other bone fragments. Consistent with previous findings, all bones were extremely friable, sun bleached, with delamination and erosion of the cortical surface. During the last hour, we began to extract the skull very delicately with wooden picks and brushes - to be continued on Monday. Meanwhile in the charcoal deposit below the bell furnace, the area was first cleaned in order to have phtogrammetry done on the area of the feature. We then removed the entirety of the black charcoal deposit, in otrder to expose the layer below. The feature was then cleaned again with trowels, ready for photos to be taken on Monday.

Area 6000

Today in area 6000 we continued on doing more of what we did yesterday. We continued removing fill 6235 and exposed more of the cranium and are preparing to take pictures and points. We troweled the area clean and our next step will be to complete a context sheet for the rocks covering the skeleton, then remove them and take more pictures after exposing the entire skeleton.

We also continued removing fill 6217, revealing more fragmented bones along with more of the right shoulder girdle and a calcaneus. We levelled more of the fill and will continue to do so until the skeleton is revealed.

Lastly, we cleaned all of the southern half of area 6000 in anticipation of the Medieval festival this weekend, where the public will be invited to look at the site and learn some of the history of the area.