Raina Savitsky The lots located at 28E, 12N were excavated to 80cm BGS. The stratigraphy
of the pit was significant. We discovered that 30cm BGS was the courtyard
floor. This information was also supported by sub-operation ZH. 30-50cm
BGS yielded many sherds, chert, and 50-80 yielded much black obsidian.
With this information we decided to follow the courtyard level and expose
more of the courtyard. We dug a trench southward toward the center of
the courtyard. We found some large rocks in the trench and suspect that
they could be related to another structure, possibly some sort of cooking
pit since we found a few small pieces of bone as well. Hopefully the artifacts
that we found in the trench will tell us more about the activities in
the courtyard and the relationship between the courtyard and the structures
surrounding it. At this point in time I was reassigned to sub-operation ZD which excavator
L9 had been previously working on. Sub-operation ZD is a small mound located
in between sub-ops ZA and ZH. L9 opened up lots on the eastern face of
the mound hoping to find the exterior walls of the structure. L9 and his
workers found an abundant amount of tumble located as much as 4 meters
from the eastern edge of the mound. There was also a possible wall and
possible post holes. Because of the numerous amount of tumble nothing
could be proven and a more extensive look at these possible structures
was needed. I began to back track through the lots running south-north along the
eastern edge of the structure. They were excavated to 40 cm BGS and many
of the unnecessary larger rocks were removed. After completing this we
had a better possibility for a wall located 17E, 5N and 17E, 6N of the
site axis datum. There were two large rocks that were nicely shaped and
nicely aligned. However their alignment was at a southwestern angle to
the mound. To further expose these rocks the lots were excavated to 90cm
BGS (sterile). After the excavation we found that there were rocks placed
further back in the wall, underneath the two larger rocks. With this,
we had sufficient information to call the rocks a wall. It was named TORTUGA
and was discovered on June 12, 2003. It was also thought that TORTUGA could have extended to the northern
edge of lot 17E, 6N, where there were more large rocks. We dug underneath
these rocks and found only earth. Since we found a wall of sub-operation
ZD we decided to clean up some of the tumble and open up more of the courtyard.
L7, working on sub-operation ZA, had the same objective at this point.
Working side by side we connected our two sub-operations and opened up
a large portion of the courtyard. Each lot in this section was taken down
to 30cm BGS, the courtyard floor level that I found in sub-operation ZE.
After we cleaned up the area we found that there was a large amount of
tumble that extended 5-6 meters away from the mound in sub-op ZD. This
was clearly not just tumble. Due to the rock patterns in the open area,
we suspect that there was once a small exterior divider wall. We also
found a lot of bajareque to support our idea of a possible wall structure.
This wall was most likely was only a few stones high and about three meters
long. It was probably added onto the structure much later and acted as
a wall to create different rooms and areas for different activities. Judging
by the architecture of this exterior structure it is suspected to be post-classic.
Besides bajareque, we found many sherds, a candelero, ocarina, black obsidian,
and chert. Next year it would be best to follow the slanted TORTUGA wall southwest into the actual structure to ensure its orientation. It would also be of interest to continue to open up the courtyard. By doing this we could see the boundaries of the exterior extension divider and if other structures had similar structures. In other sub-operations sufficient information was gathered from the artifacts to prove that there was ceramic production in the site. By opening up the courtyard and adjoining more sub-operations we could continue to investigate this production. |