https://urkesh.org / RECORD / J7 / CERAM

Unit Book J7

The Southeastern End of the Plaza (Version 1a)
J7 Synthetic View / Typology / Objects

Ceramics from Unit J7

Laerke Recht and Emilio Semidei – December 2025

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Methodology and corpus

Due to the special circumstances surrounding the excavation of J7, the methodology for collecting and analysing the ceramic material deviated from our usual procedure, and was selective rather than exhaustive. Thus, the ceramics included here and in the qp section should not be taken as the full corpus. Instead, the sherds here are a selection of diagnostic and decorated sherds.

The pottery of J7 consists of a total of 46 sherds, 35 have been identified as diagnostic shape sherds, while the remaining 11 are to be body sherds.

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Chronology

The sherds collected from J7 come from two strata: s122 (5 sherds) and s160 (22 sherds). The remaining 19 sherds have not been assigned to a stratum.

Stratum 160 belongs to phase h7j, which is a brickfall dated to the mid-Mittani period. Stratum 122 belongs in phase h7v, and is the natural accumulation on top of the brickfall. The sherds reflect typical Mittani-period ceramics.

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Wares

Most of the ceramic sherds from J7 belong to Chaff Tempered ware (CH, 22 sherds), with fewer sherds belonging to Fine Chaff Tempered ware (FC, 4 sherds), Red Orange Calcite Ware (RC, 9 sherds), and Fine Pebble Temper ware (FP, 2 sherds).

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Shapes

The few shape sherds from J7 nearly all belong to bowls (13) and jars (10). The bowls are mainly of the carinated and deep types, while the jars are necked or hole mouth. Other shapes represented by a single sherd each include a cup, a pot, and a stand.



Examples of bowls from J7:


Examples of jars from J7:

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Decoration

Various types of decoration are represented in the J7 corpus, typical of Mittani-period ceramics.

Examples of painted Mittani decoration:

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J7 ceramic review

All ceramic entries and drawings are reviewed based on our ceramic review procedure.

The ceramics for J7 was initially reviewed in 2012 by Caitlin Chaves Yates, and subsequently, in preparation for the publication of the digital book, by Laerke Recht and Emilio Semidei.

Considering the small size of the corpus, and the previous work already carried out, this procedure required few changes, mainly related to small corrections in the drawings and details of shape codes.

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