DOI issue:
Syria
DOI article:Bieliński, Piotr: Preliminary report on the first season of syro-polish excavations on Tell Arbid
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41241#0210
comparison of the plan published by Mallowan with the plan
established by our topographer shows that the erosion process has
advanced considerably since the thirties with a large part of the site
being affected, mostly by intensive cultivation of the fields by
modern farmers from both Arbid villages.
Therefore, our second goal on Arbid this year was to prevent
further destruction of the important areas of the site, such as a spot
situated in the northwestern part of the site, where a small mound
about 8 m high and measuring ca 100 m in diameter was being
used by modern villagers as a source of clay for brick making.
Large pits dug quite recently have damaged considerably the entire
western part of this mound. Investigations in this area, our "A",
served a dual purpose. While limiting any further damage to
archaeological strata, they provided us with a stratigraphical
sequence for this part of the site to compare with the sequence
from the "main" tell. We opened a large trench, 20 x 10 m, set on
the western slope of the mound, where over twenty modern and
older pits had largely destroyed the ancient layers. The ceramic
material collected from the surface of area "A", as well as from the
fillings of the pits themselves, ranges from the Early Dynastic to
Early Islamic, including "Khabour", Mittanian and Hellenistic
examples on the way. Despite the chronological scattering of the
potsherds from this spot, excavations revealed evidence of just two
main occupational layers, both from the second millennium BC.
It seems that the lower one was situated directly on virgin soil,
which was reached some 8.5 m below the top of the mound. In the
upper layer, a large courtyard paved with potsherds set in a grey
clay was found to occupy the western part of the area. The
courtyard was at least 5 x 4 m. On the south, it abutted a group of
two and possibly even three narrow rooms belonging to some
larger structure. The rooms (approx. 4.5 x 2 m) have walls
already in the thirties, while the northern one was established only in the
sixties.
206
established by our topographer shows that the erosion process has
advanced considerably since the thirties with a large part of the site
being affected, mostly by intensive cultivation of the fields by
modern farmers from both Arbid villages.
Therefore, our second goal on Arbid this year was to prevent
further destruction of the important areas of the site, such as a spot
situated in the northwestern part of the site, where a small mound
about 8 m high and measuring ca 100 m in diameter was being
used by modern villagers as a source of clay for brick making.
Large pits dug quite recently have damaged considerably the entire
western part of this mound. Investigations in this area, our "A",
served a dual purpose. While limiting any further damage to
archaeological strata, they provided us with a stratigraphical
sequence for this part of the site to compare with the sequence
from the "main" tell. We opened a large trench, 20 x 10 m, set on
the western slope of the mound, where over twenty modern and
older pits had largely destroyed the ancient layers. The ceramic
material collected from the surface of area "A", as well as from the
fillings of the pits themselves, ranges from the Early Dynastic to
Early Islamic, including "Khabour", Mittanian and Hellenistic
examples on the way. Despite the chronological scattering of the
potsherds from this spot, excavations revealed evidence of just two
main occupational layers, both from the second millennium BC.
It seems that the lower one was situated directly on virgin soil,
which was reached some 8.5 m below the top of the mound. In the
upper layer, a large courtyard paved with potsherds set in a grey
clay was found to occupy the western part of the area. The
courtyard was at least 5 x 4 m. On the south, it abutted a group of
two and possibly even three narrow rooms belonging to some
larger structure. The rooms (approx. 4.5 x 2 m) have walls
already in the thirties, while the northern one was established only in the
sixties.
206