J6--sm

Processed on 2024-11-15

	Date	Author	Record
	2008-08-11	pC	After four complete weeks of excavation we reached in J6 a level were we can make some conclusions about the stratigraphy. First goal in J6, at the beginning of the season, was to find the continuation of wall f130. We excavated in k84, were we expected to find it, but we encountered a brickfall. The brickfall then came out to be everywere in the unit. We had to proceed slower in the excavation, because we did not expect to find it, even if in the East section of k200 was partly visible and in J2 there was a brickfall coming from East. We begin to look for a structure from which the brickfall was coming, but we found first brickmelt, which was a layer of compacted and hard surface of melted bricks spread everywhere in the unit and located at the same elevation (between 9100@ and 9070@ top elevation), and then we found the brickfall (between 9059@ 9015@ top elevation and 8950@ the bottom elevation): the bricks here were more recognizable and some of them still complete. At this point we decided to proceed faster in k85 and k84, were should be the wall f130 and we went slower in k74 and k75, were instead the brickmelt seemed to have a more organized shape. In k75 and k74 the excavation was for one week slow: we proceded carefully and looked for rows of bricks or elements which could indicate for a structure, as tannurs, andirons, concentration of vessels: we found in k74 these elements: there were lot of fragments of tannur, large kiln wastes, a lot of objects and a large amount of pottery, in some cases big sherds. We instead found no structure, but we reached in k85 and k84 the end of the brickfall, which covered the glacis. The glacis then came out in all the unit and there was a similar situation in all squares: the brickfall without interruption was almost everywhere 1 meter thick and covered the glacis. In the southern part of the unit, in k85 and k75, we found an ashy layer, f90 and f97, which was overlayed by the brickfall. The same ashy layer is visible all along the East section of k200 and above it there is a brickfall, which probably belongs to the same brickfall we encontered in J6. The ash directly under the brickfall let me think that there was a big event of burning or fire just before the collapse of a large structure or more structures to the South-East of J6. This event can be dated to the Mittani period and the structures which generated the brickfall can be dated to the beginning of mittani: all pottery fond above and inside the brickfall is mittani. The glacis which stopped the brickfall is early Mittani: we found the same glacis in J4 k73 J4f127 dated to Mittani. The glacis covers a large part of the area East of the wall f128, East of the staircase in J2, and was at the beginning of Mittani period free of structures, except for the bin. The glacis was made as a coating of the temple mound and allows the flow of the water to the South. The glacis stops to the West on the wall f127 and covers to the south the wall f130. Wall f130 will be the goal of the next two weeks and the glacis makes a sealing of what is under it. Above it there is the mittani brickfall, under it the stratigraphy and the chronology will change. [Input: S811PC.j]
	2008-09-02	pC	for the last week of excavation we decided to excavate only in k85 and k84: Under the ^glacis1 we found ^glacis2 and more mittani layers, were instead we expected to find Khabur or earlier. The main events that characterize these are the pit a3, just located under the ^glacis2 and cutting ^floor2: a thick accumulation f151 dated to the beginning of Mittani is located under the pit a3. At this point we expected to find wall f130, but instead we found only f151. We looked carefully for the red sloping accumulation which was excavated in season 2006 in J4 (J4f150), which we begin to suspect was the real boundary North-South, while we did not find the wall f130. We found the red accumulation at 9096@. This is f164, which we called ^glacis3. This glacis has a surface which slopes very sharply toward south and has a reddish-orange coloration with some brick inclusions; the pottery found in this feature was dated to Phase h33 (see comments on the pottery dating of f164 by mKB). It was probably cut or damaged at the beginning of mittani or earlier, while the surface in some points is irregular and mixed with f151. This glacis ends in f183, a very thin almost even layer in k85/k102. We decided to remove the west pseudo-baulk of k84 because we wanted to expose wall f130: we exposed the southern face of wall f130, which consists in 2 m almost freestanding stone wall; removing the pseudo-baulk we removed also ^wall3, which is a mittani rebuilding of wall f130 (^wall6); under this wall came out two obelisk, one of them was recognized already in the East section of J2. These obelisks are bounded to wall f130 and therefore date to the same period (a4). In front of this we found two floors: ^floor5 and ^floor6: these reflect the use of the area in front of installation a4 but also in front of the staircase. These floors were probably found also in k200, during the excavation of the German team in 2001. from their reports (Peter Phälzner MDOG 134, p156, 2002) above the steps of the staircase were found floors dated to Akkadian and Ur III. The floor dated to Ur III is related to the staircase and the wall f130, probably the same as ^floor6. We still do not understand why we have mittani directly above 3 millennium: one possibility is that at the beginning of Mittani were removed the layers between ^glacis3 and f151. This possibility is indicated by the cut on top of ^glacis3. A second possibility is that this area was not used between the end of third millennium and 1600 BC. The same lack of time is missing in front of the apron. These questions will have an answer in the next years. [Input: S907PC.j]