Overview of Unit K1

General description of the unit

Laerke Recht – November 2024, March 2025

Introduction

Area K was one of two small areas of excavation during the first two seasons of IIMAS work at Tell Mozan, along with surface surveys on the High Mound and in the Outer City. Unit K1 was excavated in order to identify and understand the nature of the City Wall at the base of the mound. It was excavated in 1984 and 1985 with two soundings (Sondage A and B) and additional test trenches. Beyond providing information about the City Wall, K1 is particularly important for its corpus of Early Dynastic door III sealings recovered from a burnt deposit in this unit.
A preliminary report of K1 was published in Mozan 1, and much of the information that follows here is based on that report.

Location

K1 is located in Area K, at the base of the eastern part of the High Mound.

Excavation

Excavations were started based on visible remains on the surface. Two soundings were made in Area K in 1984:

Sondage A

Also called Locus A, this was a 2 x 3 m trench placed at the base of the exterior face of the wall. This was to understand the nature of the wall, but also its associated glacis and defensive features.

Sondage B

Also called Locus B, this was a 2 m wide trench placed on top of and perpendicular to the outer face of the wall, with the aim of identifying the inner face of the wall.
These excavations revealed a sequence of layers and deposits, including in K1 the burnt deposit (f16) on top of the glacis on the outside of the wall. The inner face of the wall was not found, and in 1985 Sondage A was extended for 1 metre on either side in order to again attempt to identify the inner face, and to further expose the glacis.

The City Wall

The City Wall excavated in Area K surrounds the High Mound. Based on the associated finds, it was in use in the early Dynastic III period (mid third millennium BCE), and possibly also already in late Early Dynastic II. It consisted of a mudbrick wall on top of a steep glacis sloping down on the exterior (which, however, was made significantly less steep by when the burnt layer was deposited). Excavations have not yet determined the full height or width of the wall, but has uncovered a height of at least 5 m and a width of at least 8 m. Possible traces of further defensive features or a city gate were noted, but these are not well-understood.

Part of city wall visible before excavation

View of K1 against the side of the tell

General view of glacis with burnt deposit and face of city wall, looking west

The burnt deposit

Feature 16 is a burnt, sealed deposit containing finds of an ED III date (glyptics and ceramics). Although this is almost certainly waste from elsewhere at the site, dumped against the city wall, it testifies to an ED III presence at Tell Mozan, and helps date the use of the wall. Read more about the deposit under topics: The burnt deposit f16 or the entry under f16.

Glyptics

Forty-six sealings were found in K1, the majority from the f16 burnt layer. They are nearly all door sealings, indicating an administrative practice that included the control of access to rooms and goods. The sealings had been dumped from elsewhere on the tell, presumably originally from a formal building (temple or palace). No actual seals were found in the deposit, but their iconography indicates an overall ED III date. For more about the K1 sealings, see glyptics; for more about ED III seals at Mozan, see the ED Glyptics topical book.