J6

The Eastern End of the Plaza and the Betili (Version 1a)

J6 Synthetic View / Stratigraphy

Emplacement for Unit J6

Patrizia Camatta – August 2010, December 2024

Principles

A discussion and explanation of how stratigraphy works within the Urkesh Global Record can be found in the grammar. In this section main features are described as they were found, avoiding interpretations of function, typology and chronology, which are discussed under deposition and typology. Emplacement is the static aspect of stratigraphy, it explains how things are in the ground at the moment of they are exposed. It aims to observe, document and describe all elements we find during excavation. The defining criterion is the orientation of the components, the way the elements appear to us when seen in place. On this basis we can distinguish different elements: surfaces, build-up, amorphous amassment and ordered aggregation.

Elements

Topsoil

Topsoil is the upper ca. 20-30 cm of the Tell surface. It is characterized by being a dusty soil including roots, stones but also some pottery and modern material. A good exaple of topsoil is f5.

Layering or gradual build-up

Accumulations are the gradual build-up of debris and material due to human activity and, to some extent, the precipitation of natural debris such as dust and sand. For definition an accumulation is bounded by at least one wall and we can observe elements such as pottery sherds and small stones or pebbles, ash and organic particles with a horizontal angle of repose. In J6, 49% of the features excavated are accumulations, with a total of 148 elements within a total of 355. The upper 2 m of J6 were accumulations, interrupted by floors, amorphous amassments or layers. We recorded different types of accumulations. Accumulations due to the process resulting from human activities and natural accumulations. During excavation is not always possible to give the correct definition, therefore we often used the general definition accumulation, or we had to change the definition to define better its nature. The list of all accumulations can be found in typological index. In this section is given a summary of the most important ones.

1. accumulation ^a1: The upper layers (about 2 meters) directly found unter the topsoil are characterized by the presence of small rooths, small stones and some pottery and animal bones. Few q-items were found in these accumulations. The soil is brown and soft, the elements contained in it form an inert matrix. The area is abandoned, the elements present in this accumulation such as pottery and objects are washed down from other parts of the tell.

Amorphous amassment

The elements that define a feature as amourphous amassment is the random alignment of inclusions. The collapse of a building, the dump of material in a pit are examples of this category. More than 10% of the features excavated in J6 belong to this category.

Dump

In J6 two dumps were recordered:
1. With ^dump1 the matrix of the features changes drastically. Within the features included in ^dump1 we observed the masive presence of pebbles, animal bones, large stones and pottery sherds. The dump was found in all the southern portion of J6 (k65, k74, k75, k84, k85, k86, k87), under accumulation ^a1.

2. A second dump in J6 is represented by ^dump2. It includes f200, f306 and f293, characterized by a soft red soil with ash lenses and a large presence of pottery, clay lumps with seal impressions, tannur peaces, objects, bones, and kilin waste. This dump was found directly unter pit f192 and covered wall f227 and glacis f300 (see also section w206)

^dump2

Fill

Four pits were excavated in J6. In this section are described the fills. For the pit cut see section below “cut”.

f87	fill of a small round pit f92 cutting the brickfall. The pit was filled with a soft and fine brown reddish soil with pottery sherds.
f142	is the fill of pit cut f122. The soil was soft, grey and ashy with several almost horizontal layers. It contained a large quantity of sherds, some complete vessels and animal bones and a small jar i11, seal impression q231.2 and sealing i12. It cuts the brown reddish layer f151.
f192	The large pit f199 was filled with different layers of reddish brown, brown and gray soil. The soil was soft and sligtly wet and ashy. The soil contained a proper amount of carbon, animal bones, a broken tannur f220, a large amount of pottery, roofing material, bricks, kilin waste, lithic and clay artefacts. Pit f282 removed the norther portion of the fill.
f282	The fill of cut f283 is similar to fill f192. Is a brown wet soil with some roofing material, tannur peaces and some pottery sherds.

Collapse

A collapse of one or more buildings comes from east of J6 and covers almost all J6 and the lower portion of J2. The boundaries of the brickfall are sharp and defined, especially the bottom of it, which is bonded by ^glacis1. The glacis slopes toward south-west and while to the west there is an open free space (the plaza), the brickfall spread to the west and was not blocked. The matrix of the brickfall is well defined: the lower portion bf2 is about 1,5- m thick, consists mainly of complete to broken mud bricks, while the topmost portion bf1 is about 1 m thick and consists of melted mud bricks, due to its longer exposure to wind and water. See expecially section w300.

Ordered aggregation

Pattererned organization of components, along a horizontal and a vertical axis.

