Unit Book A15

Amorphous Amassment

James L. Walker – May 2023

Summary
Fills
Gully
Isolated Stones

Summary

Typically “Amorphous Amassment” includes such features as fills, dumping and collapse. There are few of these because this part of the BA temple mound probably served a sacred purpose and was not a venue for residential and commercial activities. We have included two other categories of features. One is the gullies that were cut by water which flowed along the outside edge of the revetment walls. The other is the isolated stones found randomly scattered throughout the unit.

Fills

There were three fill features excavated. One was a foundations for a line of stones and two were fills in a pit, a1.

Gully

Gullies are ravines which have been cut into softer soil layers and floors by water which flowed with considerable force along the outside perimeter of revetment walls constructed in both the Early Dynastic and Mitanni periods. One example is f164.
There were three gully features excavated.

Isolated Stones

There were 26 isolated stones distributed randomly along the outside of the revetment wall and in the upper layers of soil covering the excavation. There is no indication that they were placed and no indication that they were used. We presume that they were carried down from deteriorating structures on the top of the temple mound by the same type of occasional flooding which cut the gullies. Feature f109 is a typical example; two unfounded stones sitting in isolation from architectural features.