Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (13.2001(2002))

TELL ARBID

SYRIA

1.3 m and the original height was about
1.2 m. Scattered along the eastern wall of
the chamber were human bones belonging
to the skeletons of four different persons:
two women, one young man and a child.
There were also some animal bones. The
fact that the human bones revealed no
anatomical order and some parts of the
skeletons were missing or broken may sug-
gest that the burial in this grave was not so
much of bodies, as of loose bones brought
from elsewhere.4) The grave goods found in
G8 consisted of four large jars and some
beads made of carnelian, turquoise and
other raw materials. The neighboring grave
G9, which was much smaller, contained
the skeleton of a young woman deposited
in a strongly contracted position by the
southern wall of the grave. Two painted
Khabour jars stood beside the body.
The construction of the two graves led
to the demolishing of parts of some older
“PUBLIC BUILDING
As stated at the beginning of this
report, the main effort was focused this year
on exploring the so-called “Public
Building”. Investigations were carried out
inside the eastern wing of this structure, in
an area situated immediately to the west of
the row of rooms forming the eastern edge
- loci: ll/SS-36/55 and 13/SS-36/55
(Fig. 5). The layer corresponding to the
“Public Building” turned out to be nearly
completely destroyed by later pits and the
bottom of the waste and ashes accumu-
lation. To judge by the character of the
destruction, an open space, possibly a large
courtyard, could have been located here at
the time that the “Public Building”
remained in use.

Khabour-ware period structures occupying
the central and southern part of the trench
in square 37/53. These remains consisted
of fragments of two wide mud brick walls
with two adjoining rooms separated by
a narrow wall, apparently belonging to the
same architectural complex as locus 14/SA,
found in 2000 in the southeastern corner of
area “SA”. Underlying them were three
consecutive building levels of the Khabour
period, which have now been explored
along the southern and western borders of
square 37/54. Fragments of houses or
rather rooms with corresponding floors
found within these lower layers had walls
preserved as high as 0.3 m and showed
signs of repeated rebuilding and repair. At
the same time, these architectural remains
prove the continuity of Khabour oc-
cupation in this part of the site at the
southern limit of the waste zone of ashes
and debris.
’ (AREAS “SL”-“SS”)
Inside the “Public Building” we con-
tinued to excavate the southern wing (area
“SL”, including the eastern half of square
37/55 and all of square 37/56). Locus 1 /SL,
which we finished exploring, turned out to
be a large room (at least 5.5 by 3.23 m)
with an entrance from the street. Due to
strong erosion of the southern citadel
slope, the position of the southern wall
could not be established. In the southern
part of locus l/SL-37/55, two large,
regularly spaced tannours were found. The
doorway in the eastern wall, about 0.8 m
wide, was later blocked. Originally, it had
led to a neighboring room, locus 6/SL-
37/56 (cf. Fig. 5). This was slightly wider
(c. 3.4 m) and much the same in length as

4) I am indebted to Dr. Soitysiak for this interpretation, as well as for all the anthropological information on the graves
found this year.

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