“Una manciata di secoli,”
Bollettino dell'Associazione Archeologica Ticinese 6, pp. 16-23.
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The quotation of famous verses of the Italian poet E. Montale opens this paper, describing “una manciata di secoli [a handful of centuries]” (p. 17), namely around 43, hiding the materials of ancient Urkesh/Tell Mozan.
Here, more than 650 sealings have been discovered, presenting very peculiar style, with a strong characterization of personages.
The paper describes the activities during 1995 and 1996: the first one has been thought mainly as a study season, while during the latter year two more sealings were firstly found and later the storehouse (secondly recognized as the Royal Palace]) was investigated, presenting a monumental entrance (ca. 22 m in length).
The identification of Tell Mozan with ancient Urkesh was indeed noteworthy, since it was a mythical city and the only Hurrian capital discovered, so far.
The team of archaeologists was joined this year also by some scholars from the 'Associazione Archeologica Ticinense', the 'Facoltà di Teologia di Lugano' (Swiss), and other institutions: in detail, P. Pozzi was in charge for the drawing of the materials; R. Hauser started the publication of the clay figurines from the Royal Palace (helped by C. Wettstein in the graphic documentation); A. Frigerio was responsible for the study of pottery; all the efforts aimed at better clarifying many functions of the palatial areas and the subsequent abrupt abandonment.
In a very short time, a thousand-year history (covered and hidden by earth) was unveiled.
[M. De Pietri – November 2019]