Digital Object 2307
Description:
UE277. Primary pit of tomb T7. In terms of its morphology and orientation, it conforms to a large extent to the burial pattern characteristic of the El Caño cemetery. This is a rectangular-shaped pit, with straight, slightly sloping walls, rounded corners and a flat bottom, and with one of its diagonals oriented north-south. Its longitudinal axis coincides largely with that of tombs T4 and T8, which suggests the existence of a general organization of this sector of the cemetery into streets with a northwest-southeast direction. Both its sides and floor are completely excavated in the geological substratum (UE278), with the exception of its northwestern wall, which cut across the southeastern sector of tomb T8 after it had been abandoned and filled. In general terms, the walls of the pit are rectilinear and almost imperceptibly sloping, although their prolonged exposure to the elements over time caused erosions and detachments that deformed them. None of these surfaces have been found to have any traces of possible cladding or tool marks from the time of construction of the tomb. The union angles between adjacent walls, and between the walls and the floor, are rounded. The floor is located at a depth of about 5.30 m with respect to the current surface of the land, which makes tomb T7 the deepest of those documented so far. However, its depth must have been somewhat less originally, since the surface of the cemetery is located about 0.40 m below the current level of use. About 2.25 m above the floor — that is to say, towards half the original depth of the pit— the northeastern and northwestern walls have a recess in the form of a horizontal step which originally served both to stabilize the excavation by preventing landslides, and to support the edge of the platform of vegetation on which offering 252 was placed. The aforementioned stepping means that the pit is larger in its upper half than in its lower half. Its upper half is 4.50 m long by 3.60 m wide, and occupies an area of 16.20 m2. In its lower half, its dimensions are 3.54 m long by 2.65 m wide, which yields a usable area of around 9.40 m2. As a whole, the pit in question has a capacity of around 60 m3. During the initial construction of tomb T7, 27 post holes were drilled at the bottom of the pit, aligned at the base of the walls and distributed around the perimeter of the pit at approximately regular intervals. It cuts UE278 and UE280. Filled by UE328 and subsequent units.
Excavation campaign:
2015
Record type:
Stratigraphic unit register
Context-based browsing of El Caño repository
Archaeological site:
El Caño
Operation:
Operation 1
Stratigraphic group:
Tomb 7
Stratigraphic unit type:
Cut, fossa
Stratigraphic unit (characteristics):
277
Digital Object 2307