| Roster |
Date |
Author |
Record |
| Argument |
2009-08-08 |
jW |
Many pieces of circumstantial evidence indicate that the revetment wall system was built atop earlier structures which rose to the west and north of J1. Occasional heavy rains produced a water flow along the west and south faces of the wall which eroded the escarpments and forced them to be rebuilt (J1 escarpment 2, f239).
One such area that was constantly subject to erosion was the south wall face near the current juncture of J1 and J5. Although we have not excavated into the wall base, we hypothesize that erosion occurred frequently here. In the first phase of wall use, it was protected by a stone escarpment, f188 and f225. which extended south and down from the south face of the revetment wall, f189. Later, a second escarpment (f184 and perhaps f241). It may have been due to erosion affecting the stone escarpment or for decorative effect.
Based on a J1 section of this escarpment, we expected to see it made of a solid, tapering mass of baqaya. What we have found so far in J5 is a series of layers which alternate between dense, red material and softer gray material. Near the bottom are layers of sherds, f242. Each layer can be clearly seen in N-S and E-W sections of f241 about a meter south of the wall face.
The question is how f241 was formed.
[Input file: T801JW1.j]
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| Procedures |
2009-08-08 |
jW |
We will determine the nature of the relationship between f241 and 184 by digging a narrow trench from the exposed south face of f241, northward to the revetment wall face. The west face of the section should resolve the issue. If the layers of f241 came from accumulation, then we should encounter a solid baqaya face for f184 before we reach the wall. It the layers resulted from construction, they should extend to the wall face.
[Input file: T801JW1.j]
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| Options (alternatives) |
2009-08-07 |
jW |
This feature consistes of alternate layers of hard red and softer grayish soil, interspersed at the bottom by layers of sherds, one of which is f242. It could be one of two things: either a series of accumulations which lay against the second escarpment, f184, or the second escarpment itself, comprised of layers instead of a single mass of baqaya. Later we will cut a trench into f241 toward the revetment wall, f189, to see if we can resolve this dilemma.
[Input file: T807JW.j]
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| 2009-08-08 |
jW |
The first possibility is that for a time, water flow was dammed in the western part of J1 and the layers are the result of accumulation and sherd placement which hardened before the next weather event. The second is that f184 is a continuation of f241 and that it was purposely built in layers over a short period of time.
Regardless of how or why they were built, the first and second escarpment systems (^esc1 and ^esc2)appear to have successfully protected the revetment wall from the Early Dynastic period into the Mittani period (some 1,000 years). In the Mittani period, the second escarpment was damaged. This damage can be seen in the west section of k106. Then, the Mittani builders attempted to protect the wall by building a series of pebble floors (f247, f249) which appear to abut the stones of the stone escarpment, ^esc1, and slope down to the south from it. Eventually, they lost control of the water problem and the lack of maintenance caused debris to fill the plaza and cover the revetment wall, f189.
[Input file: T801JW1.j]
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| Evolution |
2009-08-08 |
jW |
The staffs from J1 and J5, gB, and fAB have discussed the evolution of wall protection systems from the time that the revetment wall, f189, was built, through the various additions, through the Mittani remodeling, to abandonment. Within a given phase the protections system may also have varied according to its relative position along the wall and what destructive elements were acting on it. The highest part of the earliest extant revetment wall (in J1) is high founded and the base is protected by a baqaya projection (J1 escarpment 1, J1f196) which tapers to the south into the plaza. At the wall base it covers the first row of stones.
[Input file: T801JW1.j]
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