“The Great Temple terrace at Urkesh and the lions of Tish-atal,”
Studies on the Civilization and Culture of Nuzi and the Hurrians 18, pp. 33-69.
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The report of the 18th excavation season (2005) at Tell Mozan is entirely devoted to the description and interpretation of the Temple Terrace, with a reconsideration of the two lion-shape statuettes of Tish-atal [see, for an overview].
Section 1 described the Temple Terrace and the main goals of the season, aiming at better understanding the development of the temple (from the postulated, and later confirmed, idea of tracing back to the mid-fourth millennium BC the first foundation of temple BA), to gain an interpretation of the god who was worshipped therein (i.e. the polyad god Kumarbi).
A history of the research is sketched, describing previous excavations on the High Mound (from 1984 to 2004), providing also the elevation of temple BA as 470.00 m on the sea-level (sub-sections 1.1 and 1.2); sub-section 1.3 focuses on 2005 activities, while sub-section 1.4 investigates the development and the structural components of the Temple Terrace: the escarpment, the Plaza JP, the revetment wall J5, the monumental access J2, the glacis and the temple BA itself (the present form attested at least from 2400 to 2350 BC [middle chronology]).
Section 2 describes the stratigraphy: firstly, sub-section 2.1 presents the strategy, while sub-section 2.2 offers a table summarizing all phases; sub-section 2.3 describes evidence of structures before 2400 BC; sub-section 2.4 focuses on the construction of wall and staircase around 2400 BC, while the following subparagraph (2.5) presents the structural integrity of revetment wall and glacis through 1400 BC; sub-section 2.5 deals with the gap between 2500 and 1500 BC, while sub-section 2.7 displays the situation around 1500 BC, with a reorganization of the area; sub-section 2.8 analyses the second-millennium inert sediment above the Plaza and sub-section 2.9 describes the scattered occupation after the end of Urkesh as sacral center (ca. 1300 BC).
Section 3 focuses on other structures related to the Temple Terrace (the revetment wall, the packing and the glacis, the escarpment.
Section 4 deals with the monumental staircase, presenting structural considerations, perceptual perspectives and projections, while section 5 focuses on the Plaza, considered as a sacred space.
Section 6 displays major objects from the Mittanian strata, such as the clay figure of pig/boar's snout [see here for pictures], ceramics from phase 1 strata, and Late Chalcolithic sherds.
Section 7 discusses two hypotheses dealing with the two lion-shaped statuettes of Tish-atal (revisiting their provenance and dating) and with the equation at Urkesh of NERGAL=Kumarbi, retracing (sub-section 7.9) the idea of an 'ideological landscapes'.
[M. De Pietri – November 2019]