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BiblicalArchaeolog t Perspectiveson the Ancient Worldfrom Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean A Publication of the American Schools of Oriental Research

Page 188

Volume 55 Number 4 December 1992

Pushing back the Frontiersof Mesopotamian Prehistory TrevorWatkins

176

The Halaf Periodin Iraq:Old Sites and New Stuart Campbell

182

A series of chance discoveriesand salvageexcavationsin north Mesopotamiarevealed many sites that belongedto the early neolithic periodbetween 8000 and 6000 B.C.E.These producedintriguinginformationon the processesof changethat culminatedin the wide establishment of villages basedon a mixed farmingeconomy,providingnew insights on the "Neolithic Revolution."

From about 5200 B.C.E. to 4500 B.C.E., large numbers of Halaf communities appear over a very

largeareaof northernIraq,northernSyriaandsouthernTurkey.Until recently,it was believed that the Halaforiginatedin northernSyria,but new evidence shows the Halafseems to have evolvedfromlocalized Neolithic cultures,more or less simultaneously,overmuch of its later range.

The FirstFarmersat 'Oueili Jean-LouisHuot

Page 196

188

The first cities of the ancient worldappearedin lowerMesopotamiaduringthe Uruk period (3500-3200 B.C.E.). Tocomprehendfully how these societies made the transitionfrom a hunting and gatheringlifestyle to an agriculturalone, these sites must be investigated thoroughly.Recentresearchat Tell el-'Oueilihas addeda new perspective.

JemdetNasr:the Site and the Period RogerJ.Matthews

196

The site andchronologicalphaseknownas JemdetNasrwereinitially discoveredin the 1920s. Subsequentexcavationsin Mesopotamiafailedto turnup additionalevidencefor the period, and its validity as a chronologicalphase came into doubt.A recent programof researchinto JemdetNasr, however,has confirmedand furtherdefinedthe chronologicalphase.

RoyalBuildingActivity At SumerianLagashin the EarlyDynastic Period 206 Donald P Hansen

The EarlyDynastic periodof Sumerianhistory,from about 2900 to 2340 B.C.E.,was the age in southernMesopotamiaof the early city-states.In recentyears,large-scaleexcavationsat the site of al-Hiba,the ancient city of Lagash,in southeasternIraqhaveaddedto our knowledge of both the EarlyDynastic I phase as well as the historic periodof EarlyDynastic IIIB.

Mashkan-shapirand the Anatomy of an Old BabylonianCity Elizabeth C. Stone and Paul Zimansky

212

West of Edin:Tell al-Deylam and the BabylonianCity of Dilbat JamesA. Armstrong

219

UC Berkeley'sExcavationsat Nineveh David Stronach and Stephen Lumsden

227

Fromthe Editor'sDesk Letterto the Readers the Authors Introducing

170 174 172

Book Reviews In Memoriam:

234 236

The earliest textual referencesto Mashkan-shapirdepict a town with humble origins. Duringthe first quarterof the second millennium B.C.E.,however,Mashkan-shapirbecame one of the most prominentcities in Mesopotamiabecauseof its location at the northernmost point where the systems of the Tigris and Euphratesriversconvergedsufficiently to permit navigationbetween them.

Page 227

Tell al-Deylamhas been identifiedwith the ancient city of Dilbat since the late nineteenth century when Dilbat tabletswere discoveredthere.However,because of the mannerin which the tablets were found,there havebeen persistentquestions aboutthe modernname and the location of the ruins of ancient Dilbat. Recentexcavationsat the site confirm that Tell al-Deylamis the site of the ancient Babyloniancity of Dilbat.

The city of Nineveh was the dazzlingcapitalof the far-flungNeo-Assyrianempirebeforeit was defeatedby a combined forceof Medesand Babyloniansin 612 B.C.E.The ruins of the ancient city arenow threatenedby the rapidgrowthof the moderncity of Mosul, which has shapedall of the recent excavationsat the site, includingthose held by the Universityof California,Berkeley,between 1987and 1990.

Douglas

Esse

Back cover: Ur: E-Hursag in foreground, Ziggurat in background. Front cover: Ur Ziggurat with bomb crater from the Gulf war in the foreground. Photos courtesy Paul Zimansky.

From

AsI

the

Editor

s

Desk

completemytenthyearaseditorofBiblicalArchae-

ologist with this issue, I find it somewhat surprising that of all the issues in the field, the last severalyears have seen the returnof the Dead Sea Scrolls to center stage after some 40 years.If ever there was a story to enjoy such a second round of attention, I would not have expected it to be this. But perhapsthat is because it is not so much the retelling of the story of their discovery and decipherment that is being done, but ratherthat along with the retelling has come a media circus the likes of which has neverbeforeoccurredin the fields of biblical and archaeologicalstudies. Cartoons have noted that the Scrolls contain the best chocolate chip cookie recipe, that Elvis' remains have been spotted in the tombs at Qumran, and that politicians should seek solutions to the Middle Eastpeace negotiations in some of the texts. Calls foropen access to hard-to-readphotographshave given way now to a discussion of how to publish them. Accusations of an historical or theological coveruphave faded somewhat into the backgroundas the print and broadcast media finally get hold of the facts from qualified scholars.Rationality is being restoredagain, and ASOR and the Society of Biblical Literatureareplanning to adoptformal measures regardingthe issues of publication and pre-publicationaccess to written and non-written artifacts. No quarterlymagazinethat seeks to reflect the broadinput of its society's membershipcan adequatelykeep pace with such news-making events. Nonetheless, BA has from time to time been able to join the discussion in timely and constructive ways. Should the magazine ever move towarda bi-monthly format, and I believe it should, it might be possible to reportnew discoveries shortly after excavation. Meanwhile, there have been numerous other significant changes in the field that BA reportsand ASORseeks to represent.Many of them are still in an early stage of development, others are more or less behind

170

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

us. One significant new field enjoying a kind of renaissance is Islamic archaeology,another is Cultural Resource Management (CRM). WhenI becameeditor,the debateoverthe natureof "biblical archaeology"hadalreadybeen proclaimeddead.My predecessor, David Noel Freedman,opined that the controversy"had not provedparticularlyuseful or productive"(1982:195).He called for the scientific prosecution of each discipline: archaeological research and biblical studies. He hoped that the interests of each discipline could serve to clarifyor resolveproblems in the other. However, he correctly observed that there were few people qualified in both disciplines; 10 years later, I must concur in that judgment. And while others have called for a dialogue between the two (Dever 1985), how many fruitful exchanges there have been in the field is open to debate. Certainly there have been many attempts. Just recently Hershel Shanks (1992), editor of Biblical Archaeology Review, also lamented the dearthof people "who can handle, deal with and understandfrom the inside the materials of both disciplines."The late Nahman Avigad,in a rather reflective mood at his home in the summer of 1990, told me and my wife, Carol, and FrankCross and his wife, Betty Ann, that he feared the new generation of archaeologists would be unable to interpret adequately the material they uncover because of their over-specializationin technical skills and lack of preparationin historical and textual matters (E.Meyers 1992). Where there has been an attempt to broadenthe intellectual horizons of biblical archaeology to include, for example, the quest to reconstruct the social world of antiquity (Meyers and Meyers 1989),or where the intersection of biblical studies and archaeologyhas been effectively achieved,however,many new insights have been gained and new vistas explored. As all readersof BA know, the purview of ASOR has been growingformanyyears.The establishmentof the CyprusAmerican ArchaeologicalResearchInstitute on Cyprusmore than 20 years ago signaled the society's desire to bridgethe intellectual divide that separates Athens from Jerusalem, Istanbul from Amman. Todaythere is talk in variousquartersin supportof the establishment of an overseasresearchcenter in Syria,part and parcelof a largerintellectual concern of looking at the entire region of the eastern Mediterraneanas a whole across modern political boundaries, of making interconnections within cultural and chronologicalepochs in orderto betterunderstandthe full impact of archaeologicaldataalreadyin hand in most of the MiddleEastcountriesin which Americansworkor haveworked (Egypt,Israel,Cyprus,Jordan,Syria,Lebanon,Iraq,Thrkey,Iran). To make note of these largerconcerns, after much discussion and a poll of the editorial committee of BA and of many ASOR members, a new subtitle was recently added to the magazine: "Perspectiveson the Ancient Worldfrom Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean."But the addition of this subtitle is a mere

attempt to hold together an emerging constituency whose interests are broadeningbeyond the range of coveragenormally associated with biblical archaeology or even Syro-Palestinian archaeology. Despite Albright's all-inclusive understanding of the meaning of biblical archaeology,notwithstanding and despite the valiant efforts of his most eloquent defender of that term (Cross 1973:20), the fact remains that in 1992, there are fewer than ever qualified individuals who can straddlethe two difficult and continually maturing disciplines of SyroPalestinian archaeology and biblical studies; and for those scholars concerned with differentparts of the Near East, biblical studies on the literary-textualside simply may have little relevance. In additionto the issue of broadeningbiblical archaeology's cultural perspective, there is another challenge facing ASOR and the magazine and journals that describe and reportthe research activities of the overseas centers and membership.The challenge is CRM and many of the activities associated with it. CRM extends the chronological rangeof archaeologyfrom the more distant past into the recent past with its emphasis on restoration of archaeologicalremains of all periods for use in the present. Establishmentof local museums, construction of tourist facilities, reconstructionof archaeologicalremains,preparation of access roads to out-of-the-waysites are as much part of CRM as is the development of a national interest in local history and culture and also an international appreciationof that culture. CRM is becoming a distinctive way in which developing nations present their national heritage and identity to the outside world of tourists, scholars and other interested visitors and observers. How individual countries engage the past in defining their' present should, in my view, become one of the central issues in any sort of archaeology today, however it may be defined, wherever it is practiced, and whatever it is to be called. This magazine and other ASOR publications should thus be prepared to address such fields as "historical"or Islamic archaeology as this century drawsto a conclusion, andto publicize and describe and criticize, where appropriate,the progressof CRM in the various countries of the Middle East. Similarly, as ASOR'snew section on archaeology in the public schools gets off the ground, it would be good to have another, written forum in which ideas on teaching Near Eastern archaeology in the context of courses in "WorldHistory" would be aired.WhetherBA will be an appropriatemedium for such exchange, I leave to my successors to decide. The point I would like to make is that while the debateover "biblicalarchaeology"may be a thing of the past, the phenomenon of "biblical archaeology"may prevent people working in variousdisciplines and in variousareasof Near Easternculture and archaeology from adequately sharing their views with a largeraudience, who I believe would be most eagerto learn and

hear from scholars with differentperspectiveson similar problems and who hold differentviews on the same historical periods. So, forexample, why should the people working in Syriaor Thrkey not be sharing their research with those working in Israel or Jordan?Is the very nomenclature of biblical archaeology not somewhat limiting in the broaderNear Easterncontext, putting political considerations aside? In this connection, OxfordUniversity Pressandthe editors of ASOR'sencyclopedia have decided to rename their project "Encyclopediaof Near EasternArchaeology,"previously called "Encyclopediaof Archaeologyin the BiblicalWorld."Hopefully in the new formatsome of those largerconcerns of the field may be brought to bear on the specific problems that confront the "oldarchaeology"as it is practiced in various countries of the region, encouragingscholars to view a problemin the smallest context or in a particularcountry of a particularsub-regionof the Middle East. It is perhapsindicative of the times that I end my term as editor with a special issue focusing on the archaeology of Iraq. During the past decade, many individuals have helped me make BA into the magazine it is today.Those people justly deserve much of the credit for the numerous publishing awards BA has received during that time. Their names appearin our masthead, and I express to them my sincerest gratitude.Todd McGee, Senior Editor,has been extraordinarilyhelpful during this most recent periodof transition. I would also like to thank those who servedon the editorial committee through the past decade for their assistance and to express my appreciationto all the outside readersfor the time they contributed to "peer review."My editorship has been even more gratifying than I expected, and observing the many changes in the field via the hundredsof articles submitted has been a true learning experience. I wish my successor in this position, David Hopkins, every success.

Bibliography Cross, F.M. 1973 W.E Albright'sView of Biblical Archaeologyand its Methodology.Biblical Archaeologist 36: 2-5. Dever,W.G. 1985 Syro-PalestinianArchaeology and Biblical Archaeology.Pp. 31-74 in The Hebrew Bible and Its Interpreters,edited by D. A. Knightand G. M. Thcker.Chico: ScholarsPress. Freedman,D. N. 1982 Letterto the readers.Biblical Archaeologist 45: 195-96. Meyers,C., and Meyers,E. 1989 Expandingthe Frontiersof BiblicalArchaeology.EretzIsrael20: 140-47. Meyers,E. 1992 Nahman Avigad (1905-1992). Proceedings of the American Academy forlewish Research,volume 58. Shanks,H. 1992 The Dangers of Dividing Disciplines. Biblical Archaeology Review 18 (5):64.

Eric M. Meyers Editor-in-Chief

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

171

JamesA. Armstrong

the Authors Introducing

Elizabeth C. Stone Stuart Campbell

RogerMatthews

Donald P Hansen

Stephen Lumsden

Jean-LouisHuot

StuartCampbell completed his first degreeat the University of Edinburgh in 1984, studying the Halaf pottery from the site of KharabehShattani as his master'sthesis. Since then he has workedextensively on both excavating and survey in northern Iraq and in other Near Eastern countries. He is now finishing his Ph.D. on the Hassuna and Halaf periods in north Mesopotamia, again at Edinburgh, while working as a free-lance archaeologist and computer typesetter. Donald P. Hansen, Stephen Chan Professor of Ancient Middle EasternArt and Archaeology of the Institute of Fine Arts of New YorkUniversity, has excavatedwidely in various countries of the Near East including Turkey, Iran,Egyptand Iraq.In Iraqhe has directedexcavationsat TellAbu Salabikhforthe OrientalInstitute of the University of Chicago and is currently director of the Institute of Fine Arts-MetropolitanMuseum of Art Expedition to al-Hiba (ancient Lagash).

Although he has also dug in Italy, Tunisia and Jordan, JamesA. Armstronghas workedmostly in Iraq,where for many yearshe has been a member of the team excavating Nippur on behalf of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. As a Fulbright scholar in Iraq during 1989-90,he directed the first modern excavations at Tell al-Deylam, ancient Dilbat. Dr. Armstrong is a research associate at the Oriental Institute, where he is also a lecturer in Syro-PalestinianArchaeology.

172

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

Jean-LouisHuot is Professor of Middle Eastern Archaeology at the Sorbonne(Universitede ParisI).He is Director of the Delegation Archeologique Francaisen Iraqand of the excavations at Larsaand 'Oueili. He has written several books dealing with the archaeology of Turkey, Iran and Iraq. Formerly Director of the Institut d'Art et d'Archeologie in Paris, he is currently Director of the Ecole Doctorale d'Archeologie (GraduateSchool of Archaeology).

Watkins 7Trevor

PaulZimansky David Stronach

Stephen Lumsden received his Ph.D. in Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of California,Berkeley,in 1990. He is the ASORMesopotamian Fellow for 1992-93, in which capacity he is continuing his studies of Nineveh. He is currently teaching in the departments of Near EasternArchaeology and of the History of Art at Bilkent University in Ankara,Turkey. RogerMatthews is Director of the British Archaeological Expedition to Iraq.He receivedhis B.A. from the University of Manchester before taking an M. Phil. and Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge.His involvement on many Near Eastern projects includes Field Director at the Sumeriancity of Abu Salabikh,andhe directs his own field project at JemdetNasr in central-southernIraq.He has lived in Iraqfor several years and has a particularinterest in the early development of writing, seals and administration, as well as in late prehistoric ceramics of Mesopotamia. ElizabethC. Stone receivedher Ph.D. fromthe University of Chicago in 1979. In addition to extensive field experience in England, Germany, Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, she has directed the archaeological project at Tell Abu Duwari (ancient Mashkan-shapir),Iraq,and assisted in the excavations at Tell Hamide, Iraq. She has been teaching in the Anthropology Department of the State University of New Yorkat Stony Brook since 1977.

David Stronach read Archaeology and Anthropology at CambridgeUniversity before holding Fellowships at the BritishInstitute of Archaeologyat Ankaraand the British School of Archaeology in Iraq.In 1960 he directedthe excavations at Ras al Amiya and in 1961 he was asked to direct the newly founded British Institute of Persian Studies. While in Iran he excavated at Pasargadaeand Tepe Nush-i Jan.He has been Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of California, Berkeley, since 1981. TrevorWatkinsteaches Near Easternprehistoryand protohistory at the University of Edinburghin Scotland, and has carriedout field research in Cyprus, northeast Syria and north Iraq. For four years he collaborated with the British ArchaeologicalExpeditionto Iraqon salvageexcavations in the TigrisRivervalley,workingon sites with occupations rangingfrombefore5000 B.C.E.to about 500 c.E. In 1990 he completed the third season of salvage excavation at a badly damagedearly prehistoric site at Tel Afar. Paul Zimansky receivedhis Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1980 and was a FulbrightLecturerat the University of Aleppo in 1981-82.Since 1983 he has taught in the Department of Archaeology at Boston University where he is an Associate Professor.He has excavatedat Nippur (Iraq),Bastam (Iran)and Ain Dara (Syria).Most recently he has directed excavations at Tell Hamide in northern Iraq and served as codirector of the Tell Abu Duwari Project.He is the editor of MarSipri,the newsletter of ASOR'scommittee on MesopotamianCivilization. Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

173

Letter

to

the

Readers

t is not withoutironythat the GulfWarfocusedpopular

attention on the land of ancient Mesopotamia and its contributions to human history at precisely the moment when scientific recoveryof its heritage, which had been quietly progressingfor decades,was precipitously interrupted. Sites havebeen bombed,museums looted, archaeologicalfieldwork halted, conservation efforts suspended and plundered artifacts funneled into the illicit antiquities markets. The moderninhabitantsof Iraq,who takegreatpridein their descent from the creators of the world'sfirst civilization, now suffer under conditions that compel them to devotetheir energies and resourcesto solving basic problemsof daily survivalratherthan explorationof the past. Yetthe Mesopotamianlegacyis unquestionablyprecious,andthe attentionthat political eventsbrought to Iraqdid much to highlight how little of what the specialists were doing was known to a wider public. If the stimulus forproducing a special issue of Biblical Archaeologist on this theme was unfortunate,the need for one is indisputable. Ancient Mesopotamia is best known as the home of the first greaturbancivilization, which came into existence in the southern floodplain during the fourth millennium B.C.E.Not only did humankind's first cities appearhere, but associated with them are a host of social and technical achievements that were to profoundlyimpact all subsequent societies in the Old World,and eventually the New; the wheel, writing, armies, law codes, astronomyand astrology,all make their first appearance in southern Iraq.A glimmer of the spiritual and intellectual creations of this civilization can be seen shining through the biblical versions of such stories as the Flood, the plight of the righteous sufferer,andthe discoveryof an infant leaderafloaton a river,not to mention more direct transmissions, such as the Epic of Gilgamesh. There is much more in Iraq'spast, however.Neanderthals and some of the occupied cavesin northernIraqby 70,000 B.C.E., most importantrecent discoveriesconcern the earliest agriculturalists who lived in the foothills andon the banksof the Tigris In historical from the eighth through the sixth millennia B.C.E. periods, Iraqwas a place in which many ethnic groupsand language families coexisted, and there was experimentationwith numerousformsof governmentandmechanisms for mobilizing social power. It was an important part of the Persian Empire, and Alexander the Great died in Babylon. In the time of the Romansand the Parthiansit was the frontierbetween East and West. After the Arabconquests, it became the most important center of powerin the world under the Abassid Califs. The articles in this issue coveronly the middle rangeof this extended sequence- fromthe early agriculturalsocieties in the areato Mesopotamia'searliestcivilizations.The last two decades havewitnessed a tremendousgrowthin ourknowledgeof these, due partly to the intense researchspawned by various salvage projectsin areasthreatenedby construction and other development projects, and partly by the increasing sophistication of modernarchaeology.All the authorsin this issue were conducting excavations in Iraqon the eve of the gulf war, and all have used this forcedrespite from fieldworkto take stock of our current understanding.

