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#0211
composed of three rows of mudbricks. A sherd-paved floor was
uncovered in one of the rooms. The lower layer was exposed only
in the western part of the area, where fragments of at least two
mudbrick houses and a narrow street were unearthed. The
orientation of the mudbrick walls in this stratum is slightly different
from that observed in the upper one. The most interesting
architecture to be revealed in the lower layer was a bathroom with
toilet, discovered in the southwestern corner of the trench. Small
finds from area "A" include a small fragment of a clay bulla with
two incomplete impressions of the same cylinder seal, evidently
a Mittanian cylinder of 17th/l 5th century BC.
The second area of Tell Arbid, where further damages had to
be prevented, was a modern cemetery located on the western edge
of the "main" tell. This cemetery had been established only a few
years ago and tended to develop towards the tell's centre; hence we
hoped to persuade villagers to dig no more graves in this sector,
while achieving a scientific goal at the same time. That was to
investigate the Middle Bronze Age period fortifications, which
(according to Mallowan's report) should be ca. 40 m wide in this
area. The three trenches in area "M", as we designated it, covered
a total of 175 sq.m. In the northeastern part of the area, just below
the actual ground surface, the tops of some poorly preserved
mudbrick walls belonging to some larger structure were
discovered; only two modest rooms were included still within the
limits of our trenches. Given their small dimensions (2 x 1 m and
2.5 x 1.25 m) both rooms must have served storage purpose. On
the south, the structure comprising these two rooms was reinforced
with a pise wall, which bordered in turn on some sort of narrow
street paved with potsherds. The layer can be dated to the Khabour
ware period. Further south, this stratum was badly damaged by
erosion and the two other more substantial fragments of
architecture that were exposed consisted of a partly preserved
mudbrick room with a floor also of mudbricks and of an equally
poorly preserved fragmentary round structure (diam. ca 2.5 m).
207
uncovered in one of the rooms. The lower layer was exposed only
in the western part of the area, where fragments of at least two
mudbrick houses and a narrow street were unearthed. The
orientation of the mudbrick walls in this stratum is slightly different
from that observed in the upper one. The most interesting
architecture to be revealed in the lower layer was a bathroom with
toilet, discovered in the southwestern corner of the trench. Small
finds from area "A" include a small fragment of a clay bulla with
two incomplete impressions of the same cylinder seal, evidently
a Mittanian cylinder of 17th/l 5th century BC.
The second area of Tell Arbid, where further damages had to
be prevented, was a modern cemetery located on the western edge
of the "main" tell. This cemetery had been established only a few
years ago and tended to develop towards the tell's centre; hence we
hoped to persuade villagers to dig no more graves in this sector,
while achieving a scientific goal at the same time. That was to
investigate the Middle Bronze Age period fortifications, which
(according to Mallowan's report) should be ca. 40 m wide in this
area. The three trenches in area "M", as we designated it, covered
a total of 175 sq.m. In the northeastern part of the area, just below
the actual ground surface, the tops of some poorly preserved
mudbrick walls belonging to some larger structure were
discovered; only two modest rooms were included still within the
limits of our trenches. Given their small dimensions (2 x 1 m and
2.5 x 1.25 m) both rooms must have served storage purpose. On
the south, the structure comprising these two rooms was reinforced
with a pise wall, which bordered in turn on some sort of narrow
street paved with potsherds. The layer can be dated to the Khabour
ware period. Further south, this stratum was badly damaged by
erosion and the two other more substantial fragments of
architecture that were exposed consisted of a partly preserved
mudbrick room with a floor also of mudbricks and of an equally
poorly preserved fragmentary round structure (diam. ca 2.5 m).
207