Middle Bronze age of the upper tigris region in the light of the excavations at salat tepe within the zone to be affected by the Ilısu Dam.

Abstract

Salat Tepe takes place in Upper Tigris region will be flooded by the lake which will be formed by the llisu Dam. The earliest settlement on Salat Tepe is dated to the Chalcolithic period from the Halaf-Early Ubaid transition until the end of the Late Uruk period. On the mound summit five building levels dating to the Middle Bronze Age (MBA) are exposed. These levels are disturbed by several Early Iron Age pit-houses, Hellenistic-Roman and medieval granary pits modern graves. The site is continuously occupied throughout the MBA with an archaeological sequence providing valuable insights into the development of the cultural properties of the region. The lowest architectural level is dated to the late 3rd-early 2nd Millennium BC; to the Khabur 1 period (EBA IV- MBA I). Hard burned fine pasted potshards resembling the EBA III-IV wares appear in these contexts. The pottery assemblages include Dark Rimmed Orange Bowls, Red-Brown Wash Ware and cooking pots. The walls of the structures constructed in level 5 were reused in Level 4, and new walls were built with mud bricks in mostly in red. The strongly levelled structures flanking the pebble roads are damaged by storage pits of level 3. The northern structure is represented by four rooms and the eastern with a kitchen furnished by an oven and a tandoor on the stone paved floor. The northern part is plastered with red mud bricks, and a circular granary pit was built in the plaster with mud bricks. Level 4 was used in the Khabur phase 1 dating to the first two centuries of the second Millennium BC (MBA 1 -II). Level 3 is represented by narrow roads renewed by several pebble floors. Three units of a structure to the south are damaged by pits filled with ash and shards of cooking pots. A deep shaft grave and pot burials were dug into the earlier levels. Several storage pits were dug into the earlier levels containing ash and large amounts of carbonized cereals such as peas, wheat and lens. The pottery collected from the fill consists of Dark Rimmed Orange Bowls, Monochrome Ware and Red-Brown Wash Ware. The Early Bronze Age III-IV wares are represented by a few shards. The mound summit is enlarged in Level 2, and levelled by filling the rooms and pits of the preceding level with mud brick, stones and mud. A building complex built with standard mud bricks is erected on this plain surface. The buildings around this open area are composed of 2-3-roomed units. The heights of the in situ preserved walls and the lengths of their collapsed upper parts indicate two-storeyed units bordering the courtyard from the South and West, and one-storeyed units from the North and East. The mud brick fall registered in all trenches and the typical deformation observed at several walls point to a collapse caused by an earthquake. The pottery collected from the building complex consists mostly of the Red Brown wash Ware, the Khabur Painted Ware and the Buff Slipped Ware. A few shards of the Dark Rimmed Orange Bowls are found only among the debris. Level 2 was inhabited during the Khabur phase 2-3 (MBA III). The latest level was built on the debris of the former building. Several vessels of the Red Brown Wash Ware, the Khabur Painted Ware, the Monochrome Ware, and buff slipped monochrome nipple-based beakers and straight rimmed carinated bowls as well as shards of the Nuzi Painted Ware date these contexts to the Khabur Phase 4 (MBA III- LBA I) contemporary to the Early Mitanni period. The MBA settlement was inhabited by farmers cultivating the fields on the Salat River. The settlement at Salat Tepe might have been a farmstead (dimtu?) as supposed for other contemporary sites in the region. Several sites were occupied further in the Middle Assyrian Period; however, Salat Tepe was not occupied during the LBA II; the Middle Assyrian standard pottery is found only in a few storage pits.