Current Excavations
Season 6: 2024
Introduction
The sixth season of the Lagash Archaeological Project took place from October 16 through November 17, 2024. Excavations continued in Area H, complemented by remote sensing and geoarchaeological sampling.
Excavation
Trench 3
Previous excavations in Trench 3 during the 2022 and 2023 seasons had exposed a series of rooms with extensive food storage and preparation facilities from the late Early Dynastic I period. During the fall 2024 season, excavations continued below this “eatery” phase, exposing part of an earlier building with two open courtyards.
The artifacts from the earliest level so far excavated indicate that this building was mainly given over to pottery production activities. These objects include baked and unbaked clay tools, unbaked pottery sherds, and fragments of two large baked clay hubs for wheels.
In one of the courtyards, a clay platform with pierced holes was found with unbaked potsherds scattered on its top. This platform likely served as a drying area for pots prior to their firing in a nearby kiln, the presence of which (probably in the unexcavated area immediately south of the trench boundary) was indicated by ashy deposits, as well as pottery waste and slag, from the same courtyard and adjacent rooms.
Trench 7
The location for Trench 7 was chosen based on geomagnetic survey results indicating the presence of kilns, which made it a promising spot for further investigation of Early Dynastic IIIA pottery production in Area H.
Excavations revealed two kilns and associated installations. Each kiln had a slight above-ground structure and an underground chamber, which was used for placing pots and fuel. Small, donut-shaped clay rings were found inside one of the kilns, where they likely served to stabilize vessels during firing.
Additional installations near the kilns, including a circular mudbrick platform, a larger semicircular platform, and a rectangular bench, probably served as working areas and drying- or staging-places for unbaked pottery prior to firing.
Trench 8
Investigation of Trench 8, which is situated in the western sector of Area H, began with scraping the topsoil layer to expose the tops of features immediately beneath. The eastern part of the trench contained at least four circular discard pits filled with ashy gray soil, while the western part revealed evidence of a mudbrick structure, as well as a significant concentration of stone artifacts and unworked pieces of stone. This assemblage suggests that the structure may have functioned as a workshop for stone objects.
Notable finds include a polishing stone of serpentine and a cylinder seal depicting kneeling figures arranged tête-bêche.
Remote Sensing: Magnetometry
Magnetometry in Area H filled in gaps remaining from the first season’s work and expanded overall coverage to the west. As the team’s experience reading magnetograms in tandem with excavations and aerial imagery increases, we can now confidently identify roads, walls, canals, drains, and kilns by their shape and/or their distinctive magnetic signatures.
One of the main roads through the Area H neighborhood, a prominent feature in the magnetograms, could be located on the mound surface following mid-season rain, since alignments of small potsherds corresponded exactly with the road visible in the remote sensing imagery.
Based on current evidence from magnetometry and excavations, Area H can be tentatively divided into three main zones, separated from one another by a watercourse and road, with internal divisions into regularly sized, roughly square blocks.
Geoarchaeology
Geoarchaeological work this season was focused on understanding ceramic production in ancient Lagash. A composite sampling protocol was developed for this purpose. This included taking samples on site from kilns in Trenches 1, 2, and 7 for micromorphological analysis. In addition, portable X-Ray Fluorescent spectroscopy of ceramic artifacts and the collection of clay samples from surrounding contexts, which were processed at the site to create briquettes, will allow us to establish connections between raw material sources and final products.