Digging Week Two

Ceramics and faunal bone drying after being cleaned

Our first week of digging left everyone in the crew pretty frustrated as we had yet to hit a cultural layer (a layer where there are signs of human occupation). We were hoping that beneath the last of the dung layer (yes, layers and layers of solidified animal poop... fun times) that our cultural layer would begin. We had also hoped that because we had already gone through nearly four units (for different sediment layers) that we would directly hit the Chalcolithic period and not have any ‘modern’ artifacts, which would imply a homogenous layer which allows for better analysis than a “mixed layer” (a layer with more than one distinct time period together) means the layers have been tampered with at some point and stratigraphical studies mean significantly less.

The first find of any dig is really exciting, and we had found a few sticks, pieces of straw, and small faunal bones amongst the dung layers, but Taylor got the first artifact (organics are referred to as ecofacts) and found a large piece of ceramic which could not be specifically dated on site, I however found the second shard which although smaller was easily identifiable to the early Bronze Age because of its smooth black burnishing, trumpet lip, and incised geometric pattern. Soon everyone had found a few shards, which gave hope that we had reached a cultural layer, but our big concern came true when medieval pottery started coming alongside early Bronze Age. The mixed layer could have been caused by whoever brought in the sheep dung to create the flooring. If this is the case there could be homogenous layers deeper down, and only time will tell.

The rest of the week kept at a similar pace, the deeper we got, the more mixed context artifacts (primarily wood, faunal bone, and ceramic). We also sectioned off the trench to allow for a side profile to record the stratigraphy of the side of the trench better making it a tight fit for everyone in the trench. Both the coordinators of the projects have different views on why this area is of mixed context and why the dung layer was formed. One theory that it was brought by the medieval people to seal over remains of the past cultures who once lived there, another theory is the original cultures of the trench (late Neolithic to chalcolithic groups) created the flooring during the occupancy or before they left. This is why the charcoal samples we collected in the burn layers will be important, as they will be sent for testing to hopefully construct a general chronology of the dung layers.

Outside of digging we have been spending our time hanging out at the dighouse, going for walks into the town to hunt for recognizable munchies, and the internet cafe... and of course sleeping, six thirty am comes too early.