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dimensions, The continuation of ecaation in 199 ill doubtless roide an anser.
e Tenle
The ecaation in this sector is no nearly comleted. t has roduced much
information, sometimes uneectecd, and has articularly brought into question to
idesread ideas.
The study of the stratigrahy first of all quicly demonstrated the relatie
antiquity of this ing of the comle, of hich the original lan no seems to date
to at least the Late Kassite eriod (about the 14th century BC) if not earlier. Let us
remember that the or of our Danish redecessors, as ell as our reliminary
analysis founded on the lan blished by G. Bibby, led to the idea of a construction
contemorary to the "residence' of the first half of the first millennium BC. This
earlier date better elains, then, the sie and the diersity of the rebuilding reealed
during the receding architectural studyes: clearly the building, erhas "rotected"
by its ossible sacred character and religious funciton, as regﻫlarly maintained,
reaired, een rebuilt or enlarged, but et its original structure intact.
During the first camaigns, hoeer, the deeloment of the ecaaiton led us
raidly to quesiton the analysis of circulation at the heart of the building, as had been
Figure 1 Original stnge of the illared hall.
roosed by Daid Oates during the Barhain Through the Ages Cofnerence (1986
44). nstead of the rincial enrtance to the north ihch he assumed, it is an eten
sion of the comle hich aeared, and hich resents seeral architectural stages.
hTe oldest consists of a ast hall of ca. 16m, ith a ceiling or roof suorted by
to consrtucted illars of ihch the eastermost is sitll resered to almost m in
height (Figure 1) To the east, four lastered stes of a stairay are resered. rhTee