Structures: The city wall

Laerke Recht – March 2025

Introduction
Date
Morphology and size
Other structures and city gate

Introduction

The only substantial structure and main characteristic of K1 (with K2 and K3) is the city wall. Excavation was chosen in a place where the wall was partly visible, with a 10 m long section chosen for cleaning and two sondages: Sondage A (at foot of wall) and Sondage B (at summit).

Views of city wall as visible in the side of the tell:

Date

The excavations did not reach the base of the wall, so it is not known for certain when its foundation was first laid. However, the main feature, f16, dates a major use-phase of the wall to the Early Dynastic III period in the mid-third millennium BCE. As noted by Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati, while some Ninevite V sherds were collected from the surface of the tell, they are overall very few, and it is therefore possible that the wall was founded in ED III or late ED II (Mozan 1, p. 59, 67).
Phases or alterations to the wall (within ED III) are attested by thick horizontal joints separated by nine layers of bricks. A mass of raw bricks in front of the wall to the south may suggest material ready for further alterations.

Morphology and size

The wall was constructed of mudbricks. The visible bricks are described as measuring 32/33 x 8.5/9 cm.
The lower layers and foundation of the wall was not reached, but it can be determined that it was at least 5m high. Its width was also not identified: the trench (K3) at the top of the wall reached 8m without reaching the inner face of the wall, meaning that the wall was at least 8m wide.

Other structures and city gate

In 1985, one aim was to identify a city gate. This was not conclusively found, but possible traces were recorded.
Traces of other structures, west of K1 (f5 and f8), were recorded, but they are not well-understood.