The issue begins with TrevorWatkins'sreview of the exciting new finds made in northern Iraqon very early agricultural and preagriculturalvillages. These sites have strong ties with similar developments known from the Levant,indicating that the move towards an agricultural economy took place over a much wider geographicalareathan previously assumed. Stuart Campbellthen offersnew insights on the Halaf,one of the more enigmatic of the Neolithic cultures of northernIraq,and shows the economic relationsbetween sites to havebeen characterized by an unsuspected complexity. Jean-LouisHuot'scontribution, concerned with his work at Tell el-'Oueili and the earliest inhabitation of the southern Mesopotamian plain, summarizes what is probably the most dramatic recent discovery in the south: Ubaid 0 and the light it sheds on continuity and integration between developments in southern Iraqand the neolithic sequence in the north. These articles demonstratehow modern researchis allowing the identification and analysis of the various strands of development that led, eventually, to what we know as Mesopotamiancivilization. Most of the other articles detail aspects of the first two millennia of urbanism. Roger Matthews, director of the British ArchaeologicalExpeditionin Iraq,returnsto the site of Jemdet Nasr to reevaluatethis importantearly urbansite and its role in the developmentof Mesopotamianculture. This is followed by Donald Hansen's discussion of his work at al-Hiba, ancient Lagash,a key site for understandingthe EarlyDynastic period and the florescence of Mesopotamia'scity-states. Our own discussion deals with a society dating a millennium later, and applies survey techniques to generate a preliminary understanding of the overall organization and structure of the city of Mashkan-shapir.The dark age that followed the demise of Mashkan-shapirand most of the other cities of southern Mesopotamia in the second quarterof the second millennium provides the context forJamesArmstrong'sworkat Deylam (ancient Dilbat). Here, in the northwest region of the southern floodplain, he sought a site that had not sufferedthe fate of those in the south, and where this enigmatic period in Mesopotamian history might be elucidated. This period of relative obscurity did not last forever,and in the first millennium Mesopotamia returnedto the worldscene with the largeempires of Babylonia and Assyria. Weend this volume, appropriately,with an article by David Stronachand Stephen Lumsdenon their recent work at Nineveh, perhaps the most famous of all Mesopotamian archaeological sites. Their work has shed new light on the organizationof this, the largestarchaeologicalsite in the Near East, and on its final defeat and destruction. The findings reported in this issue would not have been possible without the encouragement and cooperation of the Iraqi Department of Antiquities and Heritage, and especially the Director-Generalof Antiquities, Dr. Mu'ayadSaidDamerji. We all owe a special debt of gratitude to the generosity and professionalism of our colleagues in the department and the IraqMuseum, and to the hospitality of the Iraqipeople with whom we lived and worked. Guest CoordinatingEditors

ElizabethC. Stone and Paul Zimansky

174

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

Southern Mesopotamia

IraqChronological Chart

Traditional Period

Designations Politics Parthian

Developments

People

Northern Mesopotamia

Traditional Period Approx. dates Designations Politics B.CE.

Developments People

250 Seleucid

Death of Alexander

Persian

into Incorporated Persian empire

Heroditus's ofBabylon description

Neo-Babylonian empire Regional influence Assyrian Various dynastiesDark age

Kassite

500 Fall ofNineveh Neo-Assyrian Neo-Assyrian empire Massive stone 750 architecture

1250 Middle Assyrian Assyrian Middle empire Nuzi 1500

Mittannian ofNuzi empire Floruit

of Abandonment sites southern OldBabylonian Babylonian Samsuiluna hegemony CodeofHammurabi Hammurabi Rim-Sin 1750 OldAssyrian Larsa hegemony Sin-iddinam oversouth Isin-Larsa IsinandLarsa RiseofAmorite forcontrol dynasties compete Zabaya 2000 UrIII Ur-Nammu Peakofadministrative Empire bureaucracy Gutian Gudea Interregnum Collapse 2250 Akkadian Akkadian becomes Naram-Sin Empire written language Sargon III Early Dynastic II City-states

Nasr Jemdet

burials atUr 2500 Royal V Walled Eannatum Ninevite cities, palaces, city atexpense 2750 growth ofcountryside Gilgamesh? 3000 ofcuneiform, Origins riseof writing, andother Uruk cities

Uruk

Ubaid 2

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Small centers

at Temples Gawra Tepe

Halaf

instone Trade toolsandpottery

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1

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Northern 'Ubaid 4000 Farming villages

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Uruk expansion uptheEuphrates

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Kassite dominance Kassite rebuilding ofsouthern cities

I Assurbanipal Sennacherib

Samarran First known settlement atTell el-'Oueili

Hassunan

Walled settlements, andseals irrigation Ceramics

6000 distance trade Long inobsidian 7000 Neolithic Aceramic

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Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

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series ofchance discover-Sites of epi-palaeolithicand early neolithic date in IraqiNorth Mesopotamia.M'lefaat, ies and salvageexcavations has extended our knowledge of north Mesopotamian prehistoryby almost 2,000 years.The sites all belong to the early neolithic period between 8000 and

mentioned in the text but not shown here, lies about 50 kilometers east of Mosul, on the road to Erbiland the mountain country.

The surface of Tell Maghzaliyeh was littered with obsidian blades and tools but there was no trace of 6000 B.C.E.(uncalibrated radiocarbon pottery.The USSR team enlargedthe age) and constitute the raw material scope of their researchprogramin the for a cultural sequence to parallel early 1970s to include the excavation the Levantinesequence and that of Tell Maghzaliyeh,which provedto from the Zagros region of northeast be a deeply stratifiedvillage site beIraqand western Iran. The new Iraqi longing to the early (aceramic)neolithic period (Bader1989).The site sequence has producedintriguing information on the processes of was beautifully situated on a bluff in that the culminated wide change overlooking a perennial stream that establishment of villages based on rises as springs in the limestone hills mixed farming,new insights on the and soon loses itself in the alluvium of the plain among the later tells "Neolithic Revolution." The first archaeologists to reach where the USSR team had been digback beyond the 6000 B.C.E.barrier ging previously. in Iraq,outside the Zagros Mountain Fora number of years Tell were a team the former from zone, Maghzaliyeh remained an isolated USSR working on the fertile plain phenomenon. It was separatedfrom south of the JebelSinjarhills, about the later, pottery neolithic cultures, to which it showed no resemblance 60 kilometers west of Mosul. Their at all, and was equally unlike any main interest was in the classic vilother aceramic neolithic site known cultures of the sixth and fifth lage millennia B.C.E.,which are renowned either in the Levantinewest or the for their sophisticated, painted potpiedmont and mountain valleys to the east. Toa considerableextent Tell tery. But they also found a single small tell site, Tell Maghzaliyeh, in Maghzaliyeh still poses insoluble the JebelSinjarfoothills just a few problems of isolation from the culkilometers north of their main area tural recordthat is now becoming of work that did not fit into any availablefrom nearbysites of comknown cultural category. parableage.

176

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

In the late 1980s the final palaeolithic and the early neolithic periods suddenly began to spring to the fore on several salvage excavations.The discovery and investigation of early neolithic sites in northernIraqcan be related quite simply to the large number of international teams involved in the Eski Mosul Dam project. Earlyoccupations were found on sites that showed no evidence of such occupation on the surface, and there were even a few archaeologists who set out to locate prehistoric examples among the many later sites. Only a relatively small number of early prehistoric sites were identified in this process, due partly to the difficulty of locating sites that never grew to form conspicuous tells, and partly to the very small number of people who actually went looking for them. The Japaneseteam working at a tell called Der Hall in the Tigris valley found the earliest of the new sites in northern Iraq(Fujii 1986).At the base of the tell, under the next oldest occupation, which dates to the early fifth millennium B.C.E., they found a thin stratumthat contained only flint tools. The chipped stone assemblage

can readily be recognized as similar to the late epi-palaeolithic Natufian industry of the southern Levant (Ohnuma and Matsumoto 1988).It is a very small-scale industry whose characteristicpieces are microlithic tools, tiny elements of composite tools formed from segments of very small blades. Among the microlithic elements were noted the absolutely typical lunates known to date from the last couple of millennia before 8000 B.C.E. from the Nile valley, through the southern Levantand up to the Euphratesvalley east of Aleppo. With these data we now see that the rangeof this late epi-palaeolithic complex extends far to the east of the Euphrates. Two early neolithic settlement sites, Nemrik and Qermez Dere, were excavatedin the late 1980s. ProfessorStefanKozlowskiof Warsaw University directed the excavations at Nemrik, while I directed those at Qermez Dere. A third site, Ginnig, was briefly explored in a single, short season as part of TonyWilkinson's North JezirahProject.The Polish team had just transferredtheir interest to a fourth site, M'lefaat,when work stopped in 1990. Qermez Dere. Qermez Dere lay on the outskirts of Tel Afar,whose rapid expansion has practically destroyed the site. The early prehistoric village site was perchedon the southern side of the JebelSinjar,a line of limestone hills that divides the Jezirah(the north Mesopotamian plain) into a rolling, rain-fednorthern part and a flat southern strip fed by springs and runoff from the hills (Watkins and Baird 1987; Watkins 1990; Watkins, Baird and Betts 1990; Watkins, Betts, Dobney and Nesbitt 1991). The narrow strip of green land south of the hills was densely occupied from pottery neolithic times through the proto-historic and ancient historic periods and remained an important corridor in Roman and early Islamic times. The plain is littered with tells large and small, but the hill country has always been archaeologically

A

B

C

Neolithic projectilepoints from TellMureybet, North Syria.At the beginning of the Neolithic period, both in North Mesopotamia and the Mediterraneancoastlands,elaborately stylized projectilepoints were introduced. Projectilepoints from TellMureybeton the Euphratesin North Syria typify the Levantine series. Theynow find strong echoes among the new Iraqi sites, although 400 kilometers separate the two areas. A: The earliest type to come into fashion throughoutthis huge territory was the Khiampoint, recognizable by its opposed notches, the basal concavity and the workingof the point on the undersideof the flint (fromMureybetIb, immediately after the epi-palaeolithicphase Ia). B: Longerand heavier points are characteristicof the later stages in the projectilepoint series (this one is from MureybetIII).C. A small projectile point, combining features of the Khiampoint with a pronouncedshoulder and tang (from MureybetII).(Redrawnfrom Cauvin 1977: figure 17).

unexplored, supposedly empty or retarded. The settlement of Qermez Dere was small, only about 100-by60-meters in overall extent (about 0.5 hectares).When it was first established, circular,semisubterraneanchambers, faced with mud plaster,were cut into the subsoil in the northern part of the site to serve as houses. The debris of construction and the rubbish from everydaylife were discardedto the south, where they rapidly accumulated into a substantial and extensive hump. At a certain stage in the life of the settlement the occupants transformedits layout and functioning. They moved the sites of their houses to the southern part of the site, and dug sub-circularor subrectangularchambers into the accumulated midden deposits. The northern part of the site, which had been the areafor domestic occupation, now housed a series of roughly built, circular stone structures whose purpose remains ambiguous. The tools and equipment

Neolithic projectilepoints from North Iraqi sites. At the beginningand end of the sequence there are close parallels between North Iraq and the Levant,seen in the Khiampoints from Qermez Dere (A)and the Byblos and other points from TellMaghzaliyeh(D).A: Khiam points (left and right)resemble those from TellMureybetand the Levantin everydetail, including size. Appearingonly at the end of the life of the site, the Nemrik point (middle) relates the site to its Iraqineighbors.B: By far the most common type of projectilepoint at Nemrik is a small, lozenge-shapedpiece, now called the Nemrik point. The retouchingof the point on the butt was characteristically carriedout on the underside(afterKozlowski and Szymczak 1990).C: The projectilepoints at Ginnig are exactly similar to those found at Nemrik and point back in date towardsthe early aceramic neolithic period. Other elements in the flint industry,and the presence in the surface levels of verysimple pottery, point to the end of the aceramic neolithic (after Campbell and Baird 1990:figure4). D: Most of the chipped stone material in use at TellMaghzaliyeh was obsidian, a black volcanic glass obtained in huge quantities fromeastern Turkey.The largersize of the projectilepoints, and particularly the long, leaf-like shape with a carefullyformed tang or butt of the second point, are echoes in the Mediterraneanlands in the seventh millennium B.C.E. (after Bader 1989: plate 27).

D

abandonedin the accumulating archaeological deposit in the northern area contained a higher ratio of flint tools relative to flint-knappingdebris and by far the greaterproportion of the ground stone tools found on the site. It would appearthat the northern part of the site became used for

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

177

specialized food processing and other domestic activities. The intensity of domestic activity in the northernarea contrastswith the absence of processing equipment and food and other debris from the houses themselves in the southern half of the site. The surviving material culture of the community consisted almost entirely of chipped stone tools and groundstone equipment for food processing. While we wait for radiocarbondates, our best indication of The following drawings show the history of a house duringits variousstages at Qermez Dere.A: The original subterraneanchamber was fitted with two pairs of plastered clay stelae. 7Two of them were found as they had been broken,thrown down and buried when the chamber was abandoned and filled in. The other two were lost when later chambers were dug on the same site. B: A new chamber was excavated to replace the first. It was fitted with a pair of pillars that flanked a rough slab of stone set on edge in the plaster floor. Wherethe cavity for the new chamber was cut into the fill of the earlierone, its "wall" was reinforcedwith stone slabs set on edge. C: A third chamber replaced the second. It, too, had a pair of plastered clay pillars. It also preservedin a niche in its wall the focal slab of rockfrom the previouschamber.Theplaster in the niche was stained with redocher D: The third chamber was remodeled.A new pair of pillars was constructednear the center of the room,flanking the small hearth. The previous pair of pillars was removed,but theirpositions were marked by flat stones set in the plaster of the floor. Thenorth end of the chamber was reformed,and the old slab of stone in its niche was abandoned. In one of the new, rounded angles of the chamber an egg-shapedniche or cupboardwas formed. Finally, that niche was abandoned and filled up, and the wall plastered smooth across it.

the age of the site is the resemblance of its flint industry,particularlyits projectile points, to what is called the Khiamian phase in the Levant (Aurenche,Evin and Hours 1987; Bar-Yosef1990).The Khiamian is the transitional phase at the intersection of the epi-palaeolithic and the aceramic neolithic periods, in the two

or threecenturiesbefore8000B.C.E.

The evidence of the flint industry, combined with the stratigraphicobservations, shows that the occupation of Qermez Dere was relatively short, probablyonly a couple of centuries or so. Only a glimpse was obtained of the earliest houses in the northern part of the site -not enough to see the layout of the complete interior. The later houses, in the southern area,were exploredwith great care because of their remarkableconstruction and internal arrangements. Each house consisted of a single subterraneanor semisubterranean chamber.Once the cavity for the chamber had been carefully excavated, its floor and sides were faced with mud and lime plaster.Every surface was curved:the floor was a saucer-likedepression, which met the walls in a smooth curve, and the sides were also curved. No house survived more than 80 centimeters above its floor level. Access was presumablyby means of a ladder,for there was no sign of a doorwayin the wall or a staircase

The most complete of the five human crania found deposited on the floor of the abandoned house at Qermez Dere. The condition of the human bone was quite unlike that of the animal bone in the food waste residues. The human skulls had been kept for a considerable time in conditions which led to considerable erosion and weathering.

leading down to the floor. There was a small hearth at the center of the house, consisting only of a scorched area of plaster.No ashes were found in anyhearth, and no domestic debris was found on any floor. No domestic equipment, for example in the form of querns or mortars,was kept in the house. Each of the four houses that were completely excavatedin the southern areahad pairs of plastered clay pillars set at right angles to the main axis of the chamber.Eachpillar was modeled arounda tall, narrow slab of stone. In cross section, the pillars were rectangularwith round-

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Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

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ed angles. At the base the pillar met the floor in a smoothly managed curve. The three best preservedpillars had stood about 80 centimeters tall, and terminated in a plain, flat top or some schematic modeling. The cleanliness with which the houses were kept, the care for their maintenance, the strange routines of filling the chamber at abandonment then digging its replacement in nearly the same spot, the equipping of chambers with "non-functional"pillars and, finally, the placing of human crania in the last chamber all point to a new attitude to the house as a focus for symbolic and ritual activity that is not known in the immediately preceding epi-palaeolithic period anywhere in the Near East (Watkins1990). Although the period when Qermez Dere was occupied is formally called "Neolithic,"and the neolithic is normally associated with farming peoples, there is no sign that the occupants were either cultivating plants or herding domesticated animals. The results of our intensive program of screening and flotation indicate that they were harvesting lentils, various pulses and wild cereals, and hunting gazelle, sheep and goat, fox, hare, various birds and a variety of small mammals. Nemrik. Nemrik was found on the edge of a high terraceon the left bank of the Tigris about 60 kilometers northwest of Mosul (see Kozlowski

in the bibliographyfor references). A number of water-coursesdraining the edge of the hill country have cut ravines in the terrace,leaving the terrace edge as a series of deeply serratedpromontories high abovethe Tigris floodplain. The settlement remains were spreadover an area of about 2 hectares, although the Polish archaeologists believe that at any time the number of occupied houses was very small (Kozlowski and Kempisty 1990:352). Nemrik must have one of the longest series of radiocarbondates ever producedfor one site, but they clearly spreadover much too wide a span. Kozlowskibelieves that the site was first occupied in the ninth millennium B.C.E. and continued to be used (with two intervals of abandonment) for about two millennia. This long life span seems to stretch the evidence, since Kozlowski expressly remarkedthat there is no discernible Top:Another of the single-chamber,subterranean houses at QermezDere with its plastere, change in portable material culture (Kozlowskiand Kempisty 1990:352). walls, floor and clay stelae. Above:A close-u of the plastered clay stelae. Theirtops beIt is also difficult to accept a midcame weathered when the house was abanin ninth millennium B.C.E. date the doned and they were exposed for a while beabsence of any epi-palaeolithic traits fore the chamber was deliberately filled witi soil and rubbish. in the chipped stone industry. There is architectural change in the history of the settlement, howand more elaboratelyfitted. At all ever (Kozlowskiand Kempisty 1990: stages except the final one the domes 352-59). From the beginning, houses tic structureswere circular or subwere at least semisubterranean,with circular,but the latest houses are almost rectangularin plan. The foui saucer-shapedfloors and mud-brick walls with plastered faces. With the square settings of posts to support passageof time, houses became larger the roof in the earliest houses are

