Comparative analysis of Unit A6

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Introduction

The northern section of Unit A6 provides a unique example of royal kitchens at the end of the third millennium BC. Within this section, three rooms were discovered: Room D1, identified as the palace kitchen; Room D2, serving as the Iwan; and Room D3, functioning as the kitchen storage. These three rooms are notable for their well-preserved walls and were constructed in a mirrored plan with the adjacent sector B, known as the palace storage, within the service quarter. Numerous jars, bowls, plates, cups, and strainers were found in the kitchen, all within the context of the Urkesh kitchen, along with various fire-related kitchen equipment

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Ceramics

Jars

Large jars are among the most prominent examples within the kitchen context. These large jars are typically made of simple pottery mixed with chaff (Chaff Tempered ware) and are designed with necks to facilitate carrying. Some jars are decorated with incised wavy and straight line patterns, while others are decorated using finger or cord impressions. In Room D1, sherds of hole-mouth jars q533 were discovered, along with sherds of straight-necked jars q541 that likely date back to the Tar’am-Agade period. This suggests that the kitchen may have been used during a later period than its original construction.

In Room D3, at the level of the room’s stone foundation, sherds of a jars with a flaring neck, featuring internal grooves on the folded rim, were found q105. These jars were likely used for storage in this room, as shelves were found that were used to place storage jars. These shelves were made of a line of bricks running along the northern and western walls.

Additionally, shouldered jars and those with restricted necks and grooved rims were discovered, which were the most common group found in the archaeological units of the Palace of Tupkish.

Bowls

Round-sided bowls were very common during this period, characterized by a variety of colors. The exterior often displayed a red-orange color, with a gray-brown area around the exterior of the rim. In the north-eastern corner of Room D1, near the tannur and hearth, two rounded bowls were found q551 and q596. These bowls are notable for being wide either at the center of the body or near the bottom. In the same accumulation, a deep bowl with two crescent-shaped handles near the rim was also discovered q573. This is an example of cooking pottery known as “pebble ware.” Additionally, a bowl with an internal projection rim was found q581.

In Room D2, a round-sided bowl with a flat base was uncovered. It is made of a fine to medium mixture with fine chaff (FC), decorated with cord impressions, and shows signs of wheel manufacturing i94.

In Room D3, near the shelves, a carinated bowl with a rounded carination, featuring an S-shaped profile near the rim, was found q519.

Cups

The Akkadian pottery found in the Palace of Tupkish is characterized by its coarser and made with less attention to details of form, as evidenced by the bases cut with a string and wheel marks. The most significant finds throughout the palace were conical cups, especially in the units adjacent to the kitchen. Rooms B1 and B2 (the storage area) yielded a large number of these cups. Additionally, these cups are prominently represented in the seal impressions discovered. Near the hearth in the center of Room D1, two conical cups were found.

Moreover, other types of cups were discovered in Room D1, such as cups with inturned mid-body, where the body height and rim diameter were roughly proportionate q854.

Pots

Among the pots found in the Akkadian context at the Palace of Tupkish are cooking pots with two handles attached to the rim q995.1. These were made in pebble-tempered ware and contain small quartz pebbles which are efficient heat retainers. These pots are characterized by brick red in color which blackens over time through exposure to fire. They include spherical pots with a hole mouth and rounded bases, designed for easy placement on the hearth. This type of pottery was found in Rooms B1 and B2, to the west of the kitchen, along with a rarer type, a medium-sized pot with pierced lug handles q593-p14. These handles were found in Room D1 near the southern wall. Additionally, a broken pot was discovered near the northern wall f218, close to the tannur and hearth on the northern side.

Plates and Strainers

A concave base of a small plate i231 was found near the tannur in Room D1. The general context of the palace includes various types of plates, particularly those with inverted rims. These pots are typically shallow dishes with flat bases. Additionally, plates with thick, straight walls and bases, and with handles, were discovered; some of these plates are shallow, while others are a little bit shallow.

On the other hand, a strainer was found in Room D2. This strainer has an upper incurved body, and the rim slanted to the interiorq511.

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Seal Impressions

In the Urkesh kitchen, symbolic evidence of food handling has been discovered, most notably through large, flat vessels bearing seal impressions. These impressions, found on the kitchen floor, document the processes of food preparation and handling. They were used on clay to seal boxes, jars, bags, and baskets. Some of the discovered seal impressions depict the process of food preparation, where on the kitchen floor, a seal impression belonging to the cook Tuli was found, reflecting a scene related to her profession. Additionally, in Room D1, an uninscribed seal impression was found, depicting the performance of common tasks in Urkesh that are unusual in Akkadian seals. All the figures are engaged in activities that seem to involve preparing something in vessels, possibly related to food preparation. Seal impressions depicting scenes of dining were also discovered; for instance, in Room D1, a seal impression q691.2 presents a scene with unclear details but suggests a scenario related to eating.

