Diane arrived for a week at Caracol on Sunday. It rained on Monday and we had a full rainday at Caracol with everyone working in the lab (or kitchen) washing archaeological materials. On Tuesday, we were back to normal and everyone was in the field at their excavations.
At Fresco (C244B) excavation continued throughout the building. The infilled tomb was completely excavated; the nub-footed plate and mano were removed and the alley floor was exposed. The core of the buried off-center platform was probed and dug down to a buried floor level. Bedrock was reached in the front of the building and new floors were also found in front of the second step that were then penetrated. Two sets of buried steps were discovered under the current second step. A skull cache with a finger bowl was found to the west of the tomb under the floor associated with the latest building. Under the next floor another finger cache was encountered beneath the earlier front step. A burial (disarticulated human bone) was encountered beneath the floor that the second cache sat upon. Finally, the northern side of the latest stairway and its articulation with the building was also found and exposed.
In Brie (C246B), excavation of the axial trench saw the rear part of the structure beneath the summit dug all the way to bedrock. In the front three burials were dealt with. The first was a two-slab box on the building axis. The second was in the plaza under a row of large capstones. The third was in the core of the building, again under a row of large capstones. No pottery vessels accompanied these multiple individuals placed in the cists under the capstones. The building slope burial yielded a set of circular hematite earrings, quite unusual for the Maya area. The plaza burial yielded a carved bone baton.
A majority of the excavation effort was expended in Hevarti. The excavation into the northern building (C245B) was completed and Adrian began the section drawing. In the front of this excavation, two burials were found, both running east – west. The western one was associated with a collared bowl dating to the Late Classic. In the eastern building (C245C), Alex drew cross-sections of the crypt that had been found. The western building (C245D) saw its northern half completely excavated and stripped of humus; Andrew spent most of the week drawing the plan. Adrian also set up a 2m square excavation in the center of the plaza (C245E) which then had a slight extension to the west to expose a feature that was found. This excavation was dug to bedrock on its eastern side. An unusual feature was found on the western side of this investigation – a 25 cm deep plastered depression at the level of the last plaza floor. What it was used for is still a guess (possibly a pib ?). Finally, four trenches were established in the southern reservoir oriented to cardinal directions (C245F). All of these recovered plastered floors and architecture at their higher ends, showing how much of this reservoir was architecturally modified beyond the area holding water.
We had quite the group of visitors this week as well. The first visitors were Josue from the Institute of Archaeology who brought in three people from Auburn University who will be helping the IA set up digital stories for the Caracol epicenter and site. Then, on Thursday a writer (Ellen Shell) and a photographer (Neil Osborne) from Smithsonian magazine appeared for a long-planned stay. They are doing a story on Caracol for that magazine and were clearly enmeshed in making sure that it was top-notch. They were with us from Wednesday through Sunday, driving in and out of the site each day. We stayed with them through Saturday noon and then Adrian took over. Diane and I left the site on Saturday after morning work and lunch. Our larder was empty and we need supplies (chicken, rice, sugar, oil, etc) and vegetables, which we were able to get (had to be at Caribbean Chicken before it closed at 3 PM for the weekend). We spent Saturday night in Cayo and had dinner with Melissa and Brian. On Sunday I took Diane to the airport and then returned to Caracol in time for lunch.
