Test excavation: Empty grave hewn into the bedrock
UPDATE Friday July 18 2014: This’s morning’s work has revealed more detail in the test excavation trench. The broad swath of rock once thought to be the foundation of an old wall is, in fact, limestone bedrock. The wall tentatively identified at the eastern end of the trench is clearly a wall–or the remains of one–with stucco covering the cut stones used in construction. Most gratifying find of all: Removal of fill over the swath of bedrock has revealed one of the graves excavated by Llabres in the 1920s and the edge of a second tomb. Those graves were emptied before the excavation was covered at the start of the Spanish Civil War; probably no one has seen those hand-hewn tombs since the farmworkers of Ca’n Fanals buried them to restore an arable field.
Tonight the UP Team gathers with archaeologist Tomeu (Bartomeu Vallori Márquez ) and Pollèntia Director Esther Chávez to toast the successful survey and mapping of the necropolis in Ca’n Fanals. Congratulations, indeed!
Photo credits this page: Ronda Bard
Test excavation: View of hewn grave from west to east
Test excavation: Stucco covered wall at southeastern corner (the wall is the line about 18 inches parallel to the trench edge)
Test excavation: Fr. Rutherford, Ray Bard, & Mary Hansen view two weeks’ work with satisfaction and mild astonishment that a grave has been uncovered
