Site 52, Unit 2


Site 52

Group 3

Unit 2 was 1 x 2 m, the longer side aligned 28 degrees North. On the west side of Unit 2 at the south end sat a large, unmodified sandstone boulder. This unit was excavated by Dr Nigel Chang.

There were no notable features or artefacts encountered in the first 10 cm of the deposit in Unit 2. After the removal of this first 10 cm spit, a rounded boulder was visible at the south end of the unit near jar 52/3/064. Further to the north of this a smaller stone was visible in the centre of the unit. It was noted that the soil in the south end of the trench was somewhat less compacted than that of the north end which had a considerable concentration of compacted stones. Some artefacts were recovered in the excavation of Layer 1, spit 2 including a whetstone fragment (cat. 601), three quartz flakes (cat. 602 and 603) and a hammerstone (cat. 604). At the surface of Layer 1, spit 3 it was noted that the northern portion of the unit contained more fragments of sandstone than did the south, continuing the trend noted in the previous spit. It is possible that the southern portion of the unit represents a pit and this was duly labelled as a feature (1:3 Feature 1) by the excavator. Four artefacts were recovered from 1:3 including one quartz flake and one sandstone flake (cat. 605 and 607), a chert flake (cat. 606) and a possible adze fragment (cat. 608). The soil colour appeared to change after 1:3 and so the layer designation was changed to 2:1. In the north end of the unit it appeared that natural soil had been encountered at this level. Natural was encountered across the whole unit although it was slightly deeper in the south end of the unit. There was no evidence of a pit beneath the jar in the south end of the unit. As the unit had reached the natural substrate at this point the excavator decided to expand the unit by 50 cm to the north as there was a boulder in the baulk that appeared to have some evidence of alteration (labelled as 1:3 Feature 2) and above this rock was another (labelled as 1:1 Feature 1) and surrounding these stones was a layer of chipped sand- stone. No artefacts were encountered around either of these features although 1:3 Feature 2 did appear to be anthropogenically modified. Excavation continued down to Layer 2, spit 3. The unit was backfilled on February 14th, 2017. Two OSL samples were taken from beneath the jar located in the south end of Unit 2 (Jar 52/3/064). These samples comprised sediments and fragments from the base of the jar to be analysed for dating.

Layers

Artefacts


Images