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Kitchen Equipment

The Tannur

A tannur f356 was found in the middle of Room D1 within the service quarter of the royal palace. Its walls resemble burnt bricks in both color and hardness. The tannur is characterized by a double wall, an uncommon design in ancient times, which provides additional strength and durability, indicating that it was placed directly on the ground surface rather than being buried. The dimensions of the tannur at Tell Mozan show a westward tilt, measuring 82 cm from east to west and 92 cm from north to south, with an internal diameter of 69 cm and wall thickness ranging between 8 and 13 cm. The maximum depth of the tannur reaches 50 cm at the eastern point, with a distance of 21 cm from the bottom of the tannur to the center of the flue. The interior surface of the tannur is smooth and well-preserved, with a circular opening in the wall located about 30 cm from the top at the western point, indicating a precise design that allows for efficient ventilation.

The Hearth

Excavations revealed a hearth f376 located near the tannur, in the middle of Room D1. This hearth was horseshoe-shaped, made from the same material as the tannur, and rested on a layer of ash. The hearth had an approximate depth of 15 cm and contained remnants of legume seeds. Nearby, a layer of plaster was found, although it did not extend far from the hearth. Additionally, two conical cups were discovered adjacent to the hearth.

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Platforms

Among the discoveries in Room D1 were a stone bench and a platform located next to the hearth and tannur. It is likely that the bench and platform were used to place pottery jars, as a broken vessel was also found beside them, offering further insight into the organization of household activities in this context. Additionally, another platform made of mud-brick was found along the northern wall of Room D1.

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Kitchen from Tell Arbid

Tell Arbid is located in north east of Syria, in the upper Khabur Basin, approximately 45 kilometres south of the city of Qamishli. Since 1996, a Polish archaeological mission from the University of Warsaw, led by Professor Piotr Bieliński, has been conducting excavations at the site.

During the 2010 season, in locus 7, located within Sector W in the southern part of the site, a room equipped with cooking equipment was discovered. This included fire installations, a storage jar, and a large quantity of broken cooking pots and other vessels. The room covered an area of 2.80 square meters. The only possible entrance to the kitchen was located in the northern wall (W5), where later signs of blockage were observed, taking the form of vertical cracks in the wall. The entrance was approximately 0.50 meters wide. The kitchen is notable for having been used during two different phases.

The Latest Phase

In the kitchen, a mud brick platform was found, measuring 0.50 meters in length, 0.34 to 0.40 meters in width, and 0.25 meters in height above the floor. A large jar (J1) was partially buried in the ground in the northwest corner. This jar had a rough surface, and a cup with an everted rim was also discovered nearby.

As for the fire installations, a circular hearth with a diameter of 30 cm was found in the northern part of the room, next to the eastern wall. Nearby, fragments of two cooking pots (P1 and P2) were discovered, along with another large jar (J2) featuring a globular body and a short, curved neck. This jar had a rough, it is chaffface and revealed traces of scraping inside. The cooking pots represented a single type of hole-mouthed vessel with crescent lugs.

The Earlier phase

The earlier phase of the kitchen’s use included features and evidence such as a mud basin connected to the eastern wall. Next to this basin, a hearth with a diameter of 38 cm (H2) was found. The front wall of the mud basin was heavily burned due to the use of this hearth. Fragments of a large lid (L2) were found on top of the hearth, along with a jar (J3) that was partially buried in the floor. This jar had a broken neck, seemingly broken intentionally. Beneath the burnt clay of the hearth, there was a layer of fine gravel mixed with clay, forming a kind of substructure for the hearth.

Adjacent to the kitchen, on the western side, was a small room (Locus 26) that served as an ash dump for the kitchen activities. This room contained a 10 cm thick layer of ash, which matched the earlier floor level of the kitchen. Broken pottery sherds and seal impressions were also found within this layer.

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The comparative analysis

The kitchen at Tell Mozan is larger and more organized than the kitchen at Tell Arbid. The kitchen at Tell Mozan covers an area of 63.3 square meters (see Buccellati, F. 2017) and consists of three rooms built in a mirror plan with storage rooms in the service wing of the royal palace, known as Sector B. The kitchen can be divided into three parts: Room D1, which is the main kitchen and serves as the workspace containing kitchen equipment as well as a drainage channel running from north to south; Room D2, the iwan; and Room D3, the kitchen storage room. These rooms correspond to their counterparts in Sector B but with some differences in size.

The walls of the kitchen at Tell Mozan are distinguished by their construction, with stone foundations and mudbrick upper sections. The kitchen is connected to adjacent sectors and the outside through two doors: one on the northern side, leading directly to a courtyard, and another connecting Room D2 (the iwan) to Room C7, the control room in the service quarter.

At Tell Arbid, the kitchen is a small, irregularly shaped room with an area of 2.80 square meters, sufficient for only one or two people at most. No door to the room was found, but it is believed that the entrance was located on the northern side, where there is evidence of a later blockage, visible as vertical cracks in the wall. The kitchen shares a connection with another room used as an ash dump to the west by a wall but there is no direct passage between them and also with the adjacent southern temple or the ceremonial courtyard.

