Loose materials in Unit A6

August 2025

Synopsis

This section addresses the loose materials found within Unit A6, including both natural and anthropogenic accumulations such as brick debris, collapse rubble from the palace walls, and varied fills containing pottery sherds, bones, and ash. These materials reflect different phases of use, including the period following the palace’s abandonment, and demonstrate the intermixing of natural and human-made deposits within the unit’s soil composition.

Discussion

The archaeological evidence in Unit A6 shows a variety of loose materials differing in texture and hardness, indicating multiple functions such as fill, burial deposits, and debris. The accumulations of bricks, bones, and sherds reflect phases of palace collapse and subsequent use of the space, particularly around tannurs and burial areas. Studying these materials provides deeper insight into the spatial history and evolving use of the unit over time.

Accumulations

Several accumulations were found in A6, some accumulations are anthropogenic (f138) and refer to the presence of isolated arrangements of bricks. Some resulted from the crumbling of the palace and were compacted to be tombs or the tannur walls in the time of abandonment of the palace. others are natural and they are mixed, where a series of semi-natural accumulations (f215, f302, f332) made of compact material, as fill accumulations full of sherds, stone and pebbles, and bricks, in addition to some that breached the late phase as pits of dirt or ash.

Layers

The presence of the layers in A6 is attested through intermixed layers of red and gray inclusions with no bricks, only parts of fallen bricks but a lot of bone and sherd.

Fills

The A6 fillings were different in texture, hardness, and material and can show us grave fills based on the pattern of stone and brick emplacement on top as in phase 4 and were used the material coming from the excavation of the pit itself (Sherds, bones, and ash). Some of the fillings were associated with installations in the palace i.e. the tannur and platform a4 from the phase of the AK building, the tannur contained various sherds, bone, and a layer of ash at the bottom. A large piece of material matching the oven wall was found inside the oven.

Collapse

The most important is the collapse of the palace walls (f.....) and the deposit of the fills with stones and not-flat sherds. and others packing below the tannurs with very few sherds or bones and a few pieces of oven/kiln waste and brick fragments were found.