Area P

Area P was opened in order to investigate the chronological and occupational sequence of Tell Tuqan in the lower town and the topographic relation between the Lower Town and the depression surrounding the rampart of the Acropolis during the Middle Bronze Age. During the 2007 season a N-S trench of 9 x 4 m in DhV6+DhV7 and a square of 4 x 4 m in DhV11 were excavated. In DhV6+DhV7 three main phases were distinguished in the trench DhV6+DhV7, spanning from the Iron Age to the Early Bronze Age IVB. Phase 1: Iron Age III (c. 700-550 BC): An open area paved with sherds and cobblestones (L.750) was brought to light immediately underneath the top soil, partially preserved in DhV7. Some sherds of simple orange and red-slip wares firmly date the floor to the Iron Age III. Phase 2A-B: Middle Bronze II (c. 1850/1800-1700 BC): a long sequence of filling strata (Phase 2A), alternating layers of brown clay and earth with layers of dark ashy earth, more than 2,5 m thick, surely represent a long period of refuse activities in the area, which was not occupied by architectural structures during the Middle Bronze Age. A large amount of pottery sherds and animal bones and several objects were collected from the fillings. The large number of rims and diagnostic sherds allow to build up a complete pottery typology of MB II at Tell Tuqan, with several shapes of simple, kitchen and preservation wares, together with some examples of painted vessels. The distinction of several stratigraphic layers can be used to check the evolution of the main pottery types, such as the inturned rim bowls, the carinated bowls (which appear only in the lowest layers), the deep craters with horizontally expanded and grooved rims, the double-rim jars, etc. It seems that all the levels are dating to the Middle Bronze II, from 1850/1800 BC to 1700 BC. At the bottom of the fillings the remains of an open area of cobblestones was discovered in DhV6 and DhV7, dating to the very beginning of the MB IIA (Phase 2B). Phase 3A-B: Early Bronze IVB (c. 2200-2000 BC): immediately beneath the MB IIA level, archaeological deposits and quite damaged structures dating to the EB IVB were present. Apparently there is no MB I evidence in this area. Two superimposed phases can be detected: the upper one is constituted by a room with a plastered bench (L.760), the lower by a floor with a rounded plastered base (L.764) and a circular pit (F.764; 1 m in diameter and 1 m deep), filled with an ashy layer in which two spherical tokens were found together with few pottery sherds. The pottery horizon of these two phases is well fixed by several large sherds of goblets and small jars in Painted Simple Ware, by fragments of Smeared Wash Ware, Pattern Combed jars, and by the peculiar bowls with expanded rim in Simple Ware of buff and brown pastes. DhV11 Square DhV11 was excavated 15 m North of the trench in order to understand the extent of the MB II dump area identified in DhV6+DhV7 and to find the architectural evidence of the MB II settlement. Two main phases were distinguished in DhV11, both dating to MB II. Phase 1: Middle Bronze IIB (c. 1750-1700/1650 BC): pits of ashy layers (F.752, F.762) with a large amount of pottery and animal bones were singled out in all the square, dating to a late phase of MB II. Phase 2: Middle Bronze IIA (c. 1850/1800-1750 BC): partially cut by the MB IIB pits, an architectural phase with two E-O joined mud-brick walls (M.755 and M.756), the southern one 110 cm thick, were brought to light. South of M.755 a plastered floor with a small bench was reached 50 cm under the top of the wall. Actually only the North limit of this room is known, the others are resting outside the excavated area. The building seems to be quite important since the walls are three mud-brick courses large (ca. 110 cm) and the building technique is quite good. No materials in situ in the room were found, although the pottery sherds in the levels immediately over the floor points to a dating at the beginning of MB IIA.