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Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

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the specialists have reportedthe presence of some cultivated varieties, at least in the latest contexts. The most remarkableelements in the material culture of Nemrik are the 18 small stone sculptures, ilk' belonging to all stages in the settlement's history. Some of the stylized birds'heads, set on long, cylindrical necks, have been illustrated, but the excavatorsalso reportthe heads of a lion anda snake,plus complete bodies of animals and humans. M'lefaat.In its last two years of work in Iraq,the Polish team began to shift from Nemrik to the site of Mlefaat, found and sounded many years agoby ProfessorRobertBraidwood'steam workingin IraqiKurdistan(Dittemore 1983).The site of M'lefaatlies on the edge of a terrace,where the roadfrom I.: Mosul to Erbilcrosses a fast-flowing river.The building of a replacement road,which was cut down through the terrace,seriously threatened the Twoof the miniature bird sculpturesfrom site, and the Polish team, like the Nemrik. These stylized pieces were made University of Edinburghteam at from fine-grainedstones that originatedas Qermez Dere, were undertakingad river pebbles (after Kozlowski 1990a). hoc salvagework. By 1990 Kozlowski and his colleagues had managedonly most of the settleone season of excavation. replacedthrough ment's history with four massive, There seem to be two phases of columns of comsquare specially occupation at M'lefaat.One phase, which has producedKhiam points, posed, concrete-like material. Some of the later houses were characteristic of the proto-neolithic subterranean. As at Qermez fully period, belongs at the end of the there were no inor ninth millennium B.C.E. The other Dere, doorways ternal stairs, and the implication is phase is presumably somewhat earthat access was by laddersfrom roof/ lier and should be placed late in the ground level. The floors were shaped epi-palaeolithic period. In the 1990 with plasteredplatforms or benches season the Polish team was excavatand fitted with groundstone equip- ing houses belonging to the earlier ment. Kozlowski notes that the por- phase. These were circular structable artifacts and debris showed a tures, built into the side of the natural marked concentration in one half terrace, their walls formed of large, of the chambers. cigar-shaped mud bricks. Polish specialists have recogThe British and Polish teams nized wild animals that include undertook a collaborative exercise in 1990, with the British flotation and temperate and forest species quite different from those found at Qerwet-sieving machine in operation mez Dere. They have also identified for a short period at M'lefaat. The domestic sheep, goat, pig and cattle objective was to produce samples in small numbers in the latest levels of archaeo-botanical and zoological (Kozlowskiand Kempisty 1990:352). material using exactly the same apAs well as gatheredcerealsandpulses, paratus and standards as had been

U

180

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

used at Qermez Dere in orderto allow direct comparisons between the two sites. The carbonizedplant remains, which were profuse, have yet to be analyzed and counted, but the preliminary analysis of the animal bones shows a very similar pattern to that at Qermez Dere, with gazelle, sheep and goat, fox, hare and birds (in order of popularity)being staples of the meat diet. At M'lefaat,unlike Qermez Dere and Nemrik, there were also quantities of fish bones. Ginnig. Under the direction of Tony Wilkinson, Assistant Director of the British Archaeological Expedition in Iraq,another British team was undertaking a wide-rangingsurvey of the North Jezirahplain. One of the sites they located was a small surface scatter of unusual pot sherds on a mound only 1 meter abovethe surroundingplain. Stuart Campbell, a researchstudent at EdinburghUniversity, was working in the survey team, concentrating on the neolithic and early chalcolithic sites. Because of the uniqueness of the pottery,Campbell undertook a small-scale exploration of this curious site named Ginnig (Campbell and Baird 1990).The pottery in the surface levels seems to be at the very beginning of the ceramic neolithic sequence, a monotone prototypeversion of the now well-known protoHassuna assemblage. Below these superficial levels with pottery,however, a sounding identified an aceramic neolithic occupation. The flint industry is very much in the tradition of Qermez Dere and M'lefaat, but it also contains particulartypes, especially the clumsily titled sideblow blade flake, that link the industry to the early ceramic neolithic. The wider implications Any map of the Near East indicating the zone where the steps were taken that led to the beginnings of agriculture includes an arc stretching from the Mediterranean zone in Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, through southeastern Turkey, northeastern

Syria and northern Iraq,to the piedmont and mountain valleys of the Zagros range running down the IraqIranfrontier.The distribution of known archaeological sites within that zone has, however,been very uneven. The new sites in northwest Iraqshow that the blank on the map was false, an accident of fieldwork opportunities ratherthan an absence of sites during those crucial centuries. We now have the makings of a cultural sequence in northern Mesopotamia in Iraqto parallel that of the Zagros valleys - and a richer, potentially more complete one. Stronger cultural echoes are noted to the west, however,in the Natufian and related later epi-palaeolithic cultures of the Levant,the proto-neolithic Khiamian of Tell Mureybetin Syria (Cauvin 1977)and the eighth millennium B.C.E.PPNA cultures as far south

as Jericho. It is too early to see clearly how that new culture sequence can be fitted together. It is possible to think of a cultural sequence articulated in terms of the developing lithic industries into which all the sites except Tell Maghzaliyeh can be accommodated. Tell Maghzaliyeh, which was, until recently, literally isolated, is now culturally isolated from the neighboring sites in all sorts of ways, and it is very hard to see how or where it can be fitted. The most exciting consequence of the discovery of the missing millennia in northern Mesopotamia is the prospect of having a new zone within which to study anew the transition to sedentary village life that took place in the epi-palaeolithic period, and the switch to cultivation and herding that followed in the early neolithic. Until recently the southern Levant, especially the Jordan valley, seemed to have preeminence. Now we can recognize that a practically identical process of cultural evolution took place in precise chronological parallel in northern Iraq. Because of the close cultural parallels, the

1985-1986).Warsaw:Wydawnictwa implication must be that the evoluUniwersytetuWarsawskiego. tion of large, sedentary and complex Kozlowski,S. K. societies based on mixed farming 1990b Nemrik 9, a PPN site in northernIraq. took place simultaneously over a Pp 29-35 in part 2 of Prdhistoiredu very large part of the Near East, a Levantprocessusde changements culturels-Hommages Francis concept in some ways more difficult Hours, edited by O. Aurenche,M. C. to contemplate but more challenging Cauvin and P. Sanlaville.Paris:Edito explore. tions du CNRS.

Bibliography Aurenche,O., Evin, J.,and Hours, E, editors 1987 Chronologiesdu Proche OrientChronologiesof the Near East: relative chronologiesand absolute chronology 16,000-4,000BP Series: British ArchaeologicalReportsInternational, volume 379. Oxford:BAR. Bader,N. O. 1989 Earliest Cultivatorsin Northern Mesopotamia:the investigations of the SovietArchaeologicalExpedition in Iraqat settlements TellMagzaliya, Tell Sotto, Kiltepe. Moscow: Nauka (in Russianwith Englishsummary). Bar-Yosef O. 1990 The PPNA in the Levant- an overview. Pp.57-63 in volume 2 of Prdhistoiredu Levantprocessus de changements culturels- Hommages a FrancisHours,edited by O. Aurenche, M. C. Cauvin and P.Sanlaville. Paris:Editions du CNRS. Campbell, S., and Baird,D. J. 1990 Excavationsat Ginnig: the aceramic to early ceramic neolithic sequence in N. Iraq.Palkorient16 (2):65-78. Cauvin J. 1977 Les fouilles de Mureybet(1971-1974) et leur signification pour les origines de la sedentarisationau ProcheOrient. Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research44: 19-48. Dittemore, M. 1983 The Soundingsat Mlefaat. Pp.671-92 in PrehistoricArcheologyalong the ZagrosFlanks, edited by L. S. Braidwood, R. J.Braidwood,B.Howe, C. A. Reedand P.J.Watson.Series:Oriental Institute Publications,volume 105. Chicago:University of ChicagoPress. Fujii H. 1986 WorkingReporton FirstSeason of JapaneseArchaeologicalExcavations in SaddamDam SalvageProject.Pp. 33-61 in Researcheson the Antiquities of Saddam Dam Basin Salvage and Other Researches.Baghdad: State Organizationof Antiquities and Heritage. Kozlowski,S. K., editor 1990a Nemrik 9: Pre-PotteryNeolithic Site in Iraq(GeneralReport- Seasons

Kozlowski,S. K., and KempistyA. 1990 Architectureof the pre-potteryneolithic settlement in Nemrik, Iraq. WorldArchaeology21: 348-62. Kozlowski,S. K., and Szymczak, K. 1990 Flint industry from House 1/1A/1Bat the PPN site Nemrik 9, Northern Iraq.Pp.36-46 in part2 of Prdhistoire du Levant:processusde changements culturels- Hommages Francis Hours,edited by O. Aurenche,M. C. Cauvin and P.Sanlaville.Paris:Editions du CNRS. Moore, A. M. T 1975 The excavationof Tell Abu Hureyra in Syria:a preliminaryreport.Proceedings of the PrehistoricSociety 41: 50-77. Ohnuma, K., and Matsumoto,K. 1988 Lithic artifactsfrom Level6 of Tell Der Hall, Eski-Mosul(Iraq):a preliminary report.Al-Rafidan9: 73-89. WatkinsT. 1990 The origins of house and home? WorldArchaeology21:336-47. forth- The beginningof the neolithic: coming searchingfor meaning in material culture change. Palkorient. Watkins,T., and Baird,D. J. 1987 Qermez Dere 1987. Series: Departmentof Archaeology,Project Papernumber 6. Edinburgh:University of Edinburgh. Watkins,T, Baird,D. J.,and Betts, A. V. G. 1990 Qermez Dere and the neolithic of N Iraq.Pp.23-28 in part2 of Prdhistoire du Levant:processusde changements culturels - Hommages a Francis

Hours,edited by O. Aurenche,M. C. Cauvin and P. Sanlaville.Paris:Editions du CNRS. Watkins,T, Betts, A., Dobney,K., and Nesbitt, M. 1991 Qermez Dere, TelAfar:Interim Report No. 2, 1989. Series:Department of Archaeology,Occasional Paper No. 13. Edinburgh:University of Edinburgh. Watkins,T, Baird,D., Betts, A., and Nesbitt, M. forth- Excavationsat Qermez Dere, Tel coming Afar:an early aceramicneolithic site in N Iraq.Sumer.

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heapparent sudden spreadthe Ubaid pottery style, and Mallo-

wan also showed that it came after what would become known as the Hassuna and Samarranpottery styles. In 1933 Mallowan carriedout a Between about B.C.E. and East. 5200 4500 B.C.E.,large numbers of Halaf single season of work at Arpachiyah, communities appearovera very large a site near Nineveh (Mallowanand area of northern Iraq,northern Syria Rose 1935).Although the methods of excavationwere crude (upto 174 and southern Turkey.These settleworkmen were supervised by only ments share a unique material astwo staff),this site was the richest semblage, especially characterized source of informationforunderstandby the distinctive and elaborately decoratedHalaf pottery,named after ing the Halaf period for the next 40 the site in Syriawhere it was first years;indeed in some respects it rediscovered.Most of the vessels from mains so to this day. After this flurry of activity in Halaf sites are decorated,sometimes the with just a simple band aroundthe 1930s, virtually no more Halaf were excavateduntil 1969,when sites rim but often with much more coma Russian team starteda long series of plex designs. Towardsthe end of the excavations at YarimTepein northern in Halaf period,the decorationcan be as many as three different colors. Iraq(Merpertand Munchaev 1987). These excavations provideour best The architecture of the Halaf idea of Halaf village plans, as well as period differs from the periods both before and after as well, when houses some spectacularpottery figurines. were usually composed of rectangu- Since 1970 increasing numbers of Halaf sites have been excavatedin lar rooms in a more or less regular manner. At most Halaf sites the Iraq,Syria and Turkey,and the 1980s saw a virtual explosion in the field. main buildings are round houses, These either domed or with a flat roofprojects,remarkablenot only for the amount of activity but also for misleadingly called tholoi because of number of differentnationalities the mistaken parallels with later Greek were stimulated by the tombs. Rectangulararchitecture is involved, of construction new dam and irrigausually used in secondarybuildings tion projects and the ensuing need alone. Both the broaddistribution and the unique characteristics of the for-and funding of- rescue archaearchitectureand pottery are also seen ology. Sites such as Tell Hassan in in the rest of the artifactualassemIraqand Cavi Tarlasiin Turkey,excavated by Italian and German teams blage, especially in such items as respectively,haveextendedthe known figurines and seals. rangeof the Halaf even farther.Although important work has been carriedout in recent years in both The Discovery of the Halaf in Halaf pottery was first recognized Syria and Turkey,I will focus on the Syria in the early twentieth century. work in northern Iraq. of the Halaf is one of the most striking features of the prehistoryof the Near

Halaf

The

Period

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Old

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Chronologyof the late Neolithic in north Iraq.

Ubaid

B.C.E. 4500 Late

Halaf 4800

B.C.E.

Early Halaf 5200 B.C.E.

Hassuna/ Samarra 5500

B.C.E.

Proto-Hassuna

B.C.E. 5900 182

However, its chronological position was not established, nor was much known about it besides the attributes of individual sherds, until the 1930s, when excavations showed that the Halaf was not confined to Syria, but could also be found in northern Iraq. American excavations at Tepe Gawra and Max Mallowan's deep sounding on the main mound at Nineveh in 1932 demonstrated that it preceded

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

Origins of the Halaf The combination of widespread distribution and apparent sudden appearance has tended to focus attention on the unique aspects of the Halaf, with particular emphasis on its origins. Suggestions have ranged widely, some deriving it from an invading population from Turkey and

others seeing it as an indigenous development in several different locations. The first clear evidence for the origin of Halafpottery,in the form of a transition from the preceding Hassuna period to the Halaf, was revealed in the late 1980s by a Dutch team excavatingat Tell Sabi Abyadin the Syrian Balikh valley (Akkermans 1989).There, distinctive Halafpottery could be seen developing slowly out of an indigenous pottery tradition. At first sight, this suggested that the Halaf originated in northern Syria. More recently, however,this transitional pottery type has also been foundin northernIraq.TonyWilkinson's survey located two sites KhirbetGarsourand NJP 72-in the extreme northwest of Iraqthat are of particular importance (Wilkinson 1990).KhirbetGarsour,which I briefly excavated,yielded pottery dating to the very end of the Hassuna periodwith clear signs of the developing Halaf style. The outstanding feature of the site is a well-the earliest waterhole so fardiscoveredanywhere in the world. NJP 72 had been damagedby a bulldozer cut that revealed large quantities of pottery.This pottery is remarkablysimilar to that from the Syrian site, Tell Sabi Abyad, and can be seen as a slightly later development of the pottery from KhirbetGarsour. Although these discoveries strengthen the view that the Halaf was an integral,ratherthan intrusive, part of the cultural sequence, they also raise new issues. In particular, the identification of these transi-

Bingol *

* Nmu Girikihaciyan Nemrut

Dg Dag

Tilkilpe

Cavi Tarlesi

( Banahilk SabkAyaTellA

Sakce Gozu

Tdll Aqab SabiAbyad Umm Qseir Shams ed-Din

Ras Shamra

SYRIA

ebel

Hassan

IRAQ

KhirbetGarsour NJP72 pe KharabehShattani Gawra Eski Mosul * A* Arpachiyah Mosul Nineveh

at

Yarim

ineeh

Tepe Distribution of Halaf sites with a detailed map of the Mosul area. No attempt is intended to include all Halaf sites, only to indicate the generaldistribution and some of the more significant recent excavations.

tional wares suggests that the spread of a single cultural tradition over Wellat KhirbetGarsourunder excavation in the side of an irrigationcanal. Most of the upper much of the northern portion of the part has been destroyed by the canal in which it was revealed. This is the earliest well so far Near East can no longer be dated to a discoveredanywhere in the world. The development of such artificial water holes may have time late in the Halaf, perhaps about been a key element in the spreadof settlements in north Iraq. 4700 B.C.E.,but must be placed much earlier, at the end of the Hassuna, events in cultural evolution: the bearound 5200 B.C.E.The Halaf seems Northern Iraqin the Late Halaf: New Perspectiveson Social and to have evolved from localized Neoginnings of agricultureand the apEconomic Developments lithic cultures, more or less simultapearanceof cities. As both these transitions are now seen more as of the reasons for One of later over much its range, particular neously, extended developments ratherthan in that it the Halaf is lies interest its to isolate negating any attempt the between traditional key as single events, it is tempting to origins. midway

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

183

look at the intervening period to see whether society was stagnant at that time or if significant developments bridgedthe gap between the events. Recent researchon the Halaf has also included reevaluations of previously excavatedsites and, in particular,the material excavatedby Mallowan in 1933 at Arpachiyah. This can be used to investigate the complexity of Halaf social organization, especially for the latter part of the Halaf period, and to providenew perspectives from which to view the more recent excavations.I will attempt to give an overview of north Iraqtowardsthe end of the Halaf, per-

detailed examination of the pottery suggests that late Halaf sites are much more common than early Halaf ones. Such a growth of population may have led to increasedpressureon established territories and perhaps contributed towardschanges in the organization of society. The similarities in pottery decoration over large areas has always been interpretedas reflecting a high degree of interaction between settlements. The scale of the exchange systems in operation was substantial, as is seen most clearly in the quite large quantities of pottery being distributed between Halaf settlements. Tom Davidson (1981)has demonstratedby haps around 4600 B.C.E.,integrating both new evidence and reinterpreta- neutron activation analysis that in tions of the older evidence. northeastern Syria complete categoThe environment in which Halaf ries of pottery were manufacturedat sites are found is potentially very only a few sites and then tradedto fertile. In most areas,the annual other settlements. He has shown that a similar pattern probablyexisted rainfall is sufficient to allow successful farming without irrigationin all but the driest years. Besides agriculture, exploitation of domesticated animals was a key component of the economy. Sheep and goat were particularly utilized but cattle were also a major contributor to the total amount of meat. Cattle may have had an especially important role in the belief system as testified by the widespreaduse of cattle horns or bukrania as motifs in the decoration of pottery. By the late Halaf, however,the countryside had been subjectedto agriculturalexploitation of increasing intensity for as much as 2,000 years. There are indications that the landscape had been considerablydegraded, leaving few trees and much open grassland. By 4500 B.C.E.,the northern portion of the Fertile Crescent had probably assumed an appearance not dissimilar to that of today. Even towards the end of the Halaf, settlement was not especially dense, although it seems to represent an increase in population over that of previous periods. In a recent survey carried out by Tony Wilkinson (1990) to the north of the Jebel Sinjar,

184

in the Mosul area of Iraq,where as much as 30-40 percent of the pottery used at TepeGawraoriginated from Arpachiyah(Davidsonand McKerrall1980). It is equally clear, and even more striking, that obsidian was a major exchange item. The closest sources for this volcanic glass, especially suited to making stone tools, are in eastern Turkey.Despite the hundreds of kilometers that separatednorthern Iraqfrom these sources, at least 30 percent of the chipped stone tools from almost all late Halaf sites are made of obsidian (as much as 80 percent at Tell Aqab).Most of this is in the form of finished blades. This indicates that the total quantity of obsidian in circulation must have been considerable and the supply very regularand well maintained. With a single exception, none of the chipping debris that must have been gen-

Polychromeplate from the BurntHouse at Arpachiyah.These vessels are the most spectacular portion of the highly decoratedHalaf ceramic corpus. Theiruse was probablyrestricted to specific social occasions and groups.Photo courtesy of the IraqMuseum.

