There was more rain this week (almost every morning), but no one seemed to notice because of how busy we were. In terms of logistics, Diane flew back to Houston on Monday the 3^rd, having been able to review the excavation locales and what we were doing. I made a quick trip to Cayo on Thursday in order to buy meat and was back by 11 AM; the Caracol road building is quite active and they are trying to finish the huge bridge over the Macal River. Vegetables and other needed supplies came in on Saturday courtesy of Brian Woodye.

  In terms of excavations, the eastern building in the Canta Residential Group (C241B) saw a lot of activity in the front plaza area and in terms of the burial under the eastern capstones found at the end of last week. Hannah and Carlos concentrated on this interment. The capstones covered a crypt that was approximately 60 cm in depth and contained the very decomposed body of what appears to have been a single individual, possibly with head to the south based on the positioning of the tibia. The individual had at least one incisor inlaid with jadeite. Grave goods included a granite mano and four ceramic vessels dating to the early part of the Late Classic Period. In the front, a series of reconstructable vessels were found, possibly on the latest floor and steps; they had been dispersed by the root action of a large tree located in this area. Also recovered as what appeared to be a deposit of partial lip-to-lip cache vessels as well as a displaced urn. At the end of the week, Saul, with Ruth and Ryaan, had also found another set of capstones in the front (probably originally under the front step) as well as what appears to be a cache set in front of this presumed burial.

  The chultun in the center of the Canta plaza, C241C, was completely excavated by the end of the week by Abner and Egor. It has an entryway with two chambers going to the southeast and the southwest. Unfortunately, the chambers did not contain any deposits or primary materials. The chultun will be drawn and section next week.

  The large eastern structure in the Ayayayay Residential group, C242B, is yielding a large number of finds. The plaza area in front of the structure is being excavated by Jaime, Joel, and Gabriela and has produced what looks like a box feature (previously thought to be the south site of a cist) as well as four caches. Two of the caches were lidded urns on centerline axis to the building; one was a small cup that matches an effigy top found further up the front slope; and, the fourth cache is set into bedrock immediately east of the box feature and consists of a series of larger vessels (flower-pot form?) and at least seven limestone bars. A sizeable amount of work has been done at the summit by Flavio working with Rumari, Cameron, and Nathan. This effort initially resulted in the discovery of a set of slanted capstones in the middle part of the summit. Lifting these capstones and excavating beneath them revealed a well-built crypt which has so far produced a limited amount of bone and two ceramic vessels of Late Classic date. A second set of capstones to the east of the original set (and clearly covering another chamber) were found and detailed by the end of the week.

  On Wednesday we also began an excavation in front of Structure B34 in the Northeast Acropolis, C117H, reopening the 1993 trench to get down to a tomb that was set in front of the Structure B34 balk. The excavation only measures 2 m by 2m and is designed to go into the unexcavated area below the tomb to see if there are earlier deposits in this location. Mo is in charge of this excavation working with Edwin and Jorge.