Typology of the built environment in unit A16
Installations

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Synopsis

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Discussion

Back to top: Typology of the built environment in unit A16 Installations

Storage and trash pits

Many pits were excavated mainly during phase 5h^AAH when the area was an open space, where not only pits, but also pit graves, and cooking installations such as tannur were used. It is difficult to establish the function of some A16 pits. Some information can be inferred from the size of the pit. The fill in some cases is incoherent and constituted of pure trash, dirt, (bones, sherds, ashes, burnt material) so we can assume, a trash function, but in some cases it is clear that storage pits were later filled by trash. Elements related to storage pits could be the remains of hundreds of seeds, or the presence of specific elements as plaster on the pit walls, unfortunately not found for the A16 pits. The pits are mixed with burials, and they don’t look to be gathered in any one area rather than in another one. Trash/storage pits (f250, <a f273, f298, f299, f295) are very shallow and their function is unclear.

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Built-up burials

Several built-up burials were found. They don’t seem to have a organized plan for their disposition. The orientation, the typology, the dimensions are often different. Some burials (a6, a9, maybe a10 if it is a tomb) are vaulted. a6 have a vaulted arch gateway on the eastern wall, a9 has a kind of small corridor and an entrance not in axis. a10 is only partially excavated, the dimensions are small to be an house, the entrance is to the south with a small rectangular doorway. The structures do not look aligned. Room a1, very eroded, is not perfectly aligned with a2, a6, a9 and its dimensions are quite bigger than the other, moreover it shows a later rebuilding.

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Pit graves

Pit graves were used mainly during phase 5h^AAH, when about 10 graves were excavated. The pit shape is irregular, sometimes squared or circular. The depth of the pit varies, the body usually lays in fetal position. The jar burials have smaller pits, and sometimes (f304 and f305) no observable pit attested. The pit graves were excavated in the reddish bricky material from the Palace collapse, and some times even the pavement large stones were removed. It does not seem (except maybe for only one case) that any pit cut earlier pit graves, so probably, since they were also dug in a relatively short period, the graves were in some way visible.

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Tannurs

Five tannurs are found in A16. Hearth f89 and tannur f102 are located in open space a8, helping to identify this structure as an open outdoor living area. There is a possibility that the tannurs could have been used for funerary ritual (we should find comparisons, moreover they are found associated only in this case. The other burials in A16 don’t have tannur associated). Two other tannurs (a14 and f180) were built when the area worked as open area, showing a very diversified use, with trash pits, cooking installations and burials in a restricted area, and mixed with each other. So the area does not present a high level of organization, as it shown by other units.