5.htm
1: G. Buccellati, November 2002

Typology

Once freed from the grip of the soil, our finds are analyzed with regard to their formal attributes – i.e., their “typology”.      The icon to the right is indicative of the process. We can seriate objects by their shape, size, material, and whatever other morphological attributes are identifiable. Here, for instance, an assemblage of ceramic shapes suggests repetitiveness, and thus supports the reintegration of the shapes of which we have only a fragment.      Beyond our own corpus from Urkesh, we compare inventories from other sites and thus reconstruct regional and supraregional patterns and influences.

We present our finds under three major categories. Both published and unpublished materials are included. Architecture describes the major self-contained buildings that have come to light at Mozan, with a summary of the structural and functional aspects that characterize each such building. The section on objects includes those movable items that are considered to be particularly significant from a variety of points of view (stratigraphic, stylistic, functional, historical, etc.) Samples and specimens are non-artifactual, movable items such as bones, plant remains or soil. The section on texts gives a full philological presentation of all inscriptional material, with a brief commentary.