Geophysical Survey

In 2002, Peter Pfälzner headed a team from the University of Tubingen that

conducted a geophysical study, focused on the high mound and portions of the outer city.

The preliminary results are published in the Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft article titled “Urbanismus in der Unterstadt von Urkes” (Pfälzner et al.

2004).

The team surveyed a total area of 10.9 hectares in the Southern portion of the outer city, in the zones known as ON and OL (Figure 4.44). The survey consisted of a magnetometry study accompanied by a surface ceramic survey. Magnetometry was also conducted to the east and west in the outer city but was not accompanied by surface survey (Figure 4.45). Because of plowing and erosion processes the association between the subsurface remains and the ceramics is not clearly established. The magnetometry revealed a variety of subsurface features including streets, buildings, walls, pits, and open spaces.

The magnetometry results confirmed the interpretation of the outer rise around the site as a mudbrick wall, several meters thick.⁵⁹ A break in the line of the wall was

detected and the widening of the wall on either side of the gap was interpreted as two towers. Based on the geomagnetic results the researchers also came to the conclusion that the outer city wall was polygonal in shape, rather than round, based on joins that appear in the geomagnetic record. The bent corners were then presumably used as gateways.

Excavations are needed to confirm these results.

59 The following three paragraphs of discussion of the geomagnetics are based on the reports published in Pfälzner et al. 2004.

Figure 4.44 Location of Geophysical and ceramic surface survey conducted by Pflazner et al. (2004).

Figure 4.45 Magnetometry results from outer city. Streets, rectilinear structures and outline of the city wall can be seen (see Pfalzner et al. 2004 for complete interpretation of southern finds). The results to the west (from 2005) were not clear and may have been obscured by modern activity related to the village just to the north. Western magnetometry conducted by Christian Hübner on behalf of the Tell Mozan project, southern magnetometry after results published in Pfalzner et al. 2004.

The magnetometry also appears to indicate the presence of streets, which were interpreted as extending radially from presumed city gate. One interior road, called

“Strasse E”, extends over more than 200 meters. Other roads are more fragmentary and appear to form small neighborhoods. Small walls, detected across the area suggest the outer city was densely occupied in the area surveyed. The structures are interspersed with roads. In addition to the small structures, interpreted as houses, there were some magnetic anomalies that were difficult to interpret. Pfälzner et al. (2004) suggest that some of these magnetic anomalies, when correlated with high levels of kiln waste on the surface may represent pottery production areas. The magnetometry results also found some structures outside the city walls, to the south and east. Some of these extramural areas may also be associated with pottery production, or firing of some material based on the high magnetic anomalies detected. According to these results, the outer city, including the area beyond the walls, can be understood as a complex system of neighborhoods including both occupation and production areas.

The ceramic inventory from the surface survey was consistent with other investigations in the outer city.⁶⁰ While there are some Ninevite 5 sherds (FGII/EJI) represented in the survey finds, they represent only 1.1% of the total finds. The following period is represented by a grouping of early EJIII ceramic types including Metallic Ware and is dated approximately 2700–2500 BCE by the investigators. They date the

construction of the outer city wall to this phase, with 6.3% of the sherds dated to this

60 The German team used a slight variation on the chronology. The Fruh-Gazira sequence they used is roughly correlated as follows: FGII=EJI; FGIIIa=EJII/early EJIII, FGIII=EJIII; FGIV=EJIV (see chronology discussion earlier in this chapter).

period. The concentrations were also especially high in the collection areas associated with the city wall, perhaps indicating its date. The highest percentage of sherds reported dated to the EJIII/EJIV (FGIII+IV) period, from approximately 2500–2100 BCE, with the projected period of intense urbanization focused on the dates 2500–2250 BCE (Pfälzner et al. 2004). It should be noted, however, that only four of the sherds in this group could be conclusively dated to the EJIV, suggesting that by this time the outer city may have already been declining in importance.

The relative infrequency of later types of ceramics such as Khabur ware and painted Mitanni types leads Pfälzner et al. to suggest that the outer city was abandoned towards the end of the third millennium, with occupation retreating to the central mound.

The ceramics from the Pilot surveys also indicate that the southern portion of the outer city did not continue with widespread occupation in the second millennium. Residential occupation on the main mound in area C2 dated to the EJV period indicates that

residential areas contracted from the outer city back onto the high mound at the end of the third millennium (Dohman-Pfälzner and Pfälzner 2002). Second millennium houses dating to both the Khabur and Mitanni periods are found as well, indicating that residential occupation continues in the central mound during the second millennium (Buccellati 2005). This conforms to the findings from the Thompson-Miragliuolo survey and the Pilot survey.

Further geomagnetic studies were conducted in 2005 to the west of the site, just south of the modern village of Mozan. These results are less clear than the OL results, with some areas largely empty or obscured. This may be due to the continued occupation

of the village of Mozan to the west of the tell. A modern paved road and several dirt tracks create interference.

4.3.5. Excavations

In addition to the previously discussed surveys, several small excavations have been conducted in the outer city (Figure 4.46). When viewed individually they provide only a small insight on the outer city, but when combined they can paint a fairly comprehensive picture of the overall uses of the outer city. The excavated areas have revealed various architectural remains, burials, administrative artifacts and evidence for a changing local landscape.

The first test excavations in the outer city took place in 1986, associated with the finds from the Thompson-Miragliuolo surface survey. All five test trenches produced evidence of occupation or burial (Kelly-Buccellati 1990). One of the trenches revealed a burial containing more than 100 vessels (OB1, see below). Another trench, OH1,

produced possible evidence of a larger structure. Over the next several years different investigations were conducted in the outer city as the need arose. Several deep cuts made for power lines were inspected (OS9-OS12). The cuts show that cultural accumulations proceed down for a few meters. Some Halaf sherds were found at the lowest levels of the cuts, suggesting that occupation in the area extends back as early as the 6^th millennium.

One of the cuts reached virgin soil fairly quickly and confirmed the limit of settlement in that area. Another cut, OS11, led to the hypothesis that a stream bordered the settlement to the west. In 1998 the first full-scale excavation was conducted in the northeast part of

the outer city, in area OH2, where remains from an administrative building were found (see below). In 2006 a test trench (OR1) was dug in the northwest outer city to test the hypothesis that a wadi or other watercourse passed the tell in the area as suggested by the OS11 pit. The OR1 excavations confirmed this hypothesis and became part of a wider geoarchaeological study of the site (Deckers and Reihl 2007, Deckers et al. 2010, Deckers 2011). In 2010, a small test trench – OJ1, was placed in the Mozan village in preparation for large-scale excavations planned for 2011. Unfortunately the 2011

excavations were not conducted due to political unrest, however, the OJ1 trench revealed Figure 4.46 Localization of excavations conducted in the Outer City.

Localization of OH1 was not available and does not appear on the map.