Three weeks of hard work at Tell Khaiber have confirmed the presence of at least one monumental building. Satellite images, combined with the geophysical prospection programme, show it to be square, and to measure least 80 x 80 metres. Rooms excavated along the eastern side of the building have solid pavements of regular mud bricks, and one, perhaps a large hall, has a series of beautifully plastered floors – the care and detail of the construction reinforcing the special nature of the building.
Of course, it is much too early to say if it is a temple or a palace or an administrative complex. The pottery above the latest brick pavements dates to the early second millennium BC, to the Isin-Larsa or possibly to the Old Babylonian period, but there is also material from Early Dynastic I (2800BC), nearly a ...
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