Walls

In this section the walls are described as they were excavated. There are 19 walls recorded in J6, 5 mudbrick walls and XY stone walls. Here are the mudbrick walls:

f76	Small portion of a mudbrick wall consisting of two visible rows of bricks. Between the bricks is gray mortar. The wall was found under brickfall f64 and was cut by pit f92.
f144	A mudbrick wall with NNW-SSE orientation at the extreme southern end of unit J6 in k87. The wall is one row high and is one meter in width for a preserved length of about one meter. The wall is cut by the trench k200. It follows the orientation of the structures found in Area C (se especially M 915 in A76 Nutzungsphase C7a, Bianchi et. al 2014, Beilage 2), which are NNE-SSW oriented. The wall was abutted by the brickfall f143.
f166	A mudbrick wall with NW-SE orientation in k74, about 2,5 m in length. Glacis f107. overlays it. The wall was exposed for a small portion, since we stop exavating here.
f233	A mudbrick wall with E-W orientation, preserved for 3-4 mudbricks in height (about 40 cm) and is 2,70 m in length and 1,20 m in width. The bricks are 40x40x10 cm large. The mudbricks are set on top of stones f201, used as base for the brick wall. The wall is the northern wall of bin a7.
f234	A mudbrick wall with a half moon plan. The wall is preserved for 2-3 mudbricks in height (about 20-30 cm) and is between 20 and 50 cm in width. The mudbricks are set on top of stones f197, used as base for the brick wall. The wall is the eastern and southern wall of bin a7.

Stone walls:

f201	7 medium and large limestones are set in a line with a ESE-NWN orientation, running 6 m in length. The wall is about 1 m in width and only one stone high, set on top of f203. The wall is used as base for mudbrick wall f233
f197	The wall is crescent-shaped when viewed in plan. The eastern part of the wall consists of small to medium sized limestone blocks, 1-2 stones high and about 20-30 cm wide. The southern part of wall f197 is oriented NNW-SSE, parallel to wall f201, and consists of 8 medium to large stones, about 4 m long and 20 cm to 1 m wide (depending on the width of the stone).The wall is the substructure for mudbrick wall f234
f84	a line of 7 small and medium size limestones with NNW-SSE orientation, 3 m long and 50-80 cm in width, located in the eastern portion of J6 in k64
f130	Wall with NNE-SSW orientation flanking the staircase in J2 for all its length. The wall is 12,67 m long, 1,58 m wide at the base and 1,20 m wide at the top. It starts at the southern side with two stones set in oblique fashion (Betili f100, f177, and stone f186) and ends abutting wall f218. The eastern face of the wall is exposed up to the base in a deep sounding. Here the wall is 8 courses high (2,85 m). The northern end of the wall is only 1,80 m high and rests on top of a mudbrick wall (f324). The masonry consists of medium-sized (20-50 cm wide, 15-40 cm high) irregular and angular shaped bloks, roughly dressed and with flat sides, set in horizontally laid courses with mortar betwheen the joints. The topmost course of stones is f127
f127	Wall with NNE-SSW orientation laid on top of the first southern 7 m of wall f130. It consists of large and medium sized angular and rougly shaped stones (50-100 cm long, 20-70 cm high) resting on top of a 20-60 cm thick layer of mud mortar.
f152	A patch of 5 medium sized rough stones laid in mud murtar. Two stones are located 50 cm to the east, probably part of a wall with NW-SE direction. The wall is about 2 m long and 1 m in width.be Wall with NNE-SSW orientation laid on top of the first southern 7 m of wall f130. It consists of large and medium sized angular and rougly shaped stones (50-100 cm long, 20-70 cm high) resting on top of a 20-60 cm thick layer of mud mortar (f324).
f102	A patch of 5 medium sized rough stones laid in mud murtar. Two stones are located 50 cm to the east, probably part of a wall with NW-SE direction. The wall is about 2 m long and 1 m in width.be Wall with NNE-SSW orientation laid on top of the first southern 7 m of wall f130. It consists of large and medium sized angular and rougly shaped stones (50-100 cm long, 20-70 cm high) resting on top of a 20-60 cm thick layer of mud mortar (f324).

terrace walls f99 staircase flank wall: f127, f152 (f152+f102), f247, f101 f128 f129 f130 revetment wall: f218, f219 courtain wall: f227 f233 f299

unknown mittani walls: f144, f166 mudbrick

unknown early mudbrick Walls f324

Area C2 :f24+27 in K100

Escarpment

^glacis3 and ^glacis4, layed east of ^wall6. It is a thick band (50 cm to 2 meters thick and found for a length of 13 meters) of amorphous material, with a characteristich red-orange coloration, due to the source of the earth (coming outside the city, where still today the earth has a red coloration). Characteristics of this feature is the presence of lot of mud bricks. Its surface was well defined and visible for a long time.

Glacis

Horizontal surfaces

compaction or juxtaposition along a single plane

Cut

Four pits were excavated in J6. The fills are described above.

1. A small round pit f92, about one Meter in diameter, cuts the brickfall f92. The pit was filled with f87.
f142.
2. f122 cut into f151 and filled with f142. The pit has a Northeast-Southwest orientation, is about 1,60 m long, 0,67 m wide and about 80 cm deep. The remaining part of the pit was excavated as J4f136.
3. The oval pit cut f199 is Nort-South oriented and is 6 m long and 3,60 m wide for a depth of about 30-50 cm. It cuts dump f200, glacis f192 and wall f227. The pit is filled with ashy soil f192.
4. f283 is 1,5 m in diameter about 30 cm in depth, filled with f282. It cuts pit fill f192 and glacis f275.

J6