FIGURE 7

This photograph clearly documents the relationship between Tomb 1 and its Early Bronze Age context in Area K. The chamber of this cave burial was constructed beneath a level of Early Bronze Age remains. Dr. Cooley is kneeling on the bedrock surface just to the right of the collapsed ceiling of Tomb 1. A study of the balk to the left of the group reveals the following stratigraphic details. A one-meter thick ash layer, dating to the Early Bronze Age, extends horizontally between the workman standing on the far left and the secondvertical fissure, a distance of approximately two meters. A 10-15 cm slippage in this ash layer (clearly seen in the first vertical fissure) was created when the tomb ceiling collapsed. Note the one-meter wide section of the tomb ceiling that dropped the same distance, visible below and to the left of the bedrock surface upon which the group is standing. Further to the left, both the ash layer and the tomb ceiling collapsed nearly two meters (to the left of the second vertical fissure), dropping well into the tomb chamber.

The balk clearly documents, therefore, the construction of the tomb chamber beneath a level of Early Bronze Age remains. This ash layer was obviously penetrated with the construction of the vertical shaft that gave access to the tomb chamber beneath the earlier remains.

 

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