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

-

I

/i~

In addition to pottery,Arpachiyahproduced a largenumber of other exceptionally fine objects, amongst them obsidian links, many of which still cannot be paralleled at other sites. Each of these is made by flaking and grindingfrom a large obsidian blade. Their use is not certain, although they were prob-

ably either linked togetheras necklaces or sewn onto clothes.

erated during the manufacture of these blades has been found at a late Halaf site. The ArpachiyahBurnt House In the last Halaf level at Arpachiyah, called TT6, a building had been destroyedby fire. Known as the Arpachiyah BurntHouse, its contents are of outstanding richness and included a great number of objects, found mainly in the long room on its east side and one of the adjacentrooms. These include the fine painted plates that arethe best known artifactsfrom Mallowan'swork at Arpachiyah.The technical and artistic ability displayed in their manufactureand decoration is unparalleledat this date, and rightly makes them the most frequently illustrated part of the assemblage. As a result, this type of pottery has all too often been taken to characterizethe late Halaf in general. Recent excavation at other sites, however,has shown that such polychrome pottery is very rare.At KharabehShattani, a small but perhaps more typical late Halaf site, only one quarterof one percent of the decoratedpottery is polychrome (Watkinsand Campbell 1986).Even at YarimTepeit is still very rare. This fine polychrome pottery is perhaps best seen as a status object, with its manufacturerestricted to those sites at which potters of great technical skill resided and its use to specific institutions or individuals with high social status. In additionto pottery,Arpachiyah produceda large number of other exceptionally fine objects, amongst them stone bowls (one of obsidian)

Probablythe single most interesting group of items in this context are the stamp seals and sealings. The seals are typical of many Halaf sites with intricate incised geometrical patterns. Only at Arpachiyahhave large numbers of the pieces of clay onto which the seals have been stamped been found, some of which are lumps shaped around string and some simple discs. In later Mesopotamia, the practice of using seals to mark ownership of material was one of the first key elements of bureaucratic control of society. Here they seem to be fulfilling a similar administrative function of restricting and controlling access to particular goods (vonWickede 1990). Because the BurntHouse was excavatedso long ago, many of the details one would like to have are now unavailable.Traditionallythe building has been interpretedas a potter'sworkshop or a chief's house, but it is perhapspossible to go beyond this. Quite clearly, the very richness of the material suggests that any occupant of the building possessed a considerable control over the surroundingpeople and settlements, and the sealings may indicate that this control was administeredwith a surprising degreeof formal bureaucracy. What, then, was the basis of this control? What did an individual or institution do to attain and maintain such a control? One tentative clue comes from the most numerous but almost neverreportedobject category from the BurntHouse. In addition to all the other material, there were literally thousands of pieces of flint and obsidian, most now impossible to

and obsidian links, many of which still cannot be paralleled at other sites. Although these valuable objects received most of the attention in the original publication, more mundane items like spindle whorls and simple, rather battered pots are in their own way at least as informative because they may represent the normal domestic equipment of a Halaf building.

locate. Underpinning Arpachiyah's position, and providing its role in Halaf society, may have been the exercise of regional control over a material on which society was dependent. Another surprisingly unrecognized characteristic of the Burnt House suggests that Arpachiyah's position was not short-lived. Although unusual in that it has rectangular architecture, it overlies two

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

185

r' Li;~

r;'

r

!..i.r :.?~:?:.?1LftL?. . '

': -j

y;;

Clay sealings from the BurntHouse at Arpachiyah.These were used for marking the possession of goods. The first undeniable use of such is at the end of the Halaf and marks an important bureaucraticinnovation. wSealings

U S1Om

TT6

1O TT7 ARPACHIYAH TELL

The buildings of ArpachiyahBurntHouse (TT6)and the previouslevel (TT7).The long rectangularantechamberof the circularstructurein TT7 is reused in the otherwise dissimilar plan of TT6,showing an unexpectedarchitecturalcontinuity. Most of the spectacularfinds came from the long room and one of the rooms adjacent to it in TT6.

levels with very large circular tholoi, which exactly duplicate each other's plan, with long rectangular"antechambers"attached to them. The long room of the BurntHouse, which seems to have contained most of the fine objects, exactly replicates the plan of one of these long antechambers, and may, therefore,be only the

186

last of severalbuildings with which it shareda function as well as plan. We can see that relatively complex societies existed in the late Halaf, which must have been integratedby an intricate network of long and short distance exchange. Although these exchange patterns must have contributed to the unity

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

of the culture oververy great distances, it seems probablethat the areascontrolled by individual centers remained relatively small. The pottery does retain conspicuous similarities over very largedistances, but it is becoming clear that there are distinct regional differences visible, even within northern Iraq.The

mrethods of administration and agri-

culture, howver, do In seeo m to

haye included the creation of Iar

settlements. Arpachiyah,our aonly

definite example of a central site, is still a small mound. Of course, arge

mounds with considerabe later materiaM, sru s Nineveh, may overlie substantial alaf settements, but so fr direct evidence is lacking. There

is only one larg Haa s ite actually

knownTakyan Hoyik, jst on the

Turkish side of the TurkeyIraq borhas sugg sted it der. Surface survy

nmayhye1 had an areaof 12 hectares,

indicating a very substantial settleLightfootI Atent(Algaze,Breuln.r

and Rosenberg1991. Exactly how we should imagine maI aspects of Halaf society still remains uncertain, but the richness of its oanization suggests that many social changes must have occurred in this period. Perhapsthe

most important in the long term was the advance of administrative technoagy brought about by the use of sealings to mark property. In a sense this can be seen as the start of a lon line of bureaucratic evolution that eventua ly bedto the dee lopnment of writitg.

Notes All dates are uncalibratedradio carbon dates. In calendar years, the Half dates to between approxmately 6100 and 5400 B.C.E.. B.cE. Bibliography

N Akkrmans,i P M M1,

a 1.989 Exca\i<•noss s7b]]abiAbyJo •': Arc haological/ Reports Series: Brnish Internationa e 8
Cr an Breuninr, R. ightLote, The Tigris-Euphurates Arhaegicdl Aipr A

Aae, Go,M. RosenrbeN-, 9

Rconnaissance pri 00ojec0: oT the 18)-990 seans. ari report Aatolic/ d 7:51 240

Davi~dsopn,, Z E• r 1981 iotrr \anuacture andTde at thePhsru c Sie tof eIAq b, ArFrIhatoh/vy >urtlI of Field Syria. 8:

~ --j~j~

Fn.and "cKrral, H The Neuron Aiva'ttion Analysis o Hata and UbUid lPttery rom ~F11

adoni tT, 18)0

sn

andllp Arpachwyah ara Iq 42:1>55,67. Hiar , and or thers 1980 Arpachiyh 976 Iq 42 : 31I,-4 and all n,. E1 , 1935 Excavations

Rose,

at

Bi

gi?I

C

all Arpachisyah, 1933

anl

N.

rpert,N I, Munchae n 1987 The Earliest Levelsat R• am •p d 49: TpeL in N Harter Iaq an) hriN; Iro•p 1I---37o

t ikins, , and Campbell, 986

KI ibe hSIata I Series: iepart mentto Archaeo Og ccas inal aper 1o 4. Edrnbunh: Univrsit

ot EdiIur gh Wckede,

A

00n / w 1990 Prchisriche S1e?! e lItiz in Profil V P, Munchen: ragi• I. ilkinson, btgemsie•, 190 e deIl open orfsettlementin

the north zi- between te an7t 7th the Ist ilenna BClr 4It 52: -62

~iscover '3iblical urdiaeologist 1

EachYiarmay ngcv dis ovxiesa-re nadethatenrichourrunderstmdiof \Vstn the rts traition. Sanrce ah t r Padot the dctas itta rpotaed Sa Scls n 1947 licalArch olo-c gi has i th fcinatinag the latest epo-t of the ield -vakrPu1d aruic m1i challengig artis. -

We'reMoving The editorial offices of Biblical Ar lchaeologst are reroving.Effective immediatelfy, all correspondence,

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187

The First Farmers at

Oueili byJean-LouisHuot A large area of the southern alluvial plain is under water. These are reed-coveredmarshes that have been depicted veryaccurately by eighth-century-B.C.E. Assyrian reliefs.

hefirstcitiesoftheancient manufactured,mostly from local materials. Workwas more or less the same for everyone,with nobody holding privileged access to water and land, which were the basic means of production in those days.Old and young had similar, non-specialized occupations. If local chiefs held any coercivepower,it probablycame from to fourth millennium B.C.E.)that pre- controlling the means of reproduction- the circulation of women ceded the appearanceof the first Sumeriantexts. To comprehendfully ratherthan the means of production. Eldersmay have had a monopoly on the process of urbanization, these sites must be investigatedthoroughly. women given in marriage,which were Sites such as Tell el-Ubaid, Uruk and quite differentfrom subsistence goods Eriduhave long been studied, but re- producedby the work of all. As cent researchat Tell el-'Oueili has populations grew,they would split and establish new settlements in a addeda new perspective. LowerMesopotamia is a special largely underpopulatedworld. with a Ubaid Mesopotamiaprobablyfits peculiar geographic country and ecological context. In many rethis generalpattern.Both the plans of houses and the finds associated with spects, however,villages in Ubaid times were not very different from gravessuggest that these societies were egalitarian;no individual or other contemporaneous villages of the Near East. People lived from the family occupied a better house or of followed the was buried in a more privileged posiharvests, land, rhythm tion. Highly decoratedpottery was and raised cattle using simple but efficient agriculturaltechniques. made, painted with geometric or figwhile the main was urative activity Farming designs - in some cases of real aesthetic value-but it was essentialherding, hunting and fishing were ly designed for local consumption. supplementaryoccupations. Land was plentiful and tools were easily Foreigntradewas rare.In the fifth mil-

world appearedin lower Mesopotamia during the Uruk period (3500-3200 B.C.E.). These cities were made from the small villages that were sprinkled throughout the region during the two-and-a-halfmillennia of the long prehistoricphase called Ubaid (sixth

188

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

lennium B.C.E.,villagers from lower

Mesopotamia imported small quantities of obsidian and bitumen, but how these materials were brought to the villages is still unknown. On the whole, villages were self-sufficient. The agriculturalproduction was enough to ensure subsistence, and it was not necessary to improveyields. Moreover,the absence of adequate means of transportimpeded the export of any agriculturalsurpluses. In lower Mesopotamia, the Neolithic appearedlater than in the adjacent regions of northern Iraq,the Levantand the Taurusand Zagros mountains. The first settlements display an alreadyfully developed agriculturalway of life, without local antecedents. The creatorsof the Ubaid, however,were heirs to cumulative developments in the long history of agriculturalvillage life in the Near East. They lived in permanent settlements built with strong materials, sowed the land, raised cattle and made pottery.Although concepts of historical development and evolution were totally alien to them, their lifestyle was the direct result of V. G. Childe's(1952)"NeolithicRevolution,"

a phrase whose meaning retains its significance today.Although this "revolution"-theprocess of transition from a hunting and gathering lifestyle to an agriculturalone lasted for almost three millennia, this is a relatively abruptchange in comparison to the extremely long prehistoric Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods (40,000-8000 B.C.E.) that preceded it. The First Villages in Mesopotamia The last epipalaeolithic cultures of the Near East disappearedshortly before 8000 B.C.E.By the middle of the seventh millennium B.C.E.,vil-

lages practicing a mixed economy of farming and stock-breedinghad become a part of the landscape of the IraqJazira,in other words the heart of the Fertile Crescent at the foot of the Anti-Taurusmountains. This area is a plateau where comparativelyrich soil and sufficient rainfall allow dry farming. From the results of old and recent excavations, we can retrace the steps that brought this mixed farming economy from the region of Mosul (in a broadsense) to the first settlements on the bordersof Iraq's southern alluvial plain, where irrigation was a prerequisitefor an agricultural society. The first Neolithic stages known in the IraqiJaziraare illustrated by a few sites in the Province of Mosul (M'lefaat,Qermez Dere, Nemrik) aroundthe end of the seventh millennium B.C.E.Villages where both

farming and breedingwere practiced then became more numerous. Several of these sites, including Maghzaliyeh, the most ancient settlement, which was inhabited between 6500 and 6000 B.C.E., have been excavated by a Soviet team. Here, on the southern slopes of Jebel Sinjar, there was sufficient rainfall to support dry farming, allowing these first settlers to add cultivated crops and domesticated animals to the available wild resources. Pottery had yet to be invented, but they used gypsum vessels (which are typically Levantine) and stone vessels of

A bowl from the Ubaid 1 period. Note the criss-crossedmotif painted on a light-colored clay.

Zagros tradition. Other affinities include a peculiar type of obsidian sickle-bladewith a narrowingbody that is well known from PPNB sites in the TaurusMountains, at CaferHoyuk and Cayonu. Arrowheadswere similar to examples found at Bouqrason the Euphrates (Byblostype), and stone bracelets and clay figurines recall those from sites in the ZagrosMountains. Maghzaliyeh's rectangular,multi-roomed houses were made of clay and rested on stone foundations. At one time the settlement was surroundedby a defensive wall. Although its inhabitants still practicedhunting and gathering, more than 50 percent of the animal bones recoveredfrom the site were of domesticated species. Emmer wheat, two-rowedbarley,lentils and flax were cultivated. Maghzaliyeh was a permanent, long-lasting settlement where heavy implements, hearths and silos clearly show a deep cultural unity. Many of the characteristics of Maghzaliyeh can be found in later sites like Tell Sotto or Umm Dabaghiya.Forthis reason archaeologists believe that Maghzaliyeh was a forerunnerof the so-called "cultureof Umm Dabaghiya-Sotto." Pottery appearedfor the first time in Jazira around 6000 B.C.E.In

these steppes at the foot of the AntiTaurusmountains, which, much later, became Assyria, numerous sites show an underlying cultural and economic coherence in spite of the quite rapidevolution of ceramic styles. First came the so-called culture of Umm Dabaghiyaaround6000 B.C.E., located on the fringes of the

A gobletmade of light-coloredclay and painted with a dark brownpaint from 'Oueili dating to the Ubaid 1 era, circa 4500 B.C.E. This pot-

tery is contemporaneousfrom the earliest levels at Eridu.

desert and the Jazirasteppes, to the bordersof the Siniar.This was followed by what has been called the Hassunan, which clustered on both sides of the Tigris River.Meanwhile, a little further south, sites of the Samarranculture can be found extending downstream along the Tigris and reaching the Zagrospiedmont in the region of Mandali and the border between the desert and the area where dry farming can be profitably practiced at Tell es-Sawwan.To complete this sequence, mention must be made of the Halaf culture, which spreadthroughout northern Iraq after 5200 B.C.E.

The close similarities between the cultures of Umm Dabaghiyaand the Levantare not surprisingconsidering that Sinjaris not farfrom the Khaburand the middle-Euphrates. Thus, around6000 B.C.E.We find arrowheadsat Umm Dabaghiyaof the Byblos type, limestone for buildings and alabasterand marblevessels. Largestoragebuildings have been discoverednext to the houses that are made of small communicating cells. The walls of a few buildings were decoratedwith paintings of equids and hunting scenes similar to those from Bouqras.The so-called Hassuna culture (6000 to 5500 B.C.E.) was derivedfrom this group.

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

189

and Choga Mami is clear. The size of the grains of new species like sixrowedbarley,flax and peas are proof later than the Hassuna culture, but also more elaborate.Architecture positive that artificial watering was became more complex with molded used. At Tell es-Sawwan,irrigation was carriedout from the Tigris,andat bricks giving a regularityto large multicellular tripartite (orT-shaped) Choga Mami canals were dug at an angle through the water streams of buildings. Pottery reacheda peak of and the Zagroshills. Animal husbandry, unity, unparalleled perfection for that time period, with painted especially cattle rearing,was well naturalistic or geometric patterns. developed.All aspects of the Samarra culture indicate a growing social and Also associated with the Samarran economic complexity. culture are fine stone vessels of polished marble and alabastersimilar Problems related to southern to those from Umm Dabaghiya,but the numerous female figurines of Mesopotamia The geographyof the lower Mesopoalabasterand clay are clearly of a tamian plain is unique. Shapedlike a local style. There was an obvious social and gutter between the ZagrosMountains and the Arabianplate, this is economic evolution during the time coveredby the cultures just described. the real Mesopotamia. Annual rainThe settlement of Umm Dabaghiya, fall averagesless than 150 millimeters, andanythingthat growshas to be although located in a desert area, as to its well environment, watered;the rainfall is too irregular, adapted too short and altogether insufficient did related sites like el-Kowmor in the Syriandesert; agricul- for any other kind of cultivation. Bouqras ture was not essential, and food was Only the Tigris and Euphratesrivers make this valley habitable. Mesopomainly supplied by hunting steppe or tamia can be comparedto the Egyplike gazelles onagers. game On the banks of the Tigris were tian oasis but with a key difference: small Hassunan villages reaching as unlike the inundations of the Nile, the floods of the Tigris and the Eumuch as 1 hectare in size where the main activities were dry farmingand phrates are not perfectly coordinated with the agriculturalcycle. Melting raising sheep and cattle. But it was that times Samarran snow in the Anatolian mountains mainly during southern settlements reachedthe brings floods in the spring-at the bordersof the alluvial plain, beyond height of the growing season-which the dry-farmingzone. Evidence for requiresfields and settlements to be the use of irrigationat Tell es-Sawwan protected against their havoc. In the summer, water evaporatesquickly and increases soil salinity. The land Threechipped flint tools usually described as stone hoes from Ubaid 4. They wereprobably belies the legend: it is not very fertile The Samarraculture, dating

from 5700 to 5300 B.C.E.,is not only

used to break up the soil beforesowing.

