Emplacement for Unit J6
Horizontal surfaces

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Introduction

In J6 are attested several surfaces, especially located in front of the staircase (plaza area). The type of horizontal surfaces are pavements (defined by discrete components) or floors (defined by soil compaction). In J6 are attested a series of surfaces defined by a slope (glacis).

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Surfaces defined by discrete components (pavements)

A pebble pavement f239 was found inside the bin a7, an Early Mittani structure.

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Surfaces defined by soil compaction (floors)

In J6 the most attested horizontal surfaces are floors, found especially in front of the monumental staircase during Early Mittani and the Akkadian and EDIII periods. During Early Mittani these floors are found also to the north of J6, where in this period the area is almost flat, whereas during the Third millennium is characterized by slopes (glacis) and obviously people were not walking here, but only in the area in front of the staircase. All floors are of outdoor areas, bonded by ^wall6 or by the monumental staircase. Some of these floors were not directly in contact association with those structures, while they were damaged and thus not found continuosly. We assume that they were originally in contact with the structures.

Several sherd floors ^floor2 were found directly under the ^glacis1, attesting that the area east of the monumental staircase, during Early Mittani, was used by people walking by.

The first floor dated to the Third Millennium is f171 which is a compacted surface found only in a small patch in direct contact to the obelisks f100 and f177
The next floor located in the same position is ^floor6.

A similar floor is to the latter is f277, followed by f303 and f312 which is the last floor found in J6 and the same floor was found in J2 f359: this floor is one of the first floors connected to the construction of the monumental staircase in J2, during the EDIII period.

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Surfaces defined by soil compaction with a defined slope (glacis)

The morphology of J6 is defined by being not a horizontal area. Several surfaces defined by a slope toward south-west are covering all J6. These are ^glacis1 and ^glacis2: they are surfaces because are thin layers of highly compacted soil with sherds lyng flat. The slope is gentle in almost all the surface, except directly to the south and west of ^wall6, where there is a sharp slope toward south-west.

Another surface with a characteristic slope toward south-east is represented by ^glacis3and ^glacis4: they are thick bands of an amorphous ammassment, almost as a dump, which was exposed for a certain time and appeard as a surface sloping up.

The earliest surfaces of the temple mound were found under ^wall6. They are ^glacis9, ^glacis10, ^glacis11: they have all a compact and hard surface and slope toward south-east.