Function

James L. Walker – August 2025

Background

Unit J5 had two main goals in the two years of active excavation:

to follow the EDIII monumental revetment wall (previously excavated as part of unit J1) to the north, and to determine the nature of the relationship of the components of that part of the wall system
to verify the geomagnetic survey data which showed that there might be a northern boundary to the ceremonial plaza in this general location, possibly through a link with a substantial building associated with the palace.

We found that the monumental wall indeed turned to the north and was overlaid by a Mittani replica of the EDIII wall, EDIII staircase, and EDIII plaza.

Architecture

There are two major architectural elements to analyze: the changes to the revetment wall through time; and the new Mittani monumental entrance to the BA temple.

Revetment Wall

[Please add “target=”C”” as I did for the first link, so that the links open to the side of the page: one can then follow your argument better.]

The revetment wall had at least three iterations:

The top of an earlier wall lies just beneath the lowest layer of stones in the EDIII wall. See t241. When first excavated, we thought that they were “gap fillers” contemporary with the EDIII wall but ceramics found in contact with earlier wallf284 were from an earlier period.
The extant EDIII wall was constructed in at least two phases. The earliest section, f41, seen after the turn north, and a later section, f189, facing east and nearest to the other monumental structures. See t226. Ceramics analysis does not reveal the timing, but the gap in the stone escarpment along the base of f189 but not f41/a shows f189 was built later, perhaps due to a collapse of the original wall.
In the Mittani period, all of the EDIII monumental architecture became covered and a new revetment wall was built as part of a new temple access to the west of the original. Toward the end of the Mittani period, even this wall became covered and a faux wall of memory stones was laid on soil.
Components of the Mittani staircase (for example f20) rested on some of the top stones of the EDIII revetment wall, f41. See t129. In order to preserve the entire Mittani BA temple entrance we did not remove the staircase to trace the EDIII wall to its western end. However, the fact that f20 rested on f41 indicates that the top stones of the EDIII revetment wall in that area had not yet been covered as the western entrance was being constructed. Further, it is evidence that the wall area was kept clean during the long interval between the end of EDIII period and the Mittani period and was not used for other purposes during that time.

Western Temple entrance

We had assumed that the Early Dynastic entrance to the temple mound (see J2t206) remained in continuous use into the Mittani period. But there is ample evidence to indicate that the ED III entrance and the plaza were gradually covered with natural accumulations, necessitating the construction of a new plaza and entrance to the west. (See t123).

Basically the new entrance is similar but not identical to the original. There are five steps in the stairway which is built of ashlars. Compared to the EDIII stairway the Mittani stairway is relatively wide and probably incorporates an apron. There is a wall, f3, which intersects perpendicularly and that was built directly on a portion of the EDIII wall, f41. The stairway is bordered on the west by a line of stones, while on the east it is bordered by a more complex stone structure, ^wall 1^. There is a new plaza built directly to the south of the staircase.

As there is no contact either in time and space between the EDIII and the Mittani entrances, the origin of the plan for the Mittani entrance is not clear. If the EDIII structure was covered gradually there must have been some standard plan likely documented by a tablet. If the covering was rapid, the plan could have been directly remembered. The small differences in design may have been occasioned by resource limitations.

Objects

Ceramics were the only significant artifacts excavated in the vicinity of the revetment walls. A substantial corpus of ceramics has been recovered from various areas of the tell and incorporated into regional periodizations. Significant deposits were found outside the wall faces (see t217) and analyzed for relative dates. The result showed that there was a sharp transition between EDIII accumulation f280 and Mittani accumulation f258. Although in contact despite being from non-adjacent periods, these two features offer support to the proposition that the area immediately outside the revetment walls was not used for profane purposes and in fact was kept clean even as the EDIII sacred structures were being covered with accumulations from subsequent periods.

Functional use

The overwhelming function of the structures excavated was sacred. Analyses conducted in unit J2 and in area JP will explain in detail how the EDIII structures were used. The EDIII structures in J5 were in direct contact with others in J1, J3, and J2 and therefore could be assumed to have a sacred function in association with the BA temple. The one exception is that there was a short section of pavement, f288 that extended out away from the f189 wall that had accumulations with ceramic inclusions.

Early in the Mittani period there were structures built against the revetment walls. One was a staircase leading to the top of the EDIII wall, another was a dam built to control water flow, and a third was a groin built to move flowing water away from the walls. All three served to protect the wall system and had no other function.

The western expansion of the temple access stairway and plaza in the late Mittani period clearly duplicated the earlier sacred functions of their EDIII counterparts.