2014
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“... Nor North: The Urkesh Temple Terrace,”
in P. Butterlin et al., Mari, ni Est, ni Ouest, Beirut: Institut français du Proche-Orient, pp. 441-461.
See full text
The monumental Temple Terrace [see, for an overview] is the topic of this paper, focusing on EDIII and Mittani period [cf. Buccellati F. 2010; Buccellati G. 2005; Buccellati G. 2010; Buccellati and Kelly-Buccellati 2009 and Patrizia Camatta's PhD dissertation, FU-Berlin], adding new results on structures pertaining the fourth millennium BC [cf. Buccellati and Kelly-Buccellati 2007 and Kelly-Buccellati 2010].
After a presentation of the 'classical formulation' of the monumental complex, the authors move to describe the 'Mittani twilight' and then ceramic distribution from EDIIIa to Mittani; the fourth-millennium terrace is further outlined, together with fourth-millennium glyptics and ceramics.
Two final sections are devoted to the discussion of 'echoes of the mountain hinterland', underlining the connections between Urkesh and the surrounding mountainous area of the Tur-Abdin (stressing the strict connection of the city to mountains, also echoed by the presence of an 'architectural logogram' patterned along the revetment wall of the Temple Terrace [see Buccellati 2009]).
The very final section focuses further on defining the geographical and mental concept of 'North', asking “how North is North”, discussing the problem or Urkesh's ethnicity and origin, considering both the (Southern) Mesopotamian and the (Northern) Transcaucasian horizons.
[M. De Pietri – November 2019]
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