Preface to Unit A16

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A16 at a glance

A16 is the first unit, along with J3, to be published as part of the Urkesh Global Record.

It belongs in area AA. The lowest stratum we have reached has exposed the souhwestern portion of the monumental stone paved courtyard of the formal wing (area AF) of the Royal Palace (area AP).

Above the Palace, there are substantial strata from the two major horizons that followed the use of the Palace. First, in chronological order, was an open area dating to the turn of the third millennium. Next (Khabur period) we see the development of an industrial area first, and then of a complex burial ground. The Mittani period is not represented in A16, presumably as a result of recent erosion.

For a fuller overall introduction see the Overview.

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A16 and the Urkesh Global Record

An overview of the Urkesh Global Record is given elsewhere.

The full A16 data appear some eight years after the closing of the excavations (in 2002). Considerable follow-up work continued after the close of excavations. This was partly due to the fact that A16 was chosen alongside J3 to serve as a test case for the implementation of the Global Record approach – and this entailed a substantial amount of harmonization and fine-tuning of the system as a whole.

Similar delays are obviously going to be the rule for all the digital books that record data excavated in earlier years, and in fact the time gap will grow even larger as we work on earlier material. By contrast we expect that, for future excavations, publication will be ready in this format very shortly after the close of excavations.