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Introduction
This section outlines the depositional history as we understood it while romoving the soil covering the structures and after reviewing the stratigraphical reletions of the individual features and materials found within them. This interpretative section is the result of long discussions with the excavation directors Giorgio Buccellati, Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati and Federico Buccellati and all the field members of our excavation teams from the 2008-2009 seasons and the study season of 2010.
J6 is the eastern limit of the Temple Terrace. It is defined by the revetment wall and the east staircase wall. The elevation in J6 is higher than elswhere in the JP area. J6’s morphology is characterised by a slope which, during the Late Akkadian Period, reaches its highest point directly south of the revetment wall at 91.00, and its lowest point at the plaza level at 89.00. Early Mittani levels are found on top of strata from the late Third Millennium. The Early Second Millennium is here not attested, even though there are structures dated to this period south of J6 in Area C2 and we found a lot of Khabur ceramics mixed in Mittani strata. The absence of Khabur levels can be attributed to the slope that is characteristic of the J6 morphology, leading to the erosion of the intermediate strata.
This section is more interpretative than the section chronometry, in which the stratigraphic sequence, i.e. the clustering of elements according to their contact association. The main events that affected J6 are grouped into 5 stages.
LINK TO STAGE IN GRAMMAR
For each stage there is a desription of the event with a schemathic section.
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Stage 5 Post abandonment (Mdille Assyrian-Modern)
From the middle of the Mittani period onwards this part of the Temple Terrace was abandoned: a thick layer of natural accumulations (light blue) with floating stones cover all this portion of the tell. The lower levels of accumulations presents a good presence of ceramics and objects, so that human presence in the area is attested. In the adjacent areas we record new modification and use phases at the Temple Terrace (especially J2, J3 and J5).
stage 5 CHANGE IMAGE
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Stage 4a Great Brickfall (Middle Mittani)
During the middle of the Mittani period (light green) there is a collapse of buildings coming from the southeast of J6. The brickfall covered the glacis and the bin a7. This collapse expanded to the west, covering the plaza directly in front of the monumental staircase. The reason for the collapse is not clear, but just before it occurred there was a fire. We found a thick lens of ash everywhere under the brickfall: it is possible that the area burned and afterwards the structures collapsed. The brickfall caused the blocking of the the eastern side of the plaza, which, until the collapse, was an open space in front of the Temple Terrace. This area had been kept clean and free during the Third Millennium until the early Mittani.
stage 4a CHANGE IMAGE
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Stage 4 Reorganization of space (phase h7d-h7a-J6A)
The very beginning of Mittani (indicated here in green) is still not clear in J6, since it was not extensively excavated: in this stage we have a thick layer of a very wet and organic layer, plenty of pottery, charcoal and beads (glacis 5) interrupted by patches of ashes; this layer sits directly on top of Third Millennium layers. The rapid growth of sedimentation in this portion of the tell gives indication of a large presence of structures the south and east of the plaza. A surface sloping to the south east (^glacis1) covers the area and a shallow wall f202 is located on top of the glacis, at the same position of wall f227, which slightly later is used as base for the mudbrick bin a7, the last evidence of activities in J6. It was found empty and several use floors are associated to it.
stage 4
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Stage 3a Pit(phase h5c-h5d-J6A)
During this stage in yellow (Late Third Millennium BC) a shallow pit filled with ashes, carbon and large sherds cuts ^glacis3 and ^glacis8. Its function is not clear, but is probably related to activities in the neighborhood.
stage 3a
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Stage 3 Glacis(phase h4n-h3t-J6A)
An earth and bricky thick band (here in orange) (glacis and glacis) is dumped directly east of the staircase flanking wall and south of the Revetment Wall (in bright red). Screen Wall f227 is compleatly covered. A floor consisting in a compact surface with small pebbles and some sherds it can be associated to this phase: this floor is located very close to the staircase and in front of its eastern edge, continuing in front of the staircase and apron in J2 (J2f359).
stage 3
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Stage 2 Construction and use of Staircase and Revetment Wall (phase h3s-h3m-J6A)
Phase h3m-J6A (red color) is the major building phase for the Temple Terrace, where great monumentality is achieved. The revetment wall ^wall12 encloses the eastern side of the Temple Terrace; the staircase is built together with the revetment wall and wall6, built directly on top of the mound surface of stage 1. First accumulations are coming south of screen wall f227 and of wall6. In this period the area south of the staircase, the plaza, is intensively used: several floor surfaces were found both in J2 and J6 (v138).
stage 2
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Stage 1 Traces of earlier use (phases h3l-J6A)
The Late Chalcholithic phase in J6 is still not excavated but we can suppose from indication in other areas of JP that the Temple Terrace has a LC phase (see J1 and J3). In J2 there are three steps underlying the Third Millennium staircase and it is tempting to ascribe those steps to an earlier structure similar in function. In J6 there are a series of surfaces sloping south east, here indicated in maroon ^glacis9 and ^glacis10, which are located under the staircase flank ^wall6. A mudbrick wall ^wall13 could be a structure of this early period.
stage 1
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