XIII. CONCLUSION

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XIII. CONCLUSION

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XII. CONCLUSION

The excavation of CA-77 has helped to define the area that contains features suggestive of human activity.  All the stratigraphic layers excavated except the lowest appear to consist of erosional material.  The recovery of almost exclusively small well-worn fragments of terracotta in these layers suggests this.  Only in the lowest stratum of the trench was there found a slight increase in larger terracotta fragments with cleaner breaks.  The differentiation between the excavated layers was made less by the change in soil color than by the concentration of fist-size and smaller stones (primarily of limestone).  The only significant color change (discounting the modern dirt dump) was between the modern surface and the layers beneath.  The layers beneath the modern surface showed only a very gradual change in color if at all.  The concentration of fist-size and smaller stones is a different matter.  The surface layer is characterized by a dense concentration of these stones, then as one moves down the concentration gradually diminishes and almost disappears until the last stratum excavated in which the concentration suddenly increases throughout large areas of the trench.

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The most significant feature revealed in the bottom of the trench is a depression running roughly west to east that gradually flattens out towards the east. The trench slopes from north to south, and the western portion of the depression is demarcated in the south by a ridge of soil that has some galestra mixed in it, while in the north the slope of the trench marks the slope of the depression. This depression has stones in it that fan out and increase as one moves east. Whether this feature is man-made or natural has yet to be determined, but it does seem to have some connection with the features appearing in the trenches excavated this year immediately north and west of this trench. One of the features appearing north of the trench does project slightly into this trench .  What appears more certain is that trench CA-77 marks the southern boundary for human building activity in this area, and the relatively small amount of pottery sherds found here in respect to other trenches confirm this hypothesis.  See appropriate CA trench books for details (especially LHS II : CA-79 & EMO IV : CA-79).