It is widely accepted that the kitchen at Tell Mozan was designated for a specific family or social class, particularly for the royal family and palace staff, especially those in the service quarter. This is evidenced by the large quantity of pottery jars distributed throughout the rooms in the service quarter, particularly in the storage area of Sector B.

In contrast, the kitchen at Tell Arbid appears to have been intended for the service of the southern temple, suggesting it was used as a “kitchen” during the temple’s operational period (see Bieliński, P. 2007) or for the ceremonial courtyard to the west of the kitchen. Its small size, combined with the kitchen’s equipment and the pottery assemblage discovered, supports this interpretation.

The uniqueness of the kitchens at both sites stems from their contents and the relationships between these contents themself. Both kitchens contained fire installations. If we consider a specific phase of their use (the contemporary phase), we observe that in the kitchen at Tell Mozan, there is one tannur and one hearth. The tannur is relatively small compared to those discovered at Tell Beydar and Tell Brak. At Tell Beydar and Tell Brak, multiple tannurs were found, suggesting these were public ovens (neighbourhood ovens) even if they were potentially managed by the ruling authority.

In contrast, the kitchen at Tell Arbid features only a single hearth with no tannur. While tannurs have been discovered at Tell Arbid, notably one at Site 12, it is likely that this was part of a courtyard or an open platform, with no evidence suggesting its use as a kitchen.

Archaeological evidence at both sites indicates that the kitchens underwent two different phases of use, as reflected by seal impressions, pottery, and architectural modifications. At Tell Mozan, several seal impressions related to Queen Taram-Agade were found, including an impression on a sherd from a jar with a neck. The large quantity of pottery fragments belonging to jars with straight necks found on the floor of Room D1 suggests active use of these jars by the occupants of the kitchen or palace.

Additionally, modifications in the kitchen’s architecture are evident, such as the construction of a secondary wall over the northern wall of Room D1, extending 150 cm above the original wall. This secondary wall is distinguished by its smooth, greyish bricks, built over the original wall made of red bricks and stone at the base.

Another piece of evidence is the presence of a single, grey-buff brick among the bricks forming the threshold between Rooms D1 and D2. The threshold is made up of a line of three bricks: the side bricks are red, while the middle brick is gray. This matches the previous observation regarding the northern wall of Room D1, where the color variation of the bricks aligns with these findings.

The discovery of the tannur and hearth in the lower work area of A6 strongly suggests that this area was used as a kitchen within building AK, particularly given a large amount of pottery and bone fragments found, as well as ash in the middle of Room D1 and towards the northern wall. The floor of this room included pottery sherds of various types, including small jars, pots with crescent handles, plates, and large storage jars. Additionally, grains and basalt grinding stones were found on the floor. The presence of grains inside the room indicates small storage facilities or containers specifically for grains, as evidenced by the sherds of hole-mouth storage jars found in the kitchen.

Notably, the hearth is made from the same material as the tannur, highlighting the complementary relationship between these installations. The hearths were used for heating, cooking, and lighting. However, the association with the tannur at Tell Mozan and additional evidence such as pottery sherds unequivocally indicate that the primary function was cooking, particularly given the discovery of legume seeds in the ash inside the hearth.

The archaeological record does not show the presence of pebbles or pottery sherds beneath the hearth, unlike the hearth at Tell Arbid, which had a layer of fine pebbles mixed with clay beneath the burnt clay of the hearth. The presence of pebble and pottery sherds likely facilitated water drainage and prevented accumulation under the hearth, which is important to avoid excessive moisture that could degrade the burnt clay or reduce the hearth’s efficiency. Thus, the absence of this feature at Tell Mozan does not negate the hearth’s use for cooking. The reason for the lack of this technique at Tell Mozan is likely due to the presence of an efficient drainage system running alongside the tannur and hearth, a feature not present in the kitchen at Tell Arbid.

Hole-mouth cooking pots were the most common type found at Tell Arbid. These pots were equipped with crescent-shaped or horizontal handles beneath the rim, a characteristic also observed in the kitchen at Tell Mozan. At Tell Mozan, numerous globular cooking pots with hole-mouth and rounded bases were found. The rounded base facilitated easy placement on the hearth. Additionally, there were cooking pots with two handles attached to the rim, as well as medium-sized pots with pierced handles. These cooking pots were made from clay mixed with straw (Chaff Tempered ware), a technique that matches the pottery found in the kitchen at Tell Arbid, where similar pots were produced using the same technique (see Smogorzewska, A. Reiche, A. 2013).

The large quantities of bone fragments discovered in the kitchen at Tell Mozan suggest that the space was used not only for food preparation but also for consumption. These dietary remains reflect food practices that included handling food after preparation, encompassing both its consumption and disposal. In contrast, no bone or plant remains were found in the kitchen at Tell Arbid, indicating that this kitchen was used solely for food preparation and cooking, with consumption occurring elsewhere.

This contrast between the two kitchens highlights differences in living patterns at the respective sites during that period. It suggests that Tell Mozan was a permanent settlement with more resources and an environment that allowed for the versatile use of space, supporting a more settled lifestyle, particularly given the kitchen’s connection to the royal palace of the Kingdom of Urkesh.