Stratigraphy and Architecture of the Red House of Tall Schech Hamad / Dur-Katlimmu

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Hartmut Kühne
• Subject Area: Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
• Term: from 2012 to 2014
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 228069832

Being an elite residence the ‚Red House‘ was probably constructed during the Late Assyrian Empire prior to 612 BC. It is presently the only archaeological-material record of Upper Mesopotamia whose period of use falls verifiably into the time after the collapse of the Assyrian Empire. The ‘Red House’ was excavated completely. It consists of 90 rooms covering an area of 5176 m². Adjoining parts of buildings and open spaces were excavated additionally making it a total of 7077 m² investigated. Following the methodic guide lines of the project the excavated earth was differentiated according its texture and documented as earth units, so called ‘Fundstellen’, and in installations. In total almost 7500 units were recorded out of which 4976 were earth units and 2455 installations. Having participated in the excavation in relevant positions the authors have a vivid memory of the archaeological record.The text volume is structured in six chapters:Chapter 1 offers an introduction to the subject and an extensive discourse on excavation and documentation methods.Chapter 2 traces the history of the earth deposits and the development of occupation of the ‘Red House’. The record allows differentiating 14 utilization phases out of which phases 1-4 cover the main use of the building while phases 5-14 represent phases of non usage and re-usage. An innovative method used in the analysis was specially developed, called the cuboid method, allowing to transfer the earth units into a three dimensional body enabling the calculation of its quantity.Chapter 3 presents the details of the earth accumulation and comprises the analysis of the earth units (‘Fundstellen’) in their spatial context as well as their interpretation. This chapter is the basis of chapter 2 offering control over the conclusions and traceability from the record to the interpretation.Chapter 4 analyses architectural details of the ‘Red House’.Chapter 5 is a detailed account of the written records excavated in the ‘Red House’.Chapter 6 sums up the conclusions.The text volume contains 386 figures and 38 tables; it is supplemented by a volume of 56 plates out of which 7 are large plans. Both are designed to guarantee the traceability from the field record to the interpretation. An innovative plan is ‘Beilage 1’; it is a synchronic-optical overview of the occupation development and of the history of accumulation of all the rooms and exterior parts of the building. Two other large plans (Beilagen 6-7) picture the archaeological record of the eminent archive found in rooms YV and WV, thus invalidating the critic that was recently expressed concerning the archaeological documentation of text archives (N. Postgate in Iraq LXXII, 2010).

• DFG Programme: Publication Grants