190

by modern standards. Large, cultivatable plains were scarce in the ancient world, however. Irrigated Mesopotamia, on the one hand, and the dryfarmed Syrian-Iraqi Jazira on the other, have often been considered the "granaries"of antiquity. So far, no pre-pottery settlement has been discovered in lower Mesopotamia. Until the recent excavations at Tell el-'Oueili, the oldest materials came from Iraqi excavations at Eridu. These have been recognized as be-

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

longing to an early stage of the very long "UbaidPeriod,"which has been subdivided into four phases on the basis of pottery typology: Ubaid 1 or Eridu (5500 to 5000 B.C.E.),Ubaid 2 and 3 (5000 to 4500 B.C.E.),and Ubaid 4 (4500 to 4000 B.C.E.).Then the Uruk

period began, which gavebirth to the first urban civilizations that appearedin the southern floodplain shortly before 3000 B.C.E.It is their antecedents which concern us. The Eriduphase representeda ceramic culture that did not antedate 5500 B.C.E.This left the general impression of a serious interval of at least one millennium between the appearanceof the first villages in the north and the settling of lower Mesopotamia. The reasons were not difficult to ascertain. The general environment seemed hostile and even repulsive;a region of salinized lowlands where water and mud were inextricably mingled in a large swampy area could not have been very attractiveto farmersaccustomed to the lighter andbetter drainedfields of the Jazirapiedmont. The region could not be settled unless the inhabitants had mastered the essential irrigation techniques. Since the first traces of irrigation appearedaround the end of the Samarraperiod at Tell es-Sawwanon the banks of Tigris (on the Jaziraborders)andat ChogaMami in the Zagrospiedmont, it seemed natural that the southern villages could only postdate this more northern Samarranmanifestation. Other considerations, however, also bear on the question of the first settlement of the southern lowlands. It has long been clear that the location of the shores of the gulf fluctuated considerably. In 1900, Jacques de Morgan inferred that the delta had been advancing for centuries until

it reached its present position, far distant from the ancient shoreline. The archaeological record agreed: there were no prehistoric or historic sites in the southernmost reaches of the Mesopotamian plain as we know it today.

Later,G. M. Lees and N. L. Falcon (1952)questioned this theory and arguedthat the huge quantities of alluvium deposited by rivers were kept in balance by a general subsidence in the area and that the shoreline had probablynot fluctuated greatly since the LowerPleistocene. More recently, C. E. Larsen(1975) brought a new argument to the discussion. He claimed that eustatic sea level variations and the dynamics of the rivers should be taken into account. Under this scheme, sea level reached its highest point (+ 2 meters) around4000/3000 B.C.E., and the shoreline lay beside the southern Sumerian cities. This was a quick and important rise, but over time the alluvium brought by the rivers filled in the bottom of the gulf and made the large delta that, in turn, slowly moved southward.In this process any Neolithic sites that might have existed were buried and are now deeply embedded into or fossilized below a mass of sediments. Given this geological history, the discovery of prehistoric sites in

A hypostyle house from the Ubaid 0 period. Thereis a rectangularhearth in the middle of the room and two platforms, a small one and a largerroundplatform with a hole in the middle, probably to hold a jar with the household water supply.

the area to the north of the marshes is extremely difficult. Some could be reached at the bottom of deep trenches as at Ur and Uruk. Others, like Eriduand Ubaid, emerge from the alluvium because their settlement mounds were exceptionally

large and high. But countless others almost certainly lie lost beneath the burdenof accumulated silts. Recent work at 'Oueili It is these circumstances that lend special significance to the recent

Plan and view of a Hypostyle House from the late Ubaid 0 period, circa 5000 B.C.E.This is one of the oldest houses known in southern Iraq. The house recalls the large Samarrabuildings of Tell es-Sawwan I-II, but the rows of posts below the roof are a very typical southern feature.

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Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

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Ubaid 4 architectureis illustrated by this stepped-wallbuilding whose interiorwas subdivided by a grid of low walls, probably the supportstructureof a granary.

excavations at Tell el-'Oueili, where Ubaid levels earlier than those at Eriduhave been discovered.The prehistoric levels of the site, which lies 3.5 kilometers from the later Mesopotamian city of Larsa,were not covered by later deposits as is normal. Architectural remains of the lowest excavatedstrata and their contents are sufficiently distinct from Ubaid 1 that a new term, Ubaid 0, is appropriate for them. When we reached the water table 4.5 meters below the modern plain level and had to stop excavating,we had still not found the earliest occupation of the site. The substantial nature of the early architectureat 'Oueili came as a surprise.Eriduhad only yielded poor remains of Ubaid 1, all of them very small: a few parallel walls in EriduXVIII,a small rectangular building in EriduXVI,and a steppedwall construction. It was difficult to believe that these were the precursors of the quite spectacularbuildings found at Eridudating to Ubaid 3 and 4. At 'Oueili we discovereda large mud-brickhouse comprising several rooms (belongingto the middle of the sixth millennium at the very latest), which has parallels to the so-called tripartite buildings of

192

Samarrantimes at Tell es-Sawwan in central Mesopotamia. Two more houses, of a slightly later phase of Ubaid 0, are also being investigated.Their main characteristic is a large central room (in one case 7.3 meters long and 4 to 4.65 meters wide, approximately32 square meters), with its roof resting on two rows of posts standing on a brick base and its outer walls decoratedwith regularfacing pilasters. This room has been described, following Classical terminology, as a hypostyle room. There is a rectangularhearth in the middle of the room and two platforms, a small one and a larger round platform with a hole in the middle, probablyto hold a jarwith the household water supply. One of these houses with its adjacentrooms measures 140 squaremeters and is thus very much largerthan the small buildings of Eridu.The second house, slightly later in time but also from the phase of Ubaid 0, was built more or less in the same spot. Its plan is almost identical to the former,the only differencebeing a reed and wood platform that served as a platform beneath the floor of the central room and, in turn, rested on a grid of walls and small piles instead of

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

the pillar bases of the previous houses. The eastern wing was also hypostyle (but without pillar bases) and had two hearths. In the corner of one of them we found several deep oval hollows -burnt at the bottom that must have been used for cooking. The original architectureshows that although the first buildings were similar to Samarrantypes (molded bricks,similarplan)they soon became more inventive and more sophisticated than the buildings of Eridu. We have only discoveredtwo buildings of Ubaid 1. They are difficult to understandand could be the staircases of a much largercomplex. ForUbaid 2 we have found almost nothing. Ubaid 3 has yielded a large mud-brickterracethat measures about 40 meters long, but its exact limits and the shape of the building are unknown. Ubaid 4 is illustrated by several stages of a stepped-wall building whose interior was subdivided by a grid of low walls, probably the support structure of a granary. This building technique was already in use during Ubaid 0 and is a good example of architecturalcontinuity over a long period, coveringthe middle of the sixth millennium to the beginnings of the fourth millennium. 'Oueili is not only unique in its early architecture,its ceramics also bring additions to the previously known typology.PotteryfromUbaid0 shows close parallels with the Choga Mami TransitionalWareandceramics from Choga Sefid in the Deh Luran Plain of southwest Iran.Ubaid 0 is thus clearly derived from the earliest culture to move into lower Mesopotamia, the Samarra. It remains to be seen whether the first farmers came straight down the Euphrates valley or if they came from the Zagros piedmont and the Deh Luran Plain. More sites of this date need to be excavated before we can answer this question. From the inception of the 'Oueili Project, special attention has been paid to ceramic technology. The Ubaid 0 pottery, while diverse in manufacturing technique, was still

quite crude. The paint used for the motifs was ratherpowdery,painted in oxides of manganese and iron. There are pale, painted motifs of a greyishpink color, as well as dark-brownto black. Clays are relatively diverse, but without petrographicalcontrast, a reflection of the monotonous alluvial formations of the Tigris and Euphratesbasin. By Ubaid 1, the clay used for the ceramics is denser and more carefully finished than that of Ubaid 0, but the 'Oueili potters still employed a wide rangeof techniques. But little by little, technical progress in the preparationof the paints led to the discovery of shiny blackish mixtures characteristicof Ubaid 1, thick and well attached to the surface, with no discoloration. The picture presented by the analysis of samples of Ubaid 4 is quite different. Here the clearest change concerns the paints: the color is now purple-brownto deep black, and the paint is generally hard and matt. These paints are mineral-basedessentially iron-oxides,iron-titanium minerals and chromiferousminerals. Similar pigments are attested from contemporarylevels at Tello, Ur, EriduandUbaid and arealso found on Ubaid pottery collected on the shores of the gulf. This is an obvious example of the development of a standardization of painting procedures,which should be comparedwith the diversity of techniques that characterized the beginning of the period. Ceramic art reachedits peak during Ubaid 1. The repertoirebecame considerablypoorerduring Ubaid 4 with a decrease in the precision of the painting and an increase in the percentage of undecorated pottery. What information do we possess about the exploitation of the environment by the inhabitants at 'Oueili? At present, 'Oueili is surrounded by sand dunes and a few tamarisk bushes. The current annual mean precipitation is doubtless comparable to that of the Ubaid period - too low to permit unirrigated cultivation. However, 'Oueili was surrounded by humid

zones, as indicated by the presence of date palm (Phoenix Dactylifera), poplar (PopulusEuphraticus),tamarisk (Tamarix),reeds (Phragmites australis) and cypress (CyperusRotundus). At 'Oueili, the main plant grown was six-rowedhulled barley (Hordeumvulgare).As for wheat, the species in question is einkorn (Triticummonococcum), but this crop was of lesser importance. Date palms were also exploited - traces of date pits have been found in Ubaid 4 levels at 'Oueili, as well as at Eridu. The botanical remains from Ubaid 0 at 'Oueili are the most ancient evidence of agricultureyet found in the Mesopotamian plain south of Baghdad.This does not mean, however,that they reflect the earliest practice of agriculturein the area or even at the site. Other, earlier levels exist at 'Oueili but are beneath the present water table, and other sites of approximatelythe same date are undoubtedlyburied beneath later

alluvial deposits. What is clear is that irrigationwas used from the very beginning of our sequence at 'Oueili and continued to be used from that time forth. The inhabitants of 'Oueili also kept domestic animals. Unfortunately, the older levels are less well documented than the more recent layers. Since we have very few samples of Ubaid 0-3 to date, we are unable to chart the frequencyof species for each of these levels but must lump them together.The most striking feature of this early sample is the low proportionof sheep and goat: only 16.8 percent, comparedwith 37.6 percent for pigs and 45.5 percent for cattle. Almost all of the remains are of domestic animals; hunting played a very small role in the economy.Surprisingly,practically no fish bones have been detected in these ancient levels, probablybecause they have not been preserved. Fromthese oldest levels, the use of

Plan of a stepped-wallbuilding from Ubaid 4. It was probably built on a tripartiteplan with a central hall. Ak

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animal resources,particularlythe high proportionof pigs, seems to have been cleverly adaptedto the special conditions of the natural environment, which was probably marshy and unfavorablefor raising sheep and goats. Faunalremains are more abundant in the levels of Ubaid 4, and far better preserved.Stock raising was still biased towardsthe production of pigs and cattle: only 5.6 percent of the bones come from sheep and goats

A painted bowl and an unpaintedgoblet from an Ubaid 4 level. At the end of this period, motifs are carelesslypainted on the surface of the vessels beforedisappearingaltogether.

A brokenclay saucer from an Ubaid 4 level. Thepainting recalls older motifs, but here they have been carelessly executed.

194

as against 36.9 percent from pigs and 57.9 percent from cattle. In this level, however,there is clear evidence of the important role that fishing played in the economy. Exploitation of animal resourcesclearly reflects the peculiar environment of the site, which was unfavorableto small domestic ruminants but well tolerated by cattle and pigs. This low ratio of sheep and goat to pig and cattle is quite unusual and suggests that the inhabitants of 'Oueili developed a unique response to their ecological niche fromthe very beginning to the end of the sequence. In addition to the faunal, floral and ceramic remains, 'Oueili also yielded a number of other artifacts, specially those of bitumen - a Mesopotamian material if there ever was one! Objects of bitumen are found at 'Oueili in small quantities: spindlewhorls, small sticks, beads, etc. But the site is separatedfrom the active zone of production that is known to have been near the marshes. The bitumens from 'Oueili come from a single source, but unlike those from Babylon,they do not belong to the natural asphalt source at Hit. The actual geological source that was used remains unknown, although it was sufficiently rich to have been used throughout the duration of our sequence. Moreover,the technology of bitumen manufacture-the mineral additives- changed hardly at all during this period. This seems to imply a continuity in both supply and processing techniques. Non-bitumen objects from 'Oueili (Ubaid0-3) include a few figurines close in style to those from

This is a small painted head that recalls Samarraclay figurinesfrom ChogaMami. It dates to the Ubaid 0 era, circa 5400 B.C.E.

The excavations at 'Oueili have raised more questions than they have solved and have brought new information that completely renews the subject of the first settlements of lower Mesopotamia. In particular, we know today that the first occupants of the southern plain were close to the inhabitants of villages of the Samarraperiod. They had already mastered very elaborateagricultural and architecturaltechniques when they settled in southern Mesopotamia. Thus, the origins of the Ubaid culture become much clearer:the period of Ubaid is no longer a mysterious phase sprung from nowhere. It is clearly rooted in the prehistory of Mesopotamia, which, in turn, Choga Mami, whereas figurines from becomes more coherent in light of levels of Ubaid 4 are similar to those recent excavations at 'Oueili. One found at Eridu and Ur. Also found in can trace a continuous and logical our Ubaid 4 levels were the famous sequence from the first villages of the Jazirato the first cities in the terracotta sickles that are so typical of Ubaid sites elsewhere. Glyptic art period of Uruk, which contributes to a new and clearerpattern. However, is only illustrated by a few stamps (but not, so far, by any clay imprints) the gathering of information has and a few amulets. Two of these are hardly begun and, regrettably,recent decorated with a geometric pattern, tragic events will probablyprevent and a third shows a figure whose any further project in this areafor a long time. prototype is known from Luristan.

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

Discover

Arabian

archaeology and epigraphy EDITOR: DANIEL T. POTTS

Aim & Scope. In recent years the

site. (Clax is a nateriaIl that is consistent wxith natural Broken clay sickles( occur on every tJbaiicd resoutrcesoof the alluvial plailn.

Bibliography Childe, V. G. 1952 NewxLight on the niost ancient East, fourth edition. London: Routlcdge & Kcgan Paul Ltd. Huot, l.-L., and Vallet, R. 1990 Les habitations A salles hypostyles d'Epoquc Obeid 0 de Tell cl-'Oucili. Plhoerient 16 (1): 125 30. Huot, I.-L., and others 1983 Larsa et 'Oueili. Travaux de/ 19781981. Paris: Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations. 1987 Larsa et 'Oueili. Travaux de 1983. Paris: Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations. 1989 Ubaidian Village of Lower Mesopotamia. Permanence and Evolution from 'Ubaid 0 to 'Ubaid 4 as seen from tell el 'Oueili. Pp. 19-42 in Upon this Foundation, the 'Ubaid reconsidered, edited by E. F Henrickson and I. Thuesen. Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen. 1991 'Oueili, Travaux de 1985. Paris: Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations. forth- 'Oueili, Travaux de 1987-1989. coming Paris: Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations. Larsen, C. E. 1975 The Mesopotamian Delta Region: A reconsideration of Lees and Falcon. fournal of the American Oriental Society 95: 43-57.

Lees, G. M., and Falcon, N. L. 1952 The geographical history of the Mesopotamian Plains. Geographical Journal 118: 24-39. Sanlaville, P., 1989 Considerations sur l'evolution de la basse Mesopotamie au cours des 15 derniers millenaires. Pal•orient (2): 5-27. Vallet, R. 1990 Les habitations a salles hypostyles des debuts de l'epoque d'Obeid. Acadecmie des Inscriptions et BellesLettres, Comptes Rendus: 867-74.

Arabian peninsula has emerged as one of the major new frontiers of archaeological research in the Old World. Yet until now, no journal devoted to the area as a whole has existed. Arabian archaeology and epigraphy is intended to serve as a forum for the publication of studies in the archaeology, epigraphy, numismatics, and early history of Arabia. 1 volwlt of 3 issUlts ,ery71ear. Latest excavation reports New finds Unpublished texts Numismatic discoveries Historical debates Compulsory reading for anyone interested in Arabia. Please use the order form below. I wish to subscribe in 1993 and ,j receive the 1992 volume free of

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Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

195

hesiteofJemdet Nasr,

Nasr: the Site an(d the Map of central-southMesopotamia,showing location of sites mentioned in the text and cities listed in the "cityseal impressions" from JemdetNasr.

Baghdad *

Period by Rogerj. Matthews

Khafajah

roughly 3200 to 3000 B.C.E.

Urum JemdetNasr * *

In the decades following those first investigations, however,excavations and surveys in and around Mesopotamia frequently failed to identify material remains that could

Kish

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196

situated 100 kilometers south of Baghdad,first came to archaeological notice in the spring of 1925 when a joint team from OxfordUniversity and the Field Museum, Chicago, was carryingout excavations at the important Sumerian city of Kish, near Babylon.That March,a groupof locals visited the base camp, bringing artifacts that they claimed to have found at a series of mounds known as JemdetNasr, some 26 kilometers northeast of Kish. These artifacts comprised distinctive painted pots and some inscribed tablets. The expedition director,Professor Stephen Langdon,an epigraphist by training, immediately recognized their significance. Following a preliminary visit to the site, he conducted a first season of excavations at JemdetNasr at the end of the Kish season, in early 1926. A second brief season was conducted by Louis Watelin two years later, in the spring of 1928.The results of these excavations were significant and distinctive enough to define a new period in the cultural development of Mesopotamia, "JemdetNasr,"which fell between the Late Uruk and the Early Dynastic periods and lasted from

*

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

be assigned to Jemdet Nasr. As a result, many scholars began doubting the validity of this chronological phase. In 1983, a conference was called in order specifically to address this issue (Finkbeiner and Rollig 1986), and it became increasingly clear that new research at and concerning the site of Jemdet Nasr was called for. It was with this background that the British Archaeological Expedition to Iraq began a new program of research into Jemdet Nasr in 1988. The program had two primary thrusts:

new excavations, which were held to uncover additional evidence, and a reexamination of the artifacts uncoveredin the original excavations. Because of the lamentable state of the recordingof material found in the seasons held during the 1920s, the new excavations were required to locate architecture first excavated in 1926-28, as well as to explore previously unexcavatedareas.One important factor in encouragingnew excavation at the site was the small size of the two mounds -Mound A only covered 1.5 hectares and Mound B 7.5 hectares. Given limited modern funding for excavation work combined with the restricted areal scope of scientific excavation techniques, it appearedthat JemdetNasr was the Surfaceof the Northeast Area, MoundB, showing exposed walls after surface clearance. The walls show up as dark lines against the silty fill that has accumulated in the trenchesmade ideal candidate for new work. Also, during the original excavations in the 1920s. preliminary visits revealeda significant surface pottery distribution spanning Late Uruk through Early Dynastic I, strongly indicating the likelihood of a complete proto-historic sequence of occupation at the site. Accordingly,two seasons of excava<3 tions have been carriedout to date (Matthews 1989; 1990). A full programof studying the inadequatelypublishedmaterialfrom the original excavations (Mackay f-L~'~L' 1931)is well underwayand will re/ / sult in a report on all categories of 01 artifacts from the 1926-28 seasons C:: :I ,. I f (Matthewsforthcoming).This second ---. • •o I,,, aim happily coincided with ongoing researchin Berlinby scholarsworking JmdetNas A oundB Moun on the inscribed JemdetNasr tablets, now in course of full publication (Englundand Gregoire 1991;Matthews 1992).The following encom-

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passes results from both the early seasons and the more recent work. Discoveries at Jemdet Nasr Architecture. By far the most important architectural feature found at Jemdet Nasr is a large building located on Mound B, the larger of the two mounds. Almost all of the work of Langdon and Watelin was concentrated on exploring this building and recovering artifacts therefrom. Their

A Mound

B Mound

Jemdet Nasr

Contourplan of JemdetNasr. The two mounds are surroundedby a modern fence. On the summit of MoundA is a baked brick building of Neo-Babylonian,or later, date. On Mound B the contours reveal a deep cut into the southern edge of the mound, where an unsuccessful attempt was made in 1957 to dig a drainagecanal right throughthe mound. The complex of rooms on the northeasternside of Mound B is believed to be the large building excavated by Langdonin 1926.

