August 4, 2001

I started by taking out about 5cm more of L 9005. Exploring this locus has made me look at the surrounding areas a little closer. The north area of L 9006 has changed. It is still a little bit ashy, but it is mostly a harder clay now. It scrapes easily and comes off in fine particles. The clay looks lighter when sitting. It is a light gray on the ground, but when scraped the little pile of particles looks like a darker gray. Although L 9006 looks darker when dug, but dries to a lighter color, this soil is still lighter and much firmer and more hard packed in composition than L 9006. This is a new locus L 9008.

I sprayed L 9003. It's nothing. I’m going to take some pictures so the clay lines in the baulk and the clay still standing can be correlated. Then I'm going to level the area. Well, I didn't actually get to level the area, but having pictures is good and at least we'll have something to do tomorrow.

I did take off L 9007 the last of the fake virgin soil. I then closed the locus. Under this reddish brown soil was the dark ash of L 9006. I did not define if this would become part of L 9006 or a new locus. I will do this tomorrow first thing in the morning.

I leveled out the south end of L 9006 that was a little higher yesterday. Then I pushed this soft ash area down another 5 cm. Having the soft stuff come out helped me to define the boundaries of the new locus L 9008.

The area just of the sounding has stayed ashy, but it is not as dark and organic as L 9006 was. I made it L 9009.