Introduction

Back to top: Introduction

Principles

For an introduction to the basic principles of emplacement see the Grammar. For a full statistics, see here.

Back to top: Introduction

Horizontal surfaces

There were 19 surfaces excavated comprising 7 percent of the features excavated. There are 5 pavements defined by their composition and 14 floors generally defined by the degree of compaction.

The most significant pavement was f288 which was at the lowest level of the EDIII wall system.

The biggest surprise was that a Mittani pavement, f247, directly covered an EDIII pavement, f249.

Back to top: Introduction

Layering

There were 174 layers comprising 59 percent of the total features excavated.

• Accumulations were the most common either having been deposited as a result of human activity or by weathering.
  
• Volumetric material has no stratigraphic significance and is often material removed en mass from baulks.
  
• Layers, abbreviated versions of accumulations, were designated for about a tenth of the accumulations.
  
• Topsoil covered about half of the excavated loci, mostly those on the western side.
  
• Laminations were most prominent at the bottom of the water channel, indicating that the flow was periodic.
  

Back to top: Introduction

Amorphous amassment

There were 33 examples of features identified as amorphous amassments, (which groups deposits whose orientation is random) comprising 11 percent of the features excavated. Pit fills, a long gulley, and isolated stones constituted the corpus.

Back to top: Introduction

Ordered aggregation

The second largest number of features excavated were walls, their protective systems, and a ceremonial complex (49 or 23%).

• The earliest wall system was dated to the EDIII period. It consisted of high walls that highlighted the temple as well as protective escarpments and glacis.
  
• There were subsequent structures built to protect the wall including a dam.
  
• In the Mittani period the wall was extended to the west.
  
• By the mid-Mittani period the entire EDIII temple, wall, and plaza were covered with accumulation necessitating the construction of a new monumental stair case and revetment wall of reduced size.
  

Back to top: Introduction

Types of contact

Features that are in contact form the basis for identifying strata. There are five major groups that encompass all possibilities. Covers is the most common contact type having 39% of the total while abuts follows with 26 %.

• Accumulations, whether natural or man-made account for the majority of covers.

• Abuts is the building block for aggregating features. For example, pavement f288 abuts escarpment f265 which in turn abuts wall 267, and thus form part of a wall system.

• Except for pit fill, not many features Sit in another. However, items including ceramics universally sit in another feature, usually an accumulation.