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

197

Plan of Langdon'slarge building, excavated in 1926, showing find-spotsof certain categories of artifacts. T

on-site recordingwas so unsatisfacpp1 tory, however,that even the location of the building on the mound had subsequently become obscure. Langdon published a plan, but with a misleading scale and the north arrow pointing the wrong way (Langdon P-otr 1927:figure 12).He also noted on the plan the location of severaltypes Sto of artifacts- tablets, painted pots and cylinder seals-but with no details of precisely which objects were found where. It was clearly impormound was largeenough to accomIt soon became apparentthat tant that this impressive building, modate the 4,500 squaremeters ocsubstantial portions of this building had escaped the ravagesof the early measuring 92-by-48-meters,be recupied by the building. Third, the located as a starting point for new assemblage of artifacts recovered excavators,and a start has been made excavations. from this areamatched very well in investigating these remains, alIn 1988, examination of the sur- with Langdon'sartifacts,with only though there is much still to be done. face of the mound, particularlythe the unbaked clay tablets missing, In particular,an areaof large ovens, distribution of 60-year-oldspoil not a surprisingabsence given the probablybelonging to the building's heaps, suggested that the building proximity to the surfaceof much of kitchens, has been excavated,and inwas likely to lie in the northeastern our work. Fourth,we had to take into tact burnt room deposits have been corner of Mound B, which is where account the 1928 work of Watelin, sampled. The discovery of extensive our exploration commenced. The who excavatedwith 120 workmen in burnt roofing material and floors this area and made no plans at all of confirms Langdon'sopinion that the technique employed in the search for Langdon'slargebuilding was that his trenches, thereby no doubt seribuilding had been destroyedby fire, of surface scraping- extensively em- ously affecting the condition of the thus baking and preservingthe clay two tablets therein. ployed at the Sumerian city of Abu building exposed by Langdon Salabikh (Matthewsand Postgate Severalstudies have discussed years previously. after collection of -whereby, 1987) surface sherds, the top crust of the Teammembers PetrCharvotand Al Luptoncarryout excavation of a series of large ovens, mound is removedby shovels and thought to representthe kitchen area of the large building in the Northeast Area of Mound B. the resulting surface cleaned with wide-bladedhoes. This technique enables extensive areasto be revealed and mappedwith a minimum expenditure of time and effort. A considerable expanse of walls and rooms has so farbeen mapped. Although it is difficult to match them up exactly with the walls and rooms on Langdon'splan, we do believe, for a number of reasons, that we have uncoveredLangdon'sbuild-

TT

TTablets S PSeals Pottery

ing. First, this area of the mound had clearly been excavated at some time in the past, as windblown silts had accumulated in old trenches and the walls planned in 1988-89 stood out against these modern clean silts. Second, no other silted area of the

198

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

the possible function of this unique building, which is architecturally difficult to comprehend (Margueron 1982;Moorey 1976).The best clues to its function, however,are the artifacts recoveredfrom its rooms - clay tablets, cylinder seals and pottery. Tablets.At least 215 clay tablets were excavatedat JemdetNasr in 1926-28. An additional 30 are thought to have come from the site through illicit excavations. Rather hastily published by Langdon(1928), these important documents have more recently received a fuller and more sympathetic treatment (Englund and Gregoire1991).The Jemdet Nasr tablets are written in a protocuneiform script that can be paleographically comparedto tablets from EannaArchaic IIIlevels at the site of Uruk, thus immediately post-dating the EannaArchaic IV tablets, which form the earliest true written documents in Mesopotamia.The language of the JemdetNasr tablets has not been certainly identified, due to the lack of grammatical elements in the script, but is likely to be related to the Sumerian languagewell known on later tablets from Ur and other southern Mesopotamian sites. Many of the individual signs on the Jemdet Nasr tablets are frequently encountered as Sumerian words or word elements. It is clear, however,that the tablets from JemdetNasr deal almost exclusively with administrative matters. Majortopics include the distribution of plots of land to individuals, the processing of cereals, the distribution of a variety of foodstuffs, the administration of animals and the management of human labor forces. All of these operations appear to take place under the supervision of at least one central institution, which is likely to be represented architecturally by the large building from where the tablets were recovered. Two frequent sign groupings comprise AB UB and AB NI + RU, where AB probably signifies "institution," and either UB or NI + RU may

stand for the ancient name of Jemdet Nasr itself. Of particularinterest is a group of 13 tablets that bear impressions made by the same cylinder seal. The scene of the seal consists of protocuneiform symbols known fromother evidence to signify the names of several early Mesopotamian cities. The cities mentioned include Ur, Larsa, Nippur, Uruk, Kish, Zabalaand

0

Urum. These and other cities are also listed, following the same sequence, in contemporarytablets from Uruk (Matthews 1992).The appearanceof these early city lists may well indicate the participation of groups of Mesopotamian cities in cooperative activities of a now obscure nature. The 13 JemdetNasr tablets bearing the city seal impression all deal with small quantities of goods, principally dried fruits and textiles, so that by themselves they are unlikely to reflect majorintercity economic transactions,but rathera form of interaction that may have become largely symbolic. Cylinder Seals. A distinctive collection of stone cylinder seals has so farbeen recoveredfrom the site. These seals bear designs made by simple use of the drill and cutting

2cm

Baked clay spindle whorl with incised fivepointed star, or UB sign, perhaps the ancient name of JemdetNasr.

Inscribedproto-cuneiformtablet from Jemdet Nasr (afterEnglundand Grigoire 1991:number 220). This tablet concerns the administration of a labor force. In the lower left box can be seen the two signs UB, the five-pointedstar, and AB, the raised platform, which together may very tentatively be read as "thelargeinstitution (temple or palace?)of JemdetNasr."

Inscribedproto-cuneiformtablet from Jemdet Nasr (afterEnglundand Gregoire1991:number 2). This tablet concerns the surface measurement of variousallotments of land made to officials working within the femdet Nasr administration. The circles and semicircles all representnumerical signs denoting areal measurements. On the upperright of the righthand view can again be seen the sign AB, this time with the two signs NI+RU below. This sign combination is another candidate for the ancient name of JemdetNasr.

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

199

Ur

n

The city seal impression,made by a large cylinder seal on the surface of 13protocuneiform clay tablets at JemdetNasr. The scene is in two registers,only the upperof which is at all intelligible. Names of ancient Mesopotamiancities arerepresentedby groups of symbols.

wheel to engravecircles and lines onto the surface of the cylinders. The designs include stylized scenes of squatting figures, animals and basic geometric compositions. When these cylinder seals were first discoveredat JemdetNasr in the 1920s, it was believed that they typified the glyptic of the Jemdet Nasr period. Their subsequent discovery across a wide rangeof the ancient Near East was interpretedas evidence of a widespreadexpansion of JemdetNasr material culture. Subsequently, however,these so-called JemdetNasr seals were found at sites that from other evidence, principally pottery,were securely dated to the precedingLate Uruk period. These sites include HabubaKabirain Syria (Strommenger1980),Godin Tepein Iran (Young1986)and Nippur in southern Mesopotamia (Wilson 1986).It is clear, therefore,that the stylized drilled seals belong primarily, if not exclusively, to the Late Uruk period. One puzzling attribute is that, throughout Mesopotamia, there are almost no extant impressions made by the stylized drilled seals on clay objects. It may be that they were never intended to function as seals in the way we otherwise know them to operate,but instead functioned as amulets or badges of office in them-

200

Uruk

Nippur

Larsa

Kesh

Zabala

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selves. This role is in sharp contrast to that attested for the seals whose impressions adornmany of the Jemdet Nasr inscribed tablets, since in their case we have many seal impressions but no actual cylinder seals to match the impressions. The seal impressions on the tablets portray scenes entirely different from the stylized drilled seals, with an emphasis on naturalistic representationsof humans, animals, trees and objects. The lack of actual seals to match these impressions suggests that the original seals may have been made of wood, now perished. In any case, it is possible to correlate certain of the seal impressions with specific types of administrativeactivity attested in the tablets, thus demonstrating that certain officials, as represented by their seals, were responsible for specific administrative duties (Matthews 1992). Finally, during recent excavations of a largedump of heavily burnt material in an areaclose to Langdon's building, a collection of some 200 clay sealings with seal impressions

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

CI,1

was retrieved.Again, these impressions are of the naturalistic style, but severalnew motifs occur, such as the scorpion. Associated pottery dates these sealings to very early in the EarlyDynastic I period, thus immediately post-datingthe seal impressions on the JemdetNasr tablets. Pottery.The pottery assemblage recoveredat JemdetNasr in the 1920s was immediately recognized as being distinctive enough to signify a new period in the cultural development of Mesopotamia. Of particularinterest was the polychrome painted pottery,which employedluscious shades of plum red and darkpurple/blackto portraygeometric designs with a smattering of representationaleleExamplesof seal impressionsmade by cylinder seals on many of the proto-cuneiformclay tablets. These seals portraynaturalisticscenes of humans and animals, including the treatment of captives, processions of cattle, and mythical creaturessuch as the hybrid lionbirds shown at lower right.

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Seal impressions on pieces of clay originally used to secure door-locksand portable containers, such as pots. Associated pottery dates these scenes to very early in the EarlyDynastic I period,

probably before 2900 B.C.E.

ments. Substantial numbers of the polychrome painted vessels were found at JemdetNasr and subsequently have been encountered at several Mesopotamian sites, including Tell Uqair (Lloydand Safar 1943), Nippur (Hansen 1965;Wilson 1986), Fara(Martin1988),Ur (Woolley1955) and Uruk (von Haller 1932; SUirenhagen 1987). Similar vessels have been found at sites to the northeast, in the Diyala valley at Khafajah(Delougaz 1952)and in the Hamrin Mountains at Tell Gubba (Fujii 1981).The more common undecoratedtypes also occur at a similar rangeof Mesopotamian sites. Detailed study of the Jemdet Nasr pottery corpus (Matthewsforthcoming) shows that the JemdetNasr period, as representedby pottery types, has a valid meaning only within fairly limited geographical boundaries,encompassing southern and central Mesopotamia with some influence to the northeast. Pottery conventionally designated as "Jemdet Nasr"from northernMesopotamia or fromwesternIrandoes not in fact bear close comparison to southern Mesopotamian JemdetNasr types, and will thereforehave to be judgedwithin some other, non-Mesopotamian, context.

The JemdetNasr period:Summary The aforementioned evidence shows that there are certain items of material culture - inscribed tablets, pottery forms-that can confidently be assigned to a period called Jemdet Nasr, and that this perioddesignation can only be applied to southern and central Mesopotamia. Once outside this region, differingmaterial culture trajectoriesreflect, in a complex and little understoodmanner, local variations in socio-cultural developments that are likely to have influenced many aspects of material culture. Thus, in southwestern Iran,the cultural unity with southern Mesopotamia so vividly attested by pottery, seal impressions and numerical tablets in the Late Uruk period has, by the succeeding period, evaporated, yielding to a wide cultural divergence representedin Mesopotamia by the JemdetNasr period and in southwestern Iran,and beyond, by the development of proto-Elamitecivilization. Echoes of the LateUruk contact linger on, however,in the appearanceof a proto-Elamitescript on clay tablets, which clearly bears some relation, at least functionally, to the protocuneiform script of southern Mesopotamia. Similarly, Late Uruk cultural convergencebetween southern

-. . . . .

Examples of undecoratedpots from Jemdet Nasr. Study of comparativematerial from other Mesopotamiansites has enabled the identification of these forms, and others, as belonging exclusively to the JemdetNasr period.

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

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Deposit of goblets of EarlyDynastic I date in the cornerof a room on Mound B.

Mesopotamia and the upper reaches of the Euphratesin Syriaduring the Late Uruk period dissipates at about the same time. The JemdetNasr period, then, covers a time span, probablybrief, that immediately follows a collapse of widespreadLateUruk influence. It is perhapswithin this context of collapse and the onset of very real threats to the cultural integrity of the southern Mesopotamian urban heartland that we can best understand the appearance,during the JemdetNasr period, of evidence for extensive intercity cooperation. It may be that such cooperation was the only means, politically and militarily,by which the cities of the Mesopotamian plain were able not only to survive but also to pass on their cultural legacy,epitomized by the written word, to the great cities that were to develop in the subsequent centuries of the EarlyDynastic period.

A-rareburial of the Urukperiod, found on the southwestern edge of Mound B. Accompanying the body was a groupof small pots, some filled with bivalve shells, which had been placed in a sack that, in turn, had been lain in a large stone bowl.

Bibliography

View of the baked brick building on the summit of MoundA. This building survives only at indicate a Neo-Babyloniandate foundation level, and the bricksizes, 31-by-31-by-8-centimeters, for its construction. A wall of identical bricks surroundsMoundA. Given the width of the foundations, it is likely that this structureoriginally stood to some height, perhapsfunctioning as a police control post for this area of northernBabylonia in the first millennium B.C.E.

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Delougaz, P 1952 Potteryfrom the Diyala Region. Series:Universityof Chicago,Oriental Institute Publications,volume 63. Chicago:Universityof ChicagoPress. Englund,R. K., and Gregoire,J.P. 1991 The Proto-cuneiformtexts from Jemdet Nasr. 1:copies, transliterations and glossary.Series:Materialienzu den friuhenSchriftzeugnissendes VorderenOrients, volume 1.Berlin: Mann Finkbeiner,U., and R6llig, W.,editors 1986 JamdatNasr:periodorregionalstyle? Series:Beiheftezum TilbingerAtlas des VorderenOrients, Reihe B 62. Wiesbaden:Reichert. Fujii,H., editor 1981 Preliminaryreporton the excavations at Gubbaand Songar.al Rafidan 2: 1-242. von Haller,A. 1932 Die Keramikder archaischenSchichten von Uruk. Pp.31-47 in Vierter vorlitufigerBericht ihberdie von der Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaftin Uruk unternommenen Ausgrabungen,edited by A. N61deke, E. Heinrich, H. Lenzenand A. v. Haller.Series:Abhandlungen der Preussischen Akademie der WissenschaftenJahrung1932,

volume 6. Berlin:Akademie der Wissenschaften. Hansen, D P. 1965 The relative chronologyof Mesopotamia, partII.The pottery sequence at Nippur from the Middle Uruk to the end of the Old Babylonianperiod (3400-1600 B.C.).Pp.201-13 in Chronologies in Old WorldArchaeology, edited by R. W Ehrich.Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Langdon,S. 1927 Ausgrabungenin Babylonienseit 1918.Der Alte Orient 26: 3-75. 1928 The Herbert Weldcollection in the Ashmolean Museum. Pictographic inscriptionsfromlemdet Nasr.Series: OxfordEditionsof Cuneiform"lxts, volume 7. Oxford:University Press. Lloyd,S., and Safar,E. 1943 ThllUqair:Excavationsby the Iraq GovernmentDirectorateof Antiquities in 1940and 1941.Journalof Near EasternStudies 2: 131-58. Mackay,E. 1931 Reporton excavationsat JlemdetNasr, Iraq. Series:Field Museum of Natural History,AnthropologyMemoirs I, volume 3. Chicago:Field Museum.

Margueron,I. 1982 Recherchessur les palais mtsopotamiens de l'dgedu bronze.Paris: Geuthner. Martin,H. P. 1988 Fara:A reconstructionof the ancient Mesopotamiancity of Shuruppak. Birmingham:Martinand Associates. Matthews,R. J. 1989 Excavationsat JemdetNasr, 1988. Iraq 51: 225-48. 1990 Excavationsat JemdetNasr, 1989. Iraq 52: 25-39. 1992 Cities, seals and writing:archaic seal impressions from lemdet Nasr and Ur. Series:Materialienzu den friihen Schriftzeugnissendes Vorderen Orients, volume 2. Berlin:Mann. forth- Defining the style of the period: coming JemdetNasr 1926-28. Tbappearin Iraq 54. Matthews,R. I., and Postgate,I. N. 1987 Excavationsat Abu Salabikh, 1985-86. Iraq 49: 91-119. Moorey,P.R. S. 1976 The late prehistoricadministrative building at JamdatNasr. Iraq38: 95-106.

Strommenger,E. 1980 Habuba Kabiraeine Stadt vor 5000 lahren. Mainzam Rhein:von Zabem. Stirenhagen,D. 1987 ArchaischeKeramikaus Uruk-Warka. Zweiter fbil.BaghdaderMitteilungen 18: 1-92. Wilson, K. L. 1986 Nippur:the definition of a Mesopotamian JamdatNasr assemblage.Pp. 57-89 in JamdatNasr:period or regionalstyle?, edited by U. Finkbeiner and W Rllig. Wiesbaden: Reichert. Woolley,C. L. 1955 The early periods. Series:Ur Excavations, volume 4. London:British Museum. Young,T. C. 1986 Godin aepe periodVIV and central western Iraqat the end of the fourth millennium. Pp.212-28 in Jamdat Nasr:period or regionalstyle?,edited Weisby U. Finkbeinerand W PR611ig. baden:Reichert.

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TheArcheologyof the New Testamentis the authoritative illustratedaccountof whatIs presentlyknownaboutthe chief sites and monumentsconnectedwiththe life of Jesus and the historyof the earlyChristianchurch.To followthe orderof the New Testament,Itfirstinvestigatessites connectedwithJohnthe Baptistand then proceedsto Bethlehemand Nazareth,Samariaand Galilee,Jerash, Caesarea, and Jericho,the Mountof Olives,Jerusalem,and Emmaus.Each site is Illustrated, the accompanyingtext is numberedto facilitateeasy reference. This editionhas been completelyrevisedto reflectthe most recentscholarship and excavations,and itcontainsmanynew entries.Anyoneconcernedwiththe historical,geographical,and culturalbackgroundof the New Testamentmustconsult this classic work. "The definitive handbook. Finegan's comprehensive treatmentof almost every problem in the field of New Testament archeology as well as his judicious evaluationof the evidence makes this book Indispensable to every serious student of the Blble."-The New YorkTimesBookReview 400 photographs,illustrations, and maps.

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Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

203

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byDonaldR Hansen heEarly period Dynastic is the interval of Sumerian history from about 2900 to 2340 B.C.E.,which follows

the Uruk and JemdetNasr periods. This was the age in southern Mesopotamia of the early city-states, a time that often saw the individual cities in conflict with each other. Archaeologically, it has been divided into an early EarlyDynastic I and II and a later EarlyDynastic IIIA and IIIB. Written documents supplement the archaeological recordof the latter period and sometimes make it possible to associate finds made during excavations with known historical rulers. Although there have been ratherextensive excavations at such major cities as Uruk, Ur, Nippur and Kish as well as in the somewhat provincial region of the lower Diyala River east of modern Baghdad,our knowledge of the EarlyDynastic period is still fragmentary.Many scholars as yet do not agreeon the finer points of the chronological development.

