ASSIROS: THE PHASE 2 SETTLEMENT: 1
Despite the shallow deposits, it was possible to uncover almost the whole of the settlement area for this phase, except in the southern part of the site where erosion has occurred. Most of two large ranges of 'rooms' and parts of a third have been explored. The fierce destruction fire had baked the bricks so hard that at first they seemed intentionally fired. The height of the sides of the mound - by now 14 meters above the surrounding plain - was probably a good enough defence since only slight traces of a perimeter wall were found around the summit.
The mudbricks used in this phase were narrower than those of the Bronze Age buildings, but the walls still had a timber frame. The rooms usually measured 6x4m and some contained neat circular clay hearths set into the floor (4, 13, 20) while others had cupboard like storage features (3, 5, 8, 13). Rooms with cupboards contained large quantities of whole pottery vessels - Room 2 alone contained 17- but those with circular hearths had very few if any. It seems likely that the hearths were in unroofed areas while the pottery was in roofed interiors.
One room (10) contained a loom in situ, while in another (5) there were enough weights for two looms: one of these may have been in use but the weights for the other were stored in a cupboard, perhaps below a low bench, together with a number of broken pot handles which could also have served as weights.
Phase 2 plan superimposed on Phase 6.
Following the destruction fire some of the buildings were patched up (Phase 1.5) but occupation of the summit of the mound ceased for a hundred years or more until the buildings of Phase 1 were erected,
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