Kenan Tepe

Area F

Trench 22

Andy Creekmore

Thursday June 16 2005

Today I continued excavating burial L6, removed cobbles L8, exposing new locus 10, which we probed briefly at its eastern edge.  

L6:

Today I pushed down in the area between the skull of individual two and the disturbed leg bones to the east. This work revealed the nearly complete articulated skeleton of individual one, including the right arm, wrist, and hand, some ribs, the pelvis, both legs and the right foot. This individual is lying on its back with its legs flexed and knees rolled to the left, or north. The knees stuck up in the air considerably, perhaps confined to a small pit, and were clipped a bit by baulk cutting/erosion in F1. The left arm is missing, at least so far, and it seem likely that the sequence of events that formed L6 occurred as follows: Individual one was interred within a pit. Later individual two was being buried when the diggers disturbed burial one’s left arm and skull. They placed these bones, along with those of individual two, on top of and beside the skull of individual one. Burial two was either disarticulated to begin with, or buried in a very tightly compacted flexed position. The former seems more likely because so far its mandible is missing, along with its pelvis, wrist, ankle and toes. I will need to inventory the bones pulled in previous days to confirm this impression. Individual one will be removed tomorrow along with the skull of individual two.

NOTE: this new exposure of individual one reveals that the metal pin found on June 14 was located roughly above individual one’s pelvis, but significantly higher in the fill, suggesting that it was disturbed from its original location.

NOTE: we found a lithic, KT4, just east of and adjacent to the right arm (radius/ulna) of Individual 1. This lithic appears to be an unmodified flake and could derive from the burial fill, but given its location it could also be a grave good. A juglet was found in nearly the same position in F1 burial L1021.

L8:

We removed this cobblestone feature completely. It sloped down north to south, being thicker at its southern extent where it continues into the baulk. The cobbles were relatively large at 15 to 20cm, although smaller cobbles were more common on the eastern side of the locus. Beneath Locus 8 we started new locus 10, a reddish brown, relatively compact soil.

L10:

Our strategy for continuing in this trench is to start at the exposed eastern baulk (formerly the western baulk of F4), dig down to the next obvious layer, and work our way west. From the baulk it seems that there is a wall running E-W, which ends or corners about midway between the southern baulk and the northern baulk. To the south we see layers of ash, etc, while different material characterizes the layers to the north.

Summary:

Burial L6 is now nearly fully articulated and ready for removal. Locus 8 is finished/removed. L10 has been probed in a roughly 1m X 1.5m at the eastern edge of the trench.

F22JP06162005