Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (10.1998(1999))

TELL ARB ID

SYRIA

was a corner of a large room or even a sep-
arate building designated as locus 5. It
measured at least 2.5 x 2 m and its walls
were built of a single row of 36 x 36 cm
bricks. It is oriented slightly differently
than House 1 as its walls follow a NW-SE
orientation. Locus 5 was somehow con-
nected with House 1 as suggested by
a doorway in its eastern wall, closely corre-
sponding to an entrance in the southwest-
ern corner of House 1. Locus 5, must have
been constructed when House 1 was
already in use; the same must be true of all
the other structures siding it on the south.
The biggest among them is House 2. Only
its western end was situated within the
limits of our trenches, more precisely,
inside trench 36/61. House 2 was erected
of similar bricks as House 1 and its exter-
nal wall had the same thickness, i.e., two
bricks. In its western part, this external
wall was at a later date reinforced with an
additional row of bricks on the south side.
In the middle part of the trench, inside
House 2, there was a kind of large court-
yard (locus 3) paved with bricks and at
least 4.75 m long. It seems that locus 3
occupied the northeastern corner of House
2. It is also possible that the entrance to
this unit was situated on this side. Further
to the east there lay an open space with
a big tannur and still further east, another
house. Only the northern part of this
House 3 could be traced in the trench; con-
sequently, we can say that it was at least
5.5 m long and consisted of at least two
rooms. Its walls were less regularly con-
structed than those of House 1, though the
same size bricks were used.
All the buildings described above seem
to have been in use for a relatively long
time, particularly House 1. This conclu-
sion draws from a careful study of the floor
sequence in locus 13, a large room in the
southeastern part of House 1. Four consec-

utive floor levels were distinguished, the
lowest having been laid on a thick accu-
mulation of pebbles and potsherds. In the
western part of this building, the floor
level was reached only in locus 6 where on
a low bench made of bricks a nearly com-
plete "Ishtar bed" made of unbaked clay
was found.
All these structures belong to a single
stratum and should be interpreted as part
of the Khabour-ware period town on Tell
Arbid. The quality of the masonry indi-
cates that at the beginning of the 2nd mill.
BC it must have been one of the richer
quarters in town.
To see what kind of occupational layer
could be expected beneath the remains
already discussed, a limited test trench was
dug in the eastern end of 36/62. The layer
revealed there also represented Khabour-
ware period occupation: some remains of
small rooms with narrow bonded walls.
Finds from the fill include a medium-sized
painted Khabour ware jar bearing untypi-
cal decoration — crescent-shaped stripes
crossing obliquely wide horizontal bands.
The only known analogy so far comes from
Chagar Bazar, a site only some 15 km away
from Arbid.
Digging deeper in the northeastern cor-
ner of trench 36/62, we reached the top of
the next stratum, which also proved to be
of Khabour-ware period date.
To summarize the findings from
trenches 36/59-60 and 36/61-62, it has to
be assumed that at least on the eastern
slope of the main Arbid tell an important
accumulation of Khabour ware period
occupational deposits should be expected
in the future.
To close the discussion of investigations
in trenches 36/61-62, we should mention
some 3rd mill. BC finds, mostly from the
uppermost parts of fill from rooms belong-
ing to the stratum I buildings, hence

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