A Sumerian Palace and the "A" cemetery at Kish, Mesopotamia

THE SUMERIAN PALACE AT MOUND "A," KISH 117
X 3.10 m, 20 cm high. The bricks of which it was made were of two sizes:
namely, 23 x 15 x 4-7 cm, and 21 x 13 x 3.50-5 cm; broken bricks were also used.
The level of the top of this platform is 151 cm above datum, or 20 cm above the
foundations of the adjacent walling "G" to which it probably belongs. On the
north-east corner of this platform a burial was found (No. 23), which proves that
the pavement cannot be of later date than the period of the cemetery. This burial
had also slightly disturbed the brickwork of the ramp above the stairway.
The walling "G" is made of sun-dried bricks, measuring 20 x 15 x 4-5.50
centimetres. For the most part its width is 70 m, but in one place it is 1.40 cm
wide. It evidently formed part of a building which was erected there after the
palace had fallen into decay. A doorway toward the eastern end of the main
wall measures 80 cm in width. The average height of these walls is a little over
a metre, and their foundations are at a level of 131 cm above datum. East of
platform "N" and contiguous to and exactly opposite the middle of it was a large
basin "H" with a flat base, measuring 105 cm in diameter at the top and 130 cm
at the base. It is made of plano-convex bricks, both broken and whole, and is
thickly plastered with bitumen. The depth of the basin is 49 centimetres. Its
upper edge is at a level of 151 cm above datum and on the same level as the platform
to which it evidently belonged.
The two hatched walls denoted by the letter "A" between them are built of
bricks measuring 25 x 25 x 10 cm, whose upper and lower surfaces are perfectly
flat. Square bricks of this size have been found nowhere else in Kish, except in
the square column marked "F" on the plan, and for this reason it is at present
impossible to date them. I would regard these bricks as being the link between
the largest-sized plano-convex brick and the large Sargonic brick, and, therefore,
as belonging to the pre-Sargonic period. Both these walls are 50 cm, or two
bricks thick, and their average height is 144 centimetres. The foundations of the
walls are an average of 33 cm below datum. The column "F" measures 1 m square
and 99 cm high. Its base is at a level of 53 cm below datum.
To the east of the two walls "A" is seen a group of walls belonging to two
different periods. The wall "C" at the west is 18 by 1.15 m, and is built of
well-made sun-dried bricks measuring 27 x 9.50 x 10 centimetres. It is evidently an
important structure and may possibly have been a boundary wall. It is illustrated
in Plate XXVI, Figs. 1-3, but the short flights of steps on the eastern side of it
in Fig. 1 were merely made for the convenience of our workmen. At its southern
end, the wall stands 1.02 m high, with its foundations at a level of 1.29 below
datum. At the northern end the wall is 2.66 m high, and the foundations 76
cm below datum. These levels show that the wall was built upon sloping gi'ound,
which is quite a likely procedure in the case of a boundary wall for which the
earth need not be levelled. As regards its date, we are on surer ground. The same
size of brick was used in building this wall as has been found in the ruined build-
ing dated to the period of Hammurabi (2180 B.C.) on the south-west side of the
Ziggurat at Tell Ahaimir.
The irregular group of walls to the east of "C" (lettered "B") are built of wellmade
unbaked bricks measuring 39 x 23 x 8 centimetres. These walls, of which