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

118 A SUMERIAN PALACE AND "A" CEMETERY, KISH
three stand at right angles to a longer wall of irregular thickness, average 34 cm
in height, and foundations are at a level of 86 cm below datum. In the space between
the two southernmost walls there was a bitumen pavement, 2 cm thick, at
a level of 77 cm below datum. From the size of the bricks I would date this group
of walls to a period of a little later than Hammurabi, perhaps that of Samsuiluna.
Farther to the east is a remnant of an important building, marked "E." Its
widest part is 1.50 m thick, and a doorway was found in it measuring 80 cm in
width. The size of the bricks of which this wall is built is 27 x 19.50 x 10 cm; that
is, exactly the same size as in wall "C" with which it was probably once connected.
This wall when found stood about 72 cm high, with its base 36 cm below datum.
The enclosure marked "W" in the plan is a pit that contains a number of
graves of the Greek period. It measures roughly 8.40 x 5 m, with walls averaging
from 30 to 50 cm in height. No bricks were found in the sides of the pit; they
seem to have been simply of mother earth coated with a thick layer of mud
plaster. Owing to denudation it is not known how high the walls of this chamber
formerly were. When discovered, the top of the wall was 2.49 m above datum,
whereas the surface of the ground was 2.71 m above. The entrance to this pit
is at the north, and a recess there seems to have been intended to take a door.
The floor is paved with bricks of a late date, both whole and broken, whose dimensions
are 31 x 31 x 8 centimetres. The same-sized brick is also found in the
large mound "W," to the west of the "A" mound, which is entirely composed of
Neo-Babylonian buildings, and the bricks of this burial chamber were probably
taken from that site.
On the pavement at the south of the chamber there is a coliimn measuring 90
by 70 cm, which stands 34 cm high, that is, four courses in height. At the north is
what appears to be a small piece of walling, measuring 25 cm in thickness and 55
cm in length, built of broken brick plastered with mud. The top of this wall is 2.40
cm above datum. The pavement is in some places laid more than two bricks deep,
and its surface is at a level of 2.28 m above. Only mud mortar is used in lay-
ing the pavement of which, however, a good portion has been removed, prob-
ably by brick robbers. In the northern portion of the chamber were found the
bones of at least six bodies much confused as if they had been placed on top of one
another, and orientated N. E. to S. W. The objects found with these bodies had
been weathered badly. Some are shown in Plates XX and XVII, Figs. 8-14 and
XLVII, Fig. 8; they are fully described in the last chapter.
In many parts of mound "A" were found pottery drains evidently belonging
to later buildings which have been denuded away. Though these drains in the
present state of our knowledge are of little use for chronological purposes, they
have been marked in black in the skeleton plan of the palace, and are fully de-
scribed below. In the north-west corner of chamber 7 there is a vertical pottery
drain made up of segments, 53 cm in diameter and 40 cm high, and open above
and below. In each segment there is a pair of small holes for additional drainage
in the middle of each of the opposite sides. The space between the debris filling
the chamber and the segments was filled in with broken pottery, and into this