Tell Qarqur Preliminary Report: Areas B and D

Area B

Work in previous seasons

The 1983-84 excavations at Tell Qarqur opened six squares near the highest point of the two tells at Qarqur. We the excavation in four of those squares in 1993 and opened an additional new square in 1997. A tight sequence of Iron Age II architecture was encountered less than a meter below the surface, figure 20. Iron Age and later pits disrupted the floors and walls in all of the squares. We decided to follow the sequence in square B2 and are now about 3.5m below the surface and plan to continue to go down. We seem to have a complete sequence of Iron II materials going back from the eighth century BC. We have reached important Iron I materials but so far have not encountered levels dating before the 11th century BC. Where the Iron II architecture was relatively undisturbed, though exposed only in a limited area, the Iron I levels have been badly cut up by many bins or silos that had been constructed here. Buildings in these levels seem to have stood outside our excavated area and we seem to be in vacant or courtyard areas.

Iron I materials in B2, 2001 season

After a lapse in excavation of several years, we continued to excavate the Iron Age sequence in square B2 at the highest point, at the southeast of the high tell. Eric Jensen continued the excavation of the three storage bins or silos and a pit encountered earlier, figure 21. Our hopes of finding a coherent remains of the stratigraphic sequence between the storage bins were complicated by the discovery of three additional storage bins. One of these was removed, as was one of the earlier bins. The bin in the northeast corner was unusual in that the inside clay plaster coating sloped down to a floor surface of similar composition. As we dismantled the bin that was next to it in the southeast of the square, it was clear that the northern bin had been cut into the one at the south. When we reached the bottom of this southern pit we no discernable floor was encountered but the structure had been placed on earlier decomposed organic material, heavy black ash, charcoal and tumbled brick fragments of an earlier destruction. The pottery from the level below the bin was apparently still part of the Iron I pottery tradition we have excavated so far.

The bins have cut up the area so badly that it is difficult to clearly document the earlier stratigraphy. A portion of a substantial mud-brick wall is preserved between three of the bins and individual bricks can be articulated. At the end of the season stones began to appear in the western portion of the square, again disturbed by the bins. When we suspended the excavation, we were between 20 to 30cm above the destruction level at the base of bin in the southeast corner, figure 22. We will have to wait until next year to see whether the section of mud-brick wall and the stones on the west side of the square are connected with architecture in destruction level. Many of the latest pottery baskets provided a mixture of different periods of pottery, including considerable Middle Bronze Age IIB pottery, but so far we have not reached clear 12th century BC level. As in the past we have found very little in the way of objects in this area. This season we found only a few metal fragments and the foot of a mold made Iron I figurine. We have continued to take many soil samples from the bins and surrounding levels.

Area D

Area D, our only exposure so far on the low, northern tell, in the foreground in figure 13, was not excavated in 2001. Excavation in earlier seasons in three squares south of the four square exposure of 1983-1984 seasons have shown Iron II materials beneath Ayyubid, Roman and Hellenistic building remains. The Iron II materials are not well preserved because of later intrusions but provide a basic outline and check on the sequence from Area B. Good, representative Iron I materials have been excavated, yet it is not clear whether or not we have reached 12th century BC levels.