206

Plan of the Ibgal of Inanna, built originally by Urnanshe. The temple was later rebuilt by his grandson,Enannatum. Forsome unknown reason, the Ibgal was built at the extreme southwest edge ratherthan near the center of the city.

The latter producedearly tablets with cuneiform script and many impressions of cylinder seals rolled on clay that were originally used for sealing the contents of containers. In more recent years, large-scale excavations at the site of al-Hibain southeastern Iraqhave addedto our knowledge of both the EarlyDynastic I phase as well as the historic period of EarlyDynastic IIIB. Six seasons of excavations beginning in 1968 have been undertakenat al-Hiba by a joint expedition of the Institute inscribed of Fine Arts of New YorkUniversity B.C.E.- and includes objects antedate and the MetropolitanMuseum of that with royalnames just The campaigns have been interFirst Art. of the DyKing Mesannepada III Ur of ruptedby the Iraq-Iranwar as well nasty (EarlyDynastic B). also excavations provided as by the recent hostilities in the Woolley's PersianGulf. some knowledge of the early phase The site of al-Hiba,one of the of the EarlyDynastic period through an examination of both the gravesand largest mounds in the southeastern the many layers of dumped debris in part of Iraq,coveredan area of more than 600 hectares during the late the region of the RoyalCemetery.

Sir LeonardWoolley'sexcavations at Ur in the 1920s,where he uncoveredthe remains of an extensive series of gravesof extraordinaryrichness that have come to be known as the RoyalCemetery, are the most renowned excavations of the Early Dynastic period. However,as yet we are not certain how to interpretthese gravesin light of what we know of Sumerian religion (Woolley1934; Moorey 1977;Pollock 1991).Much of the cemetery dates to the time of EarlyDynastic IIIA- about 2600

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

Level II or IIIsince no inscriptions This western part of the city were found in either of these levels. was an area devoted to some of the The chief the of Although LevelsII and IIIwere majorgods. temples well of not "Lord was of preserved,the basic form Ningirsu, god Lagash these of was his and buildings was undoubtedly Girsu," temple precinct known as the Bagara.Other gods in- similar to the latest rebuilding of EnannatumI, that is, a temple oval. cluded Gatumdug, known as the The main shrine of a temple enclosed "Motherof Lagash";Nanshe, whose the was the Shagepada; god- within an oval exterior wall is one of precinct dess Bau;and the goddess Inanna, the characteristictemple types of the whose temple was called the Ibgal. EarlyDynastic period and is known Both the Bagaraof Ningirsu and the elsewhere from Tell el-Ubaid near Ur and from Khafajahin the lower Ibgalof Inannahave been located and partially excavated. Diyala region. This Lagashtemple, the Inexplicably, important Ibgal coupled with other recent evidence, of Inanna was built at the extreme indicates that the oval or roundbuildsouthwest edge ratherthan near the ing was a more prevalenttype in Early center of the city. Three levels of the Dynastic Mesopotamia than has been previously thought. temple of this goddess of love and war were partially revealed.The top Unfortunately, nothing of the be Level could identified I, level, superstructureof the Ibgalbuilt by the the of with was a and was preserved;however, B.C.E. Enannatum temple by rebuilding twenty-first century his who records Enannatum the first the foundation was found, much of of I, pious contemporary Urnammu, in deed A Ur. an indication of the layout of the of of Third inscriptions mentioning giving king Dynasty the with he decorated how the and of rulers who lived building roughly illustrating the often sequence building it and made and silver foundation half a millennium earlier,the First greater gold system used complicated His in other lands. than in Sumer. The lower estabof has been any temple walls, made of Dynasty Lagash is to known bricks flat on the botlished despite the fact that it is not grandfather,Urnanshe, plano-convex have built the Ibgal,but it is not tom and curved on the top, belong to included in the Sumerian king list. LevelII and were incorporatedinto exactly clear whether his building Among these leaders are such wellthe foundations of LevelI; that is, known figuresas Urnanshe andAkur- activity should be associated with III and dated to gal EarlyDynastic A, Eannatum, Enannatum and EnmeThreelevels of the Ibgal of Inanna have been partially revealed. The subfoundation walls of tena dated to EarlyDynastic IIIB. LevelII and upperfoundation platform of LevelI of the Ibgal of Inanna are shown here. Eannatum of the First Dynasty of Lagashwas roughly contemporary with Mesannepadaof the First Dynasty of Ur. Because of the size of al-Hiba, the recent excavations have covered only a small part of the city. Work has concentrated on the western side

Early Dynastic period. It is located some 15 miles east of the modern town of Shatra.On the basis of textual evidence (Crawford1974),it has been known for some time that al-Hibais the remains of the ancient city of Lagash, the capital of the state of Lagash that included two other major cities, Girsu (Telloh)and Nina (Surghul). The recent excavations have confirmed this identification. It was probablylate in the Early Dynastic period that the actual residence of the rulers shifted from the city of Lagashto Girsu. Because of finds made at Girsu years ago, we know the most about Gudea, whose many statues are now housed in the Louvre.He was an ensi or governorof the Second Dynasty of Lagashwho ruled aroundthe beginning of the

of the site, which includes the highest preserved portion of the mound, about 6 meters above the surrounding fields and marshes. Here, occupation of the site continued into the Isin Larsa-Old Babylonian period. Elsewhere, however, it ceased for the most part in the later part of Early Dynastic III B, perhaps due to the plundering and destruction of the city by Lugalzagesi of Umma, an adjacent city-state and a longtime rival of Lagash.

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

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the floors and wall plasters were for the most part removed,and the area was filled in with a new, clean earth. On top of this sub-foundation,the builders constructed an upper foundation platform with a series of open rectangularareas undoubtedly related to the actual layout of the rooms of the superstructure.These spaces within the foundation platform were then filled with brokenpieces of mud and some layers of sand. Towardthe top of this upper foundation, the spaces were cappedwith mud bricks so that when complete, the foundation appearedas a solid platform. Undoubtedly this very elaborate method of constructing a foundation was associated with rituals of temple building known from later texts of Gudea. Buriedwithin and at the bottom of the platform were a series of foundation deposits. Each deposit consisted of an inscribed stone and a copper figurine that stood erect with its peg-shapedbase touching the ground. As the foundation was built, the figurine was encased in the mud bricks. On top of the third brick course the inscribed stone was placed behind the head of the figurine that faced eastward.The inscribed stone indicated that the temple was the Ibgal,that it was dedicated to Inanna of Eanna,that it was built by Enannatum I of Lagash,and that the figurine representedShulutula, the personal

FoundationfigurinerepresentingShulutula, the personalgod of EnannatumI. Inscribed stones found with this figurineindicate that the temple was the Ibgal, that it was dedicated to Inanna of Eanna, that it was built by EnannatumI of Lagash,and that the figurinerepresentedShulutula.

god of Enannatum,in an attitude of prayerbeforeInanna (fora translation see R. Biggs in Hansen 1970). At the highest point on the western side of the mound is located the precinct that was called the Bagarabelonging to Ningirsu, the god of Lagash.Although the rest of the city was, for the most part, abandoned late in the EarlyDynastic period, the Bagaracontinued to be rebuilt. Gudea undertook an extensive renovation of the area,but his efforts were badlydestroyedin the Isin LarsaOld Babylonianperiod when a large temple tower,probablystepped,was erected with a shrine on top. This later building activity has inhibited our knowledge of the Early Dynastic Bagara,but we have been able to identify a series of individual buildings dating to EarlyDynastic IIIB. Each building served a different function within the cult of Ningirsu and was probablysituated around the main temple, which as yet has Left:The top of a foundation figurineand inscribed stone discoveredin foundation of LevelI. Right: An inscribed stone from the foundation of LevelI. As the foundation was built, the figurine was encased in the mud bricks. On top of the third brick course the inscribed stone was placed behind the head of the figurine, which faced eastward.

208

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

not been located. The first of these subsidiary structures was found immediately beneath the late platform. It was some 30-by-20-metersin size with three distinct construction phases, labeled LevelsI, II and III. The building was surroundedby a low curtain wall constantly renewed with layers of mud plaster and penetrated by two entrances on the north leading to the main door of the building proper.Although many of the characteristics of EarlyDynastic temple architecturewere present, there was no primary cella with a main altar,so it cannot be considered a true temple. Instead there were several courts or unroofedrooms: one with a small oven in the central part of the building, one with a baked tile paving in the southwest corner, and a third with a largeoval oven and a tank for liquids in the southeast corner. Between these two courts was a staircase leading to the roof and a small room with a great many fish bones strewn on the floors. There was also a group of fine objects, including a votive stone mace head with a carving in relief of a lion-headed eagle- a symbol of Ningirsu-

grasping horned rumi-

nants in its talons. Beside this group is the figure of the donor of the mace head, a worshiper named Dudu. One may conjecturethat the building was dedicated to serving some of the god's needs and that it may well be a forerunnerof the so-called"kitchen"temple known from later times. Another votive object was found in LevelIII-

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The Bagaraof Ningirsu was found at the highest point on the western side of the mound. Although the rest of the city was, for the most part, abandoned late in the EarlyDynastic period, the Bagaracontinued to be rebuilt. Gudea undertook an extensive renovationof the area, but his efforts were badly destroyedin the Isin Larsa-OldBabylonianperiod when a large temple tower,probably stepped, was erected with a shrine on top.

an inscribed copperdagger,dedicated to Ningirsu of the Bagaraduring the time of Eannatum,who ruled Lagash just before his brother EnannatumI. Immediately to the east of this building and separatedfrom it by a narrowstreet was another building of a very different type. It was entered from the narrowstreet and contained a major court with ovens and a large tank for liquids, as well as storage rooms with the bottoms of immense storagevats in situ. The most important feature of this building was another oven that entirely filled a room to the north of the courtyard. It was constructed of corbeled mud bricks in the form of a dome measuring approximately5 meters in diameter, a particularly large dome for this period. The find of a single tablet gave an indication of the function of this particularbuilding within the Bagara

precinct. It mentions the 6bappir (the brewery)and a brewer.It seems likely that here in the great oven the bappirfor Ningirsu was prepared. Beer was particularly important to the Sumerians, and this building, which can be dated specifically to the time of Eannatum on the basis of inscribed finds, is certainly the earliest breweryknown. BothEannatumandEnannatumI can be associated with another building of a completely non-religious nature located in the central part of the mound to the east of the ridge where the temples were located. It was a very largebuilding covering some 1,000 squaremeters that was so completely destroyedin a conflagration that many of the mud-brickwalls had turned into bakedbrick. The plan was not well orderedarounda series of courts, but consisted of a series of rooms addedas needed in an almost

View of the breweryof the Bagaraof Ningirsu. This building, which can be dated specifically to the time of Eannatum on the basis of inscribed finds, is certainly the earliest brewery known.

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

209

agglutinative fashion. There were no clearly defined residential units, so the building probablyfunctioned as an administrative center that was neither part of a temple precinct nor the residence of a king. Clay tablets as well as many clay sealings were recoveredfrom severalof the rooms, including a fragmentaryimpression of one of the royalseals of Eannatum. Only the back and head of a rearing bull is preservedof the main scene of the seal. To the left, in the upper register,is inscribed the name of Eannatum and part of his title, and in the lower register is depicted a conflict between a heroic figure with large locks of hair and a human-headed bull. Executed in a fully modeled style, the seal representsthe best of Lagashworkmanship. A buried hoard of copperobjects that had been wrappedin reed matting was found beneath the floor of one of the rooms. The reason for this burial is not clear. It consisted of a bucket with handle, a large flaring vessel, an axe and adze as well as two flat disks that were probablybalance pans. Inside the bucket were a variety of small tools, strainersandbowls. Such copper objects are much like others from contemporarysites in Mesopotamia and Elam. During the most recent season of excavations at al-Hiba,a new area on the western ridge lying midway between the Ibgalof Inanna and the Bagaraof Ningirsu was investigated. This areawas chosen to gain some understandingof Lagashduring Early Dynastic I, an important period situated between the earlier Uruk and JemdetNasr phases of Sumerian culture and the subsequent historical periods. Severalphases of a large curving wall of the period immediately below the present surface of the mound were excavated.Although this curvedwall may well enclose partof a temple quarter,the character of the complex will proveto be quite different from the later temple ovals. A section of a building complex that must be part of the administrative

210

A royal sealing of Eannatumfound in a very large building so completely destroyedin a conflagrationthat many of the mud bricks had turnedinto baked brick. Therewere no clearly defined residential units, so the building probablyfunctioned as an administrative center that was neither part of a temple precinct nor the residence of a king.

and working quarterof a temple precinct has been excavated40 meters west of the curvedwall. Severalcourts and rooms contained fireplaces and bins, and the finds included a large quantity of pottery,which increased the corpus of EarlyDynastic I pottery at al-Hiba to more than 160 types and variants. Jarlids and a series of jar sealings with the impressions of some 10 dif-

ferent cylinder seals were found, suggesting that the contents of the jarswere removedand processed in these rooms. These sealings are analogous to the seal impressions of the period that Woolley found at Ur, as well as to sealings foundin the temple of Inanna at Nippur. One might expect to unearth archaic tablets in the vicinity, but none have been found thus far.It is not known to which deity this precinct belonged, but it is hoped that in the future we will be able to obtain some insights into the nature of this temple area in the period before the well-known rulers such as Eannatum and EnannatumI of Lagash. Although this capital city of the Sumerian city-state of Lagashis exceedingly large in comparison with other contemporarySumerian sites, the excavations have alreadyrevealed that a good portion of the areawas devoted to the manors of the major gods. Thus far,the excavatedbuildings point to the richness and variety of architecturalforms in temple construction of the EarlyDynastic period. It is important to note that, for the first time, it has been possible to link specific excavatedbuildings at al-Hibato known rulers of this early phase of Mesopotamian history whose building activities were known formerlyonly from references

Twopieces of a copperhoard found in the administrative building. The objects had been wrappedin reed matting and were found beneath the floor of one of the rooms. The reason for this burial is not clear, but included copperobjects that are much like othersfrom contemporarysites in Mesopotamia and Elam.

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

Severalphases of a large curving wall of the period immediately below the present surface of the mound were excavated.Although this curved wall may well enclose part of a temple quarter,the characterof the complex will proveto be quite differentfrom the later temple ovals. A section of a building complex that must be part of the administrative and working quarterof a temple precinct has been excavated 40 meters west of the curved wall.

in the texts. When it becomes possible to return to Iraqfor more archaeological work, it will be necessary to investigate further just what constitutes the divine precinct and to learn more about the non-religious part of the city on the eastern part of the mound, which seems to have been separatedfrom the temple quarter by a major canal.

7

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Bibliography Crawford,C. 1974 Lagash.Iraq 36: 29-35. Hansen, D. P. 1970 Al-Hiba, 1968-1969, A Preliminary Report.Artibus Asiae 32: 243-50. P. Moorey, R. 1977 What do we know about the people buried in the RoyalCemetery?Expedition 20: 24-40. Pollock, S. 1991 Of Priestesses, Princes and Poor Relations:The Dead in the Royal Cemetery of Ur. CambridgeArchaeological Journal1: 171-89. Woolley,C. L. 1934 The RoyalCemetery.Series:Ur Excavations, volume 2. Londonand Philadelphia:Publication of the Joint Expeditionof the British Museum and the Museum of the University of Pennsylvaniato Mesopotamia.

Partialplan of working quarterof the Early Dynastic I temple precinct. Severalcourts and rooms contained fireplaces and bins, and the finds included a large quantity of pottery.Jar lids and a series of jar sealings with the impressions of some 10 differentcylinder seals were found, suggesting that the contents of the jars were removedand processed in these rooms.

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

211

ofthe y thebeginning

Mashkan-shapir the cities of southern

second millennium B.C.E.,

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Mesopotamiahad acquired a past. Places like Uruk, Kish and Ur had more than 1,000 years of urban history behind them, and their denizens were awareof the ebb and flow of political fortune. The Sumerian King List, probablycomposed in the final quarterof the thirdmillennium, alreadyviewed that past from a perspective transcendingthe confines of a city-state by portrayingpanMesopotamian rule of one king at a time and kingship moving from one city to another.The first waves of empire building had alreadycrested and broken with Sargonand NaramSin'sAkkadian Empire (2334-2193

Plan of Mashkan-shapirshowing major divisions in the city and canals, walls, streets and manufacturingareas. During the first quarterof the second millennium B.C.E.,Mashkanshapir became one of the most prominent cities in Mesopotamia because of its location at the northernmostpoint where the systems of the Tigrisand Euphratesriversconverged sufficiently to permit navigation between them.

