The Survey at Fāra

Otto, Adelheid; Einwag, Berthold

doi:10.2307/j.ctv10tq3zv.28

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Area B has never been investigated before. Our findings of multiple fireplaces complement the survey results that this area of the lower town was used for pottery production (Otto & Einwag, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

“…Area A lies south, 5 to 10 m distant to trench II (see Section 2.1 and Figure 3). Our identification of buildings or settlement structures visible in the magnetogram are partly confirmed and complemented by drone photos taken after rainfall (Otto & Einwag, 2020). Both the magnetogram and the drone images show streets and the ground plans of houses with several rooms and courtyards.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 62%

“…By the end of the campaign, one search trench, heading from north-north-east to south-south-west, and 20 trenches, heading east to west, were transecting the mound (see Figure 3). These excavation trenches, their debris and the Kal'a, the excavation house, are still visible today, especially in the elevation model (Otto & Einwag, 2020). The excavation uncovered dozens of socalled houses of which only around 15 were excavated and later described in detail (Heinrich & Andrae, 1931, pp.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Where was the palace of the ruler which headed the centralized administration, and where was the temple of the city goddess Sud (Otto & Einwag, 2020, p. 295)? These were the reasons for the magnetometer survey at Fara in 2018, which accompanied the conventional surface survey of the site in the framework of the Fara Regional Survey Project FARSUP (Otto & Einwag, 2020). Magnetometer prospection has proven to be an adequate tool to prospect Mesopotamian sites (e.g., Becker & Fassbinder, 2001;Creekmore, 2010;Darras & Vallet, 2021;Fassbinder et al, 2005;Lambers et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Revisiting Fara: Comparison of merged prospection results of diverse magnetometers with the earliest excavations in ancient Šuruppak from 120 years ago

Hahn

Fassbinder

Otto³

et al. 2022

Archaeological Prospection

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Ancient Šuruppak, today Fara, was one of the major Sumerian cities in Mesopotamia. It was situated along one of the ancient watercourses of the Euphrates River. Findings date it back to the Jemdet Nasr period around 3000 bc with a continuous occupation until the end of the Ur III period around 2000 bc. Fara was first explored and excavated by the Deutsche Orient‐Gesellschaft in the years 1902 and 1903 under the direction of Walter Andrae. Multiple excavation trenches with lengths up to 900 m transect the 1 km2 wide mound and are still visible today which enables us to georeference the excavation maps. Today, the 2.2 km2 wide archaeological area is dry and without any vegetation. Thousands of deep looting pits are covering the majority of mound which not only destroyed its upper metres but also challenge the application of geophysical prospection methods and their interpretation. The magnetometer prospecting of selected areas on and around the mound was carried out with three devices, two total field magnetometers and one gradiometer. The individual survey areas were combined in post‐processing by applying a high‐pass filter on the total field data sets and multiplying the vertical gradiometer data sets by a factor of two. This approach provides visually uniform magnetograms, despite being obtained by different devices, which simplifies subsequent visual interpretation. These magnetograms enable us to review, and to extend the results of the old excavations. The comparison show a good correlation in accuracy to the old drawings and positive identification of the already excavated features with magnetometry. Highlights of the survey are the discovery of the city wall confirming its existence, the layout of a unique building complex in the centre of the mound, likely a temple, traces of canals inside the city and an evaluation of magnetometer prospection over a looted area.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 62%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%