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BANESH EXCAVATIONS AT OPERATION ABC

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ABC Layers

Banesh-TUV

Kaftari

Qaleh Kiln

Elamite

Bibliography

 

Aerial View of Operation ABC from the South, 1976

This aerial photograph shows Operation ABC at a late stage of the 1976 season. The sounding to virgin soil, seen here as a small shaded rectangle near the center of the operation, was enlarged and completed in 1978. The north south wall cut by the deep sounding belongs to the earliest building (ABC BL 5) excavated at the site. The curved wall running in the shade from north to south belongs to ABC BL 4. Stubs of ABC BL 3 walls and hearths are barely visible below the base of the ABC BL 2 east west wall that is partly covered by freshly excavated earth from BL 5. see ABC Layers The walls in the shade near the west edge of the operation belong to BL 2. The BL 2 walls were capped by a pebbly erosion surface on which rested Kaftari trash deposits and fragmentary buildings labeled ABC BL 1. Several Kaftari wells and pits can be seen as circular or oval openings at the bottom of BL 5 and in the east-west BL 2 wall.

Bibliography Alden, Blackman, Miller, Pittman, Sumner, Zeder

ABC2PEtab1685 ABC3step

Proto-Elamite clay tablet (5 cm long) from the north corridor in ABC BL 2. The "hairy triangle" sign, upper right, is found at Susa and Tepe Yahya.

Bibliography— M. Stolper

Some 30 fragments of wall paintings were found either on top of ABC BL 3 walls or at the same level in the fill within BL 3 rooms. Step and triangle patterns as seen here, s shaped patterns, and rosettes were found in various combinations. The paintings had been mounted in large recessed panels on walls painted red. see ABC Layers

Bibliography — Janet Nickerson

ABCgoldleopard

Gold foil leopard found in dump while excavating ABC BL 3.