536 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 3 5 



In 1927-28 Dr. Chiera, assisted by Eichard F. S. Starr, of Harvard 

 University, and Emmanuel Wilensky, an architect, completed the 

 work on the houses of Shurkitilla and of Tehiptilla, excavated an- 

 other small mound covering the remains of two similar adjoining 

 houses belonging to Zigi and Shiiwateshub, respectively, and began 

 the excavations of the largest mound in the vicinity, Yorghan Tepe, 

 where he uncovered the central portion of the official residence of the 

 governor of the city of Nuzi. Of the tablets belonging to the archives 

 of Zigi and Shiiwateshub, numbering more than a thousand, 265 have 

 been edited in two volumes, prepared by Dr. Chiera and the present 

 writer, respectively. 



In 1928-29 the present writer, with the assistance of Mr. Starr, Mr. 

 Wilensky, and Mr. P. Delougaz, continued the excavation of Yorghan 

 Tepe, completing the work on about half of its surface. The great 

 central palace and the two less pretentious residential areas adjoining 

 it (see fig. 1), all dating from about 1500 B. C, were uncovered, and 

 a test pit through the lower levels (in N120) yielded information 

 about the occupation of the site during the third millennium B. C. 



In 1929-30 Mr. Starr, assisted by Prof. H. F. Lutz, of the Uni- 

 versity of California, Charles Bache, of the University Museum in 

 Philadelphia, Robert W. Erich, who made an anthropological study 

 of the skeletal remains and the burials, and Mr. Wilensky, discovered 

 the two temples situated on the northwestern half of Yorghan Tepe 

 (see figs. 2 and 3), uncovered a portion of the city wall at the south- 

 western edge of the mound, and investigated Kudish Zaghir, a pre- 

 historic mound in the vicinity. 



In 1930-31 Mr. Starr, with Prof. Theophile J. Meek, of the Uni- 

 versity of Toronto, Mr. Bache, and Mr. Wilensky, completed the 

 excavation of the upper levels of Yorghan Tepe and explored the 

 lower levels in the temple area and in room L4 of the palace. In the 

 latter pit he found more than 200 tablets dating from the third millen- 

 nium, which proved that before the coming of the Hurrians, about 

 1900 B. C, the city standing on the site of Yorghan Tepe was called 

 Ga-sur. These archaic tablets have been published by Dr. Meek. 



THE STRATIFICATION OF THE MOUND OF NUZI 



Yorghan Tepe rises on the average 5.5 meters above the present 

 level of the plain. Virgin soil was reached only at three points : in 

 room N120, at a depth of 5.4 meters below the level of the plain ; in 

 room L4, at a depth of 6.45 meters ; and in a well in the court of the 

 northern temple at a depth of 8.33 meters. The pit in room L4 was 

 the most rewarding of the three. The 15 distinct levels of human 



