Mason McCarthy
On the first day of excavation on site BcGn-23, myself as well as two others were assigned to a 1×1 unit with the objective of locating the west wall. This unit brought with it many questions, which taught me first hand the constant adjustment of archaeological interpretation. Very early on in the excavation of our 1×1 unit, we found a rock layer that was initially thought by both us and our instructors to be the rock wall, so we shifted from shovels to trowels to be more careful while uncovering it.
As the rocks were uncovered it was found that the entirety of the 1×1 had this rock layer, and since we were looking for the edges of the west wall for structure 1 this created some questions, which then lead to the decision for our 1×1 to be expanded 50cm west in the attempt to find where the rocks lead. Within the 50cm extension the rock layer continued throughout so we carefully test under each rock before removing them, that way we could understand more about what was happening since our initial hypothesis about it being the wall was proving to be incorrect based on the depth of the rock layer as well as the size of the rocks. The rock layer would later be confirmed to be backfill and not the wall, which was reflected in the until next to us who had succeeded in uncovering the wall.
On the second day of excavation, our team joined up with the one next to us to create a 2x5m trench that would connect our units, in doing this we were able to use the uncovered wall in the other unit as reference for understanding ours, and in knowing where the wall supposedly should be. This trench would be labelled OA1-E. As a team we were successful in uncovering the west wall but the south end of the trench, mainly the southeast corner, still created many questions for us such as why we were finding materials like nails and bones, as well as why we were finding so much charcoal and slag. Ultimately, we were instructed to remove the rocks in the southeast corner, which was frustrating because of how much time we spent trowelling and cleaning them, but it was also extremely satisfying to finally say goodbye and be able to see our corner better. Before they could be removed, though, a few of us had to use a planning frame to draw the rocks in the corner, which I would discover was not my strongest skill.
After the removal of the rocks, the wall became clearer and based on materials we could interpret that the southeast corner of our trench may have been located where in the past materials were put and then burned.
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