Installations

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Elements

Installations are stationary elements that are the target of circulation within a structure or use area. In J6 we encountered two hollow pits and a round pit (see also J4 for a further pit in this area, i.e. J4a1).

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Discussion

The presence of pits immediately to the east of the monumental access, very close to the sacred area of the Temple Terrace but outside of the temenos, rises a number of questions about their function.

Pit a8 is a large but not deep hollow filled with an ashy wet soil f192, animal bones, pottery sherds, kilin waste, clay lumps, bricks and roof pieces, a broken tannur and broken objects. The cut removes portions of glacis 3 and glacis 8, consisting of a compact reddish earth.

Another hollow, smaller in dimensions but located few meters to the south of a8, is pit 2. It cuts into glacis 5 and was filled with ashy soil, pottery sherds, bones and a small a miniature jar i11.

The pit in J4 was located also in this spot pit 2. Here was found a complete skeleton of a dog and a frog.

These pits could have the function of:

1. Obtain soil from the glacis, since it removes part of it.

2. The pits were filled with a lot of material. Was this trash? Were waste pits?

3. Ritual purposes. The fill of all pits included an amount of animal bones (i22, J4i5, J4i6).

The pits are dated to different moments (a8 to the Isin-Larsa Period, pit 2 and J4a1 to the Mittani Period).

The round pit a1 was dug inside the mittanni brickfall. The function is unclear, since we could not find organic material (seeds for example) but it could be a storage pit. The assumption is due to similar pits found in Unit A16.