A20 Topics

Introduction to season 21 (2008)

September 12, 2008 – Laura Ramos

The home for this page is A20

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Sequence of loci opened
Markers
Staff and workmen
Goals and results
Items
Installations
Structures

Sequence of loci opened

     Unit A20 was opened this season north of area A18 after a hiatus of several years in area A, incorporating 11 loci of which only 8 were actively excavated. Midway into the season, A19 was incorporated (old J1 west) into A20 and was subsumed, meaning that A20 assigned new feature numbers to the area and excavated it as part of A20. We began the season with k2, k3, k12, k13 then opened up k15 a week later. A few weeks later k4 and A19 were subsumed followed by opening k25, k26 in week 4 but was stopped after one day due to insufficient time to excavate these loci.
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Markers

     The area is defined by the following marker points: from m4732 m4734 m3740 m3744 m3742 m4703 m4699 m3733 to m4732, this includes the loci that were not excavated k25, k26, k16 and area A19, oriented differently than A20. The starting elevations of A20 were quite high, within the 9400-9300 range with the loci arranged as 4x4 squares with a one meter north and east section into three rows. The southernmost loci row was numbered starting with k2, k3, k4, the next row to the north as k12, k13, k14, k15 and the northernmost row as k25, k26. The arrangement of the loci are positioned in sequence so that k2 is immediately south of k12, k3 south of k13, k4 south of k14.
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Staff and workmen

     A20 was under the supervision of myself, lR as main supervisor with lc as an associate and yM, SE, and eE as field assistants. Workmen assigned fluctuated over the season normally around 15 workmen of which 5 were pick men. The last week of the season, excavations in A20 were reduced keeping 6 workmen and efforts were mainly in locus k101.
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Goals and results

     A20 was opened to provide a link between area A (palace area) and area J (temple), and for horizontal exposure of the Mittani levels.
     Results of this year's campaign expanded the Mittani sequence to include 5 strata of occupation finding a stratigraphically complicated series of small rooms with stone pavements that appear to be terraced with the deepest floor at elevation 9068 and the highest at 9264.
     The western area of A20 was dated stratigraphically to the late Mittani, with a bin that may be a kiln, drainage channel, tannurs, platform, and other installations only partially excavated and presumably underneath this late level are earlier ones.
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Items

     The items found support that the western area was used as a production space with remnants of a metal vent (debris from casting metal) and several bronze items including a scraper, needle, and three pins all in the later level. In the new loci that were only excavated at the topsoil levels, a bronze arrowhead and pin were also found. A large amount of ash in the west, abutting the bricky remains of possible structures associated with firing activities such as kilns and ovens, also supports the area as a production space.
     Several samples of frit were also recovered in the area.
     A total of 8 figurines were found in the area, including an anthropomorphic plaque and a large equid figurine (head only), the size unusually large for a figurine.
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Installations

     A square bin containing semicircles similar to tannurs was found in the west along with three hard pavements containing lots of sherds (seen vertically only in section) and very compact bricky material that appears secondarily fired suggests that the bin may be a kiln used to fire figurines.
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Structures

     In the eastern half of A20, two rooms were found a1 and a5 with possibly a stone courtyard f108 (bordered by walls so could also be an indoor room), with another room beginning to emerge in k4 with two walls forming a corner. These all date to the early Mittani occupation. The floors from the early structures appear to have been cleaned out during the reuse period as few artifacts were recovered directly on these floors with the majority of the items found belonging to the later Mittani phases.
     During the reuse period, strata s14, a1 appears used as a production space involving stone work. Evidence to support this includes a large mortar stone i23, several large stone tools inside the structure and a stone file i17. A stone bead was found on a later pavement in k4 along with a stone basin i22 and a door socket in the ash from the later or middle occupation period. Back to top