The End of the Excavation

Skull fragments


painted ceramic shard


incised pattern.


Group shot


The final week of excavations were also the most exciting, as we began reaching levels without any traces of the medieval period and were finding artifacts in high quantity. The majority of our artifacts are ceramics, which is something I really enjoy personally as a amateur pottery thrower. I have been working primarily in square T35 which is along the wall of the cave in Trench 2a. In this square we have a niche in the wall where I was for days uncovering bagfuls of pottery shards. Most of the pottery is thick-walled gravel tempered ceramic without decoration. However, some are blackened and burnished.

The last week there were some great finds:
I found pieces of a painted pot which is very exciting as there is only one other painted pot in the cave that has been found and it’s the only one like it in Armenia, the only others like have been found in Iran.

I also found pieces of very thin walled ceramics with fine black fabric that had triangular cross-hatching incised on the body.

I also found three handles, all which are typical Kura-Axes in form according to Dina who is writing her PhD thesis on Ceramics.
The other very interesting finds made by my fellow field schoolers was a bone awl, which is an animal bone that has been worked into a sharpened needle used for piercing leather and other textiles. As well as more obsidian pieces, and finally human bone. We have also been actively collecting charcoal samples for dating purposes to get a better idea of the time periods of sediment we are dealing with and if it matches to the artifacts.

The main belief is that we are digging a trash site, but the idea that it could be a grave has been tossed around as well. Although the midden idea makes much more sense to me, there are some very flat and rectangular rocks which have been appearing in areas of the trench within the same sediment layer. This same layer has also produced some human remains making it possible that these were purposeful markers. We found one cervical vertebra, two tibias, and four cranial fragments that were all identifiably human. It was very hard to leave the trench after these discoveries, but those staying promised to keep us updated on the finds.

Right before leaving Lauren fell through the floor of the trench and went up to her waist into a sink hole, the sink hole was filled with pottery shards. Boris believes that there could be many other sink holes in the cave and the next group will have to continue very carefully to avoid falling through.