The New Chronology of the Bronze Age Settlement of Tepe Hissar, Iran - Ayşe Gursan-Salzmann

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IIIB (Courtesy of the Penn Museum, image no. 83727).

      The large room [S11]…is supplied with the…rectangular type of fireplace noticed in the main room [S1] of the Burned Building [North Flat] and in a doubtful Hissar IIB-IIIA building [4] on the South Hill.…The hearth…is disoriented in the same manner as the other fireplaces…Screen-walls [11A and 12A] extend from the northern and southern doorways, and a hinge stone [door socket] is in situ at [left of] the southern door. Fragments of mullers were scattered about in the two chambers [S9 and 10] adjoining this room to the northwest. (Schmidt 1937:156)

      Room 9 is connected by an opening to the narrow (1 meter wide) passage (S12) separated from the main room (S11) by “screen-wall” 12A. The southwest wall of Room S11 is solid with no openings.

      O.3 Building 3

      Information on this structure comes from DG00-01-10-11 (Schmidt 1937:156–157, figs. 84, 86). Building Level 2 is assigned to Hissar IIIB (ibid., p. 156, fig. 86). In the revised chronology, Building 3 is dated to Hissar II and transitional Period II-III. “Building 3 was destroyed by a conflagration, as the floor layer of charred debris and the discolored, black and red walls indicate…the rooms…were almost sterile [of objects]” (ibid., p. 156).

      The large main room is interesting. The northwest wall (a) is ornamented with crescent-shaped depressions which seem to be filled with a clayey matter [see Dyson and Remsen 1989: fig. 5]. The crescents are 18 [cm] wide by 10 [cm] high, and extend 16 [cm] into the wall. The lowermost of the three rows…is 40 [cm] above the floor. The rectangular platform (90 [cm] square by 15 [cm] high) in the center of the room (b) reminds one of the hearths above described [in Buildings 1 and 2]. However, the central hole is 80 [cm] deep…presumably made to accommodate a central roof support. The original opening was 25 [cm] in diameter. In the western corner of the room (c) marks on the wall suggest the former presence of a storage bin enclosed on two sides by thin walls.

      Three mud-plastered terraced fireplaces (d) adjoin the northeast wall. They are 10, 30 and 45 [cm] above the floor respectively. The [south]eastern section (e) of the room is 15 [cm] lower than the rest. A creephole (f), 80 [cm] above the floor, connects the [main] room with a small chamber to the southeast [visible on the fig. 84 plan]. It is the only entrance to this chamber.…A screen-wall (g) is between the creephole and the low section (e) of the main room. (Schmidt 1937:156)

      An interesting doorway opens through the southeast wall at the point marked ‘h’. It is a rounded rectangle 95 [cm] high by 80 [cm] wide. The jambs and the sill protrude, while the lintel is flush with the wall.

      Another doorway connects the main room in the northeast with a granary subdivided by thin, low walls (25 to 35 [cm] high).…An almost semicircular enclosure adjoins the main room on the south. A mud-brick from the central room to the northwest of the main room measured 54 x 26 x 8.5 [cm]. [This room forms a separate structure, see Ch. 2.] The bricks of all walls appear to be staggered. (ibid., p. 157)

      n.b. The plan of Building 3 replicates Buildings 1 and 2 in having a main room surrounded by subsidiary rooms, including a storeroom on the northwest side of the main room. It consists of two features, a rectangular platform in the center of the room (hearth?) and three terraced fireplaces/bins. The building was built in three stages according to Howard and Dyson’s reconstruction: the earliest 3, then 3a, and lastly 31. The second building stage (3a) went through a fire and restoration. After burning, the interior walls were plastered. Two main characteristics are its externally buttressed walls and niches on all four exterior walls of room /16/ which are similar to those in Building 1 (see Fig. 1.10 and Fig. 2.11; Dyson and Remsen 1989:80, fig. 5). According to the New Chronology, Building 3 is dated to Period II, phases E-D/D.

      P. The North Flat (NF)

      The excavations on the North Flat duplicated the sequence for Hissar II and III as found on the Main Mound.

      P.1 CF27-28-37-38-47-48

      Level 1 is presented in Schmidt (1937:177–178, figs. 102, 103). Note that figs. 102 and 103 only include the southern half of CF27-28—the northern half of CF26-27 and adjacent CF17 must have been removed since the plan of the Burned Building (ibid., fig. 91) covers these squares. Level 1 is assigned to Hissar IIIC, which is characterized by graves with alabaster objects. “In Level 1 we found rather poorly-defined wall remains” (ibid., pp. 177–178). Three small rectangular rooms (S7–9) run west to east with two more rooms (2, 3) running north from Room S9, the only coherent grouping (ibid., p. 177, fig. 102). In a most likely separate structure (Room S1) were found three alabaster “mini-columns”7 (H1841–43) and two alabaster discs (H1845, H1846). These finds are noteworthy, as elsewhere these types occur in burials or hoards. They were associated with short-necked grey ware jars (H1848). Recorded brick sizes for adjacent squares are: CF39, Wall 17A, 63/64 x 30 x 11/11.5 cm; and CG30, Wall 21A, 59/60 x 29 x 11 cm (ibid., p. 177).

      P.2 CF37-47-57

      Level 2 consists of the Burned Building and appears in Schmidt (1937:157–171, figs. 89–94, 102, 103). This structure is fully described by Schmidt since it was well-preserved by fire and contained a rich assortment of objects. The building consisted of a rectangular main room (1) (Fig. 1.11a) with a narrow storage area (4) (Figure 1.11b) entered through a door (1e) on the east side of the room. In the southeast corner a flight of five steps (1b) led upwards to a second level. The upper part (4a) fell on burned debris in Room 4; the fire had also destroyed Room (5), leaving charred human skeletons on the floor (Fig. 1.11c). A stepped structure (1a) with cut-out figures (a) occupied the northeast corner of Room 1 (ibid., fig. 93). A square hearth (1d) set diagonally to the walls lay on the southwest floor. A doorway (3) set back from the western façade led down one step (c) to floor level. The doorway was flanked on both sides by a block of masonry strengthening the entrance, called Gate Passage 3. The southern block (8) was reconstructed as a “tower” (ibid., fig. 94), an effort that ignored the scale of the plan. Another doorway (1f)led out of the main room to an enclosed courtyard (7), called a kitchen, containing a large brick oven block (7a). This courtyard was defined by trench along the inside of its walls (ibid., fig. 89).

Image

      The trench can be seen in Schmidt (1937: fig. 89) along the bottom of the picture where the northern wall is being traced both on the inside and outside. The trench turns south on the right side of the photograph and runs mistakenly into the brick oven block. This error is recorded but not noted on the building plan (ibid., figs. 90, 91). The oven block has a step (a) in front of a square chamber and a square burnt surface on the top. Between the southeast corner of the oven block and a buttress to the left of the door from Room 1 is a low curb enclosing area 5, ending in a posthole. To the right of this, on the courtyard floor, is a pile of collapsed brick (7b). A narrow “creephole” connects the courtyard to a small bin (6) at the north end of storeroom 4. A rectangular storeroom (2) full of pithoi occupied the south end of the building. No entrance to this is shown on the plan. Its floor was “considerably higher than that of Room 1” (ibid., p. 168). At a level 35 cm below the pithoi and the evidence of burning was a brick floor. The south wall is supported by three narrow buttresses. Charred human skeletons were found on the floors of Room 1 and 5 and in 2.

      P.3 CF47-48-57

      “Level 3” is described in Schmidt (1937:177, figs. 102, 103).

      A third level, most probably of Hissar

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