 | XNCF | This area lies along the edge of northwest temenos wall east of the Nebuchadnezzar Corner Fort (NCF). It was partly explored in season 1 when late graves were found in what at that time were called Cemeteries X, Y, and Z. In seasons 10 and 11 the larger area of late domestic space, or mostly that to the northwest, was more systematically excavated as area NNCF and the 'cemeteries' were found to be graves beneath heavily deteriorated late houses.
Publication of area XNCF in UE8 discusses the remains of domestic buildings found east of NCF and Warad Sin's Bastion along the temenos wall and the northern extent of the Nanna Courtyard (PD). XNCF as a whole, however, appears to have included the long range of Kassite magazines extending under and somewhat beyond the Neo-Babylonian temenos wall. These were broken into rows A, B, and C, and field catalogue cards referring to XNCF often record one of these letters and a room number in the contextual notes. Thus XNCF contained public buildings between the ziggurat terrace and the temenos wall (including a clear reference to the Kuriglazu addition to the Warad Sin Bastion), and domestic buildings and burials somewhat beyond (north of) the northwest temenos wall. | (none) |
 | Ziggurat Terrace | ZT | The excavation area abbreviation ZT stands for Ziggurat Terrace. It was used for any portion of the terrace on which the ziggurat stood, though other more specific abbreviations were also used. For example, the abbreviation PDW refers to the northern side of the terrace, west of the Great Nannar Courtyard (PD), and HD refers to the southern part of the terrace. Early references using the abbreviation ZT refer specifically to excavations along the terrace retaining wall itself. Later references, however, mention specific areas on top the terrace such as the so-called 'boat shrine.' The abbreviation also refers to deep clearing of the terrace fill, particularly on the north side in later excavation seasons, though the abbreviation Zig.31 was most often used for this.
Woolley uncovered large areas of the retaining wall that supported the platform known as the ziggurat terrace. He found that it was decorated with large wall cones. These cones bore an inscription of Urnamma but there is evidence that the terrace in some form existed in the Early Dynastic period as well. The Urnamma retaining wall was slanted to support the terrace, was 1.7 meters high, 34 meters wide, and was decorated with 5-meter-wide buttresses about 4 meters apart. The inscribed cones dedicate the terrace to the moon god, Nanna, and show that it was called e-temen-ni-gur, which translates as, "house, foundation platform clad in terror." (Woolley read this e-temen-ni-il). | (none) |