Function

Yasmine Mahmoud – September 2025

Background

The excavations of J4 aimed to achieve three goals:
1- To verify a specular arrangement for the temple terrace monumental staircase, by exposing apossible continuation of the J2 Apron in J4.
2- Determin if the same depositional situation found in J1 and J2, is also present in J4, meaning that the 3rd millennium layers are situated right beneath Mittani layers.
3- To better understand the situation east of the monumental staircase, and learn more about the activities in that area.
The results of the one season excavation revealed asymmetry instead of specularity, and confirme the same depositional situation found in J1 and J2. The comprehensie understanding of J4 was better clarified by the excavations of J6 in the following years.

Architecture

We cannot speack of real architecture in J4. the area consists of mainly accumulation layers, with very few structures pertaining to the use period of the space.

The bin installation

f93 A semi-cercular structure of bricks and stone foundation and pebble floor, belonging to the Middle Mittani use period. The function of the bin is still not clear, as it is located very close to the sacred area, despit the fact that the monumental access was no longer visible when it was constructed. The bin was empty, and the hypothesis of the storage function still stands despite not finding any stored items there.

The eastern bound of the revetment wall

^Wall1 is the aggregation of lime stones that were thought to represent the eastern Aperon (the photo to the right), forming a specular arrangement with the Apron in J2. After the examination, it is more palusible that this wall forms the eastern bound of the temple terrace as the continuation of he revetment wall (the photo to the left).

f10 was built during the Imperial Akkadian period and remained visible until the Mittani period. The assumption of f10 as an Apron was drawn from the similarities in building techniques for both structures. However, there was no continuation of the structure in K71, nor did it continue south into K72 as it should have if it really was an Apron. This arrangement place this structure higher than the Apron in J2. The excavations in J6 revealed that f218 is part of f10 (or f219 as it was labeled in J6 or ^Wall12 as a specific label in J6), and together they form the eastern side of the revetment wall, revealing a tendency towards asymmetry.

Objects

The ceramics that were recovered from the layers covering or abutting these two structures are important because they date significant and unique stratigraphical situation. ^Wall1, a third millennium structure, is covered and autted directly by Mittani materials. A situation which was confirmed by the sounding in K100 where the third millenium layers are covered directly by Mittani. The ceramics also made clear that the use period of the area (even though it was not extensive), was the Mittani period, to which, all the structures pertain.

Fnctional use

The function of this area is clearly not sacred, despite being adgacent to the sacred space. It is proaly related to a servvice quarter of some sort, for the sacred space, as it was kept clean in the use period of the sacred space as evident from the excavations and cermics.