Aug. 16, 2001
Today we began and finished excavating the skeleton L6010. We made good
timing! We found the ulna and radius missing from the left arm with the pile of bones at
the foot of the grave, but didn't find the left hand bones unless they were somehow
mistaken for foot bones. Both tibiae, femuri, and fibuli were present. There were also
several foot bones present but they weren't articulated. Several bones came out pretty
whole, and some were fractured or broken. For the most part these bones were in better
condition than the previous bones we've excavated this season. They were more whole.
There were no grave goods in this burial. There was no rock behind the head as there
were in 2 of the burials from this season. There were some animal bones present. I am
going to sift the dirt left behind in the grave and dig just a little more on Saturday to
check for bones we didn't see.
This grave seems to be facing more toward the sunrise (I don't say east because
our grids are on a compass east, not a grid east) than loci 1036,1034, 1035,1038.
However locus 3002 was facing the sunrise more like L6010 and there was no rock
beneath the head of that burial. L3002 was not a cist tomb.
I took two rib samples for carbon sampling. We sent one off first thing this
morning and have a second back-up sample.