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Dynasty of Ur (2112-2004 B.C.E.).But

throughout these centuries, the citystate remained the basic building block of Mesopotamian society. Thus a strong continuity in urban institutions can be observedfrom the independence of the EarlyDynastic period through the imperial Akkadian and Ur IIIphases to the chaotic world of the Isin-Larsaperiod. It was in this era, the first quarter of the second millennium B.C.E.,

that Mashkan-shapirbecame one of the most prominent cities in Mesopotamia. Its location at the northernmost point where the systems of the Tigris and EuphratesRivers convergedsufficiently to permit navigation between them was of strategic importance in the struggles for hegemony that took place between such powers as Isin, Larsa,Eshnunna, Babylonand Elam. The name Mashkan-shapirtranslated as the "encampmentof the official"- is testimony to its humble origins, and the earliest textual referencesto Mashkan-shapirconfirm this impression. In the Akkadian periodMashkan-shapirwas the refuge chosen by a runawayslave girl, and a series of Ur IIItexts recordthat several royalshepherds were based there. In its early stages Mashkanshapir was almost literally a MesoIt probably potamian "cow-town." would have stayed that way were it not for the peculiar political circumstances of the Isin-Larsaperiod. As its name implies, the IsinLarsaperiod was characterizedby a struggle for power between the cities of Larsa in the south, Isin in the center, and eventually Babylon in the northern part of the southern alluvium. This circumstance was fraught with danger for Larsa, since its northern enemies controlled the traditional trade route up the Euphrates. To circumvent this problem, the Larsa kings developed a hitherto untried strategy of controlling the eastern alluvium up to the point where goods could be transshipped from

and the agriculturallywealthy southern Mesopotamian plains. Its shrine to the underworldgod Nergal was one of the majortemples in the land accordingto the later law code of Hammurabi.The father of the last two kings of Larsa,Warad-Sinand Rim-Sin (1834-1763 B.C.E.),and an-

Baked clay cylinders commemorating the construction of the citY wall of Mashkan-shapirlb Sin-iddinamof Larsa,fouii1(scattered on the surface of the site near one of the city gates. Th•c ,had a lengthy inscription devoted entirely to the projectnumerous barrel undertakenat thecylinder,, commarndof the god Nergal "toincrease the dwellings"of Mashkan-shapir.

branches of the Euphratesto the Tigris. Mashkan-shapirwas located at this key point, and its strategic importance allowed it to play a crucial role in trade,diplomacy and military maneuvering. Many of Larsa'skings hailed from the area aroundit and spent much of their time in residence there. In effect, Mashkanshapir eventually functioned as a second capital to the kingdom (Charpin1988: 146-49). The link between Larsaand Mashkan-shapirwas established not long after the fall of the Third Dynasty of Ur. In our second season at the site we discovereda broken clay cone that bore an inscription of Zabaya (1941-1933 B.C.E.),the obscure

fourth king of the LarsaDynasty. By the end of the reign of Sin-iddinam (1849-1843 B.C.E.),Mashkan-shapir

had clearly attainedurbanstatus. The city wall that he constructed is still visible today,albeit generally only as a discoloration of the soil and as small piles of debris at the major gates. Sin-iddinam'seffort in building this wall was important enough to him that he dated one of his regnal Aerial view of the city wall and the easternmost of the city gates. Sin-iddinam'seffortin building this wall was important enough to him that he dated one of his regnalyears by it.

yearsby it. In January1990 numerous barrelcylinders with a lengthy inscription devotedentirely to the project - undertaken at the com-

mand of the god Nergal "toincrease the dwellings"of Mashkan-shapirwere found in situ at the site (Stone and Zimansky 1989). Forthe next century, the city prospered.It was an important nexus of tradebetween the areasto the north and east that had abundantresources

other of his sons took up residence in the city, which probablybecame even more important after Larsa conqueredIsin and Babylonemerged as its chief rival for hegemony in the southern alluvium. Cuneiform records from Mari (Charpin1988: 14649) and elsewhere (Leemans1960: 169)recordsensitive diplomatic missions and important court cases in Mashkan-shapir,and it was also the jumping-offpoint for at least one military campaign. In 1763 B.C.E.Hammurabi con-

quered Larsaafter a successful siege of Mashkan-shapirand emerged as the winner in the approximately 250-yearstruggle between Amorite dynasts. This event probablymarked the end of Mashkan-shapir'sgreatness, since with all of the southern cities under the aegis of a single ruler, its location was no longer of critical importance. The reference

in the prologue of Hammurabi'slaw code to Mashkan-shapiras one of the great cities of the land was probably alreadysomething of an anachronism. Unknown causes, presumably of political and environmental character, led to the abandonment of all the southern and central Babylonian cities between 1739 and 1720 B.C.E. during the reign of Samsuiluna, the successor of Hammurabi (Stone 1987).Thereafterno more is heard of the city. Centuries later, Kassite rulers initiated canal digging and reconstruction projects to revive such older cities as Nippur, Uruk and Ur. The ruins of Mashkan-shapir,however, lay unreclaimed and, apart from minor settlement and canal building in the first millennium C.E., its environs have remained deserted to this day. The very brevity of its urban heyday led us to choose Mashkanshapir as a suitable site in which to probe the question of the internal organization of southern Mesopotamian cities (Stone 1990).There is very little actual tell here, in the sense of superimposed stratified layers,and although wind erosion has doubtless deflated the site somewhat, the material remains scattered on the surface overwhelmingly date to the same period. Most of the site is only about 2 meters aboveplain level, and nowhere does it rise above 5 meters. Architectural remains, sometimes whole building plans, can be seen in all parts of the site. Wewanted to seek the broadest possible view of the city as a whole using aerial photography and surface survey before initiating large-scale excavations. To date we have had three seasons at the site, the first two only three weeks in length and the third lasting four months. In these we have achieved almost complete photographic coverage using a camera suspended from a kite with resolution adequate to pick out individual bricks, and we have walked over every meter of settled area, mapping all visible surface features and

214

artifacts other than sherds. Wehave excavatedthree small soundings and one more extensive area of what appear to be administrativebuildings. All of this is only a start, but the distribution patterns alreadysuggest some organizationalfeatures that we hope can be tested both here and at other southern Mesopotamian sites when excavationagain becomes possible. The areaenclosed by the walls of Mashkan-shapiris some 72 hectares, close to what would lie within a circle 1 kilometer in diameter.This makes it about the same size as Ur, but smaller than the largestMesopotamian cities like Nippur and Uruk. The size of the latter, however,reflects the cumulative settled area over millennia, where not all of the total areawas occupied in any one period. In any event, Mashkan-shapir was a site of substantial size and was indisputably urban. Among the most obvious features of its modern topographyare canal beds that divide the city into several different sectors. Five major canals and two smaller ones have so far been identified. In two instances, the points where canals intersected were broadenedinto what our cores indicate were areasof standing water, in all probabilityintramuralharbors that must have been the center of Mashkan-shapir'stradingactivities. The two smaller canals are associated with slag heaps and kiln wasters, which suggesta relationshipto ceramic production centers. Collectively, all of these canals divide the city up into at least five sectors that each have distinctive surface features and individual suites of surface objects. These appear to reflect functionally different units of the settlement. We have termed the southernmost of these sectors the Religious Quarter because it is dominated by solid brick temple platforms. One of these is of baked brick and anothera larger-of sun-dried brick. The temple buildings that presumably once stood on top of these are no

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

Plaques from the surface of Mashkan-shapir. Above: lion plaque. Right: plaque showing goddess with geese and jars of water

longer in evidence. However,since this is the most elevated area of the Old Babyloniancity, we would expect the celebratedtemple of Nergal to have been located here. There are wall traces suggesting that the temple precinct was walled off from the rest of the city as well as separated from it by a canal, but these need to be investigatedfurther,through excavation, beforethere can be any certainty on the matter. Although artifacts and pottery were relatively rareon the tops of the platforms themselves, objects that can be directly tied to the religious nature of this complex were found on the lower elevations. Baked clay statuary was found only in this area, including some 70 pieces that areof the type associated with temple entrances at sites like Tell Harmal (Baqir1959:figure 5), Isin (Hrouda and others 1977:39-42, plates 8-9) and Khafajah(Hill, Jacobsenand Delougaz 1990:223, plates 59b, 60); a minimum individual count for the Mashkan-shapirrepertoiregives six human figures- some life-size, some smaller-two lions and a full-scale horse. The latter appearsto be unique to Mashkan-shapir.Artifacts that are not unique to but are most strongly clustered in the Religious Quarterare plaques and figurines, particularly those of nude females. To the north of the Religious Quarter,on the western side of the

settlement, is a sector that appears to have served as a focus for the secular administration of the city. Here very regularbuilding plans are in evidence. Many are laid out in baked brick, which is much less common in other parts of the site. We have not identified any single building that could be called a palace, but there are a number of structures that seem largerthan one would expect private

houses to be and are characterized by large courtyardsflanked by small rooms on two sides. Most of the whole southern part of the western mound was enclosed by a substantial mud-brickwall, but substantial buildings are also found north of that wall. In 1987 we made a small soundin ing the best preservedof these buildings, which was located just to the north of the enclosure wall. Preservationwas excellent here because the building had been destroyed by fire. In spite of the very limited size of our exposure, we found a door sealing beside a doorwayto the central court, a clear sign of administrative activity. Similar sealings were found in much greaternumbers during our more extensive excavations within the enclosure itself. Here we cleared all of one building and parts of five others. The unbakedclay seal impressions were found primarily in courtyards,where they would have fallen when they were brokento gain access to the interior rooms. The rooms themselves, by contrast- in addition to potteryandbone -had many pieces of bitumen that had once been stuck to pieces of wood, wickerwork and matting bundles, many of which bear clear traces of rope and twine. An administrative tablet found in the area may providea hint to the function of this material as it lists a number of boats, the days they were used and the names of those responsible. The entire complex is located Terracottastatuary found at Mashkan-shapir that must once have adorned the entrance to the main temple of the city. Left:human head (half life-size).Below: human foot (life-size).

next to a canal, and at least one of the buildings flanking that watercourse was apparentlydesigned to control access to the canal. All of this strongly indicates that this area played an important role in shipping and either the dispersement or storage of portablegoods. This area has another, more unexpected association, that was discoveredin survey and confirmed by excavation:it is here that model chariots were concentrated. Model chariots have been found at most Old Babyloniansites, but only in large numbers at Kish and Mashkanshapir.They are terracottasconsisting of a base transected by a hole for a single axle, a seat for a driver,and a frontal shield rangingfrom 4-10 inches in height. Moreoften than not, the shield is adornedwith a molded decoration that faces backward,towardthe driver'sseat. Unlike the themes of other molded terracottas found at Old Babyloniansites, the subjects portrayedon model chariots are site-specific and seem to relate to the titular deity of the city in which they are found. They may, therefore, have something to do with the large central institutions that dominated the urban environment. At Mashkan-shapir,the shields show the figure or symbols of either Nergal or Shamash, the sun god and alter ego of Nergal. We have found 139 model chariots and fragments, not including wheels, which show a differentdistributionand are so much more numerous that they must have been associated with many things other than model chariots.Yetdespite the numbers and their clear association with this part of the city, we have no understanding of the specific function of these chariots. Another sector of the site for which a special function has been posited lies across a canal to the east of the administrative area, in the southern portion of the central mound. Here our survey found numerous burial jar fragments, projectile points, stone maceheads, metal

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

215

Aerial view of excavations in the Administrative Area. A tablet found in the area lists a number of boats, the days they were used and the names of those responsible.Theentirearea is located next to a canal, and at least one of the buildings flanking that watercoursewas apparentlydesigned to control access to the canal. The administrative areaplayed an important role in shipping and either the dispersement or storageof portable goods.

private ratherthan institutional support were interredwithin their own homes. The situation at Mashkanshapir cannot be definitely resolved without further excavations,but a few observations lead us to believe that this was, at least in the final phase of the city's history, an area set aside for the dead. A wall separatesthe area in which the evidence for burials was found from the rest of the central mound. In the eastern portion of the enclosed area are the remains of another platform, presumablyfor a temple. In 1990we conducteda small sounding, with an areaof only 16 square meters, in the vicinity of the burials and came immediately into architecturethat could be dated one century earlier than the surface remains found on other parts of the site. We found no burials, but we did establish that this area was unoccupied in the final period of the site's history. The rest of the site -the northern part of the central mound and all of the east and northern sectorsapparentlywas primarily residential. Most houses were connected to the outside world by a network of alleyways and culs-de-sac.However,major streets bisected most of these zones and connected with roadsparalleling canals and with bridgesor quaysthat markedthe crossing points. Only one of the latter has been clearly identified so far,but we expect to find more when we targetthe appropriate areas for excavation. Textualevidence from other sites suggests that residential districts were subdivided into various neigh-

and stone items of adornment, and cosmetic palettes. The latter have been found nowhere else on the site. There were also abundantsurface indications of recent illicit digging in the area.All of this suggests the presence of a cemetery. Weaponsand jewelry are characteristicgravegoods at other Old Babyloniansites, and the discardedremains of fragments of burial jarsand humans show that the recent digging is clearly directed borhoods. Some of these may have towardgraverobbing. been unified by kinship and some by Werethese burials made in institutional ties (Stone 1987), but so far the records have remained mute as houses, or was this part of the city reservedas a separatecemetery at to how artisans were integrated into some point? Pollock (1991),using a the urban fabric. Copper/bronze slag, mixture of textual and archaeological a clear indication of the activities of data,has suggestedthat people closely smiths and smelters, has been found tied to the state in southern Mesopo- in all residential districts but is partamia may have been buried in ceme- ticularly concentrated in the central mound. Similarly, the raw materials teries, while those dependent on

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Model chariots from the AdministrativeArea. From top: almost complete model chariot showing the god Shamash;model chariot shield showing a worshiperand two lionscimitars, symbols of the god Nergal.

and grindersthat provideevidence for stoneworkingare clustered in the southeastern corner of the site; and kilns and kiln wasters, which indicate the locations of potters'workshops, appearby the small canals in

ation with elites: cylinder seals, often the Mesopotamian'sbadgeof office, and stone bowls. Both of these are more or less evenly distributed all over the site - an indication, we believe, that elites were similarly distributed in residential locations. Given the rather specialized areas in which we excavated,it would be rash to drawgrandgeneralizations about the nature of the subsistence economy of the city from the floral and faunal remains recoveredthrough excavation and flotation. Inasmuch as relatively little attention has been given to such forms of evidence in historical periods, however,it is worth noting how much they clash with traditional, text-inspiredportraits of Mesopotamian dietary norms. There are, to be sure, ample remains of sheep; but there is a singular lack of cattle and an overwhelming amount of pig. Bones of water fowl and fish the excavations Unbaked clay sealings from in the AdministrativeArea. The unbaked clay are also present in substantial numseal impressions were found primarilyin bers. Among the floral remains, large courtyards,where they would have fallen numbers of date pits were found, but when they were brokento gain access to the interiorrooms. a relatively small amount of grain. Analysis of the charcoal from the various fire installations in the courtthe eastern and northern sectors. metalin the case of as However, yards shows that wood, not dung, of evidence there is some was being used for fuel. working, in manufacture and ceramic As an entrepot connecting southlapidary all parts of the site. It would appear, ern and northern canal networks and located on the less-easily managed therefore,that every neighborhood smith had its own Tigris River,Mashkan-shapirmay probably potter, well have subsisted on nonlocally and stoneworkeras well as a suite of other artisans. Forhigh quality producedfoodstuffs. It would make would residents prob- sense if the bargescoming from the goods,however, south to procurethe stones, woods seek out the more ably specialized areas of manufacture. and metals brought down from the The archaeologicalevidence northern Tigris catchment unloaded no indication of either particu- their bulky cargoes of grain here, and gives or if the reciprocalcommodity sent larly wealthy particularly impoverished neighborhoods.It may well north were locally produced manube that such things did not, in fact, factured goods like textiles that exist. Textsfromother Old Babylonian could be more economically moved cities recordthat high officials like long distances upstream and distribgenerals lived next door to poor fish- uted among dispersed populations. If Mashkan-shapir's role as a center ermen, for example, so there would be more of an expectation of wealth for sheep rearing, hinted at in third differentials within neighborhoods millennium texts, continued in the than between them. Two of the artisecond millennium, this would help fact categories that we found on sur- to explain the lack of contemporary vey may be arguedto favoran associ- small settlements in the immediate

Among the copper/bronzeobjects found on the surface of Mashkan-shapirwere a fish spear and an awl. Copper/bronzeslag, a clear indication of the activities of smiths and smelters, has been found in all residential districts but is particularlyconcentrated in the central mound.

area. Local canal systems would have supportedmostly date and vegetable plots, and houses would generally have a pig in the courtyardas a kind of waste processor and, ultimately, menu item. Moreexcavation,in other parts of the city, is needed to establish and qualify this economic scenario. The city was protectedby Siniddinam'scity wall. This encircles an area somewhat largerthan the heavily built up part of the city, even in its most prosperousdays.A few isolated buildings can be seen in the deserted area off the main tell but still within the city walls. Gates were generally located close to the canals, so that roads parallelingthe canals could be accommodated. The points at which these canals entered the city appearto have been fortified in some instances,andthere aretraces of a moat, which may even have sub-

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stituted for the city wall on the western side of the mound. This picture of Mashkan-shapir's complex urban landscape is, quite literally, based on superficial evidence. However,the historical accidents and circumstances outlined at the beginning of this article, which first led to the rise of the city to a position of crucial importance and then to its abruptand permanent abandonment,present us with a situation where surface indications are unusually informative. The lack of overburdensand relatively tight time frame in which the settlement enjoyedurban status enable us to look here at a city as a whole with an efficiency not possible at other major southern Mesopotamian centers. Our attempts to do so were only at an incipient stage when the sinister forces that were once under Nergal's control intervened.Wehope that conditions will soon improvein Iraq,not

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just for the sake of revealingthe patterns of life of its ancient inhabitants, who created the world'sfirst cities, but also for the well-being of its modern population. Bibliography Baqir,T. 1959 TellHarmal. Baghdad:Directorate General of Antiquities. Charpin,D. 1988 Les Repr6sentantsde Mari Babylone. Pp. 139-205 in Archives Epistolairesde Mari1/2, edited by D. Charpin,E Joannes,S. Lackenbacher and B. Lafont.Paris:1Editions Recherchesur les Civilisations. Hill, H., Jacobsen,D. T., and Delougaz, P. 1990 Old Babylonian Buildingsin the Diyala Region. Series:Oriental Institute Publications,volume 98. Chicago:Oriental Institute Press. Hrouda,B.,and others 1977 Isin-Isn Bahriyat I. Series:Bayerische Akademie der wissenschaften, volume 79. Munich:Verlagder bayerischen Akademieder wissenschaften. Leemans,W.E 1960 ForeignTradein the Old Babylonian Period.Leiden:Brill. Pollock, S. 1991 Of Priestesses, Princes and Poor Relations:The Dead in the Royal Cemetery of Ur. CambridgeArchaeological Journal1:171-89. Stone, E. C. 1977 EconomicCrisis andSocialUpheaval in Old BabylonianNippur.Pp.267-89 in Mountains and Lowlands:Essays in the Archaeologyof GreaterMesopotamia, edited by L. D. Levineand T C. Young,Jr.Series:Bibliotheca Mesopotamica,volume 7. Malibu: Undena. 1987 NippurNeighborhoods.Series: Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization, volume 44. Chicago:Oriental Institute Press. 1990 The Tell Abu Duwari Project,Iraq, 1987.Journalof Field Archaeology 17: 141-62. Stone, E. C., and Zimansky, P. 1989. Maskan-'apirIdentified.MarSipri 2/1: 1-2.

West

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search in southern Mesopotamiahas focusedlargely on the region of ancient Sumer, where urban civilization was born in the fourth and third millennia B.C.E.Shortlyafter1750B.C.E., however,the status quo changed as the great Sumerian cities in the south, among them Ur, Uruk and Nippur, were largely abandoned. They remainedvirtually uninhabited for centuries, in some cases forever. Nippur, for example, seems to have lost most of its population around 1720 (Stone 1977; 1987).It grew to be a city again nearly 400 years later, around 1350, but was virtually abandoned a second time in about 1225. Only in the eighth century did it once more become large enough to be called a city (Armstrong1989). The old Sumerian cities were not the only ones so affected.All of Babyloniawas plunged into a darkage in the middle of the second millennium and again at the beginning of the first, periodswhen archaeological evidence of any literate, urban culture is minimal. These long periods of deurbanizationin Babyloniawere

Tell al-Deylam can be seen here in the distance as a low mound surroundedby date palms. The white coating on the surfaceof the mound is salt, indicative of a persistently high water table in the low-lying basin in which the site is located. The two men in the picture are standing on the spoil banks of a drainage canal that has been cut to help lower the water table and reduce the amount of harmful salt in the topsoil.

extensively in the nineteenth and primarily the result of ecological change as the EuphratesRiver began early twentieth centuries, when the fields of Assyriology and Mesopothe long process of moving west, tamian archaeologywere in their shifting awayfrom its old primary channels down the center of the infancy,it has been largely overlooked in recent decades. Therefore, country. Without sufficient river when we came in 1989 to work at water for irrigation, the cities along the old channels died. What had been Tell al-Deylam, we arrivedwith the sense that we were entering an unthe heartland of cities turned into a known land. dry steppe. It became what the SuSituated between the two major merians referredto as the edin, the land beyond the reach of the farthest branchesof the contemporaryEuphrairrigation canal, its steppe and desert tes River,the Hilla and the Hindiya, Tell al-Deylam is about 20 kilometers flora suitable only for grazingherds south of the city of Hilla and 12 kiloof sheep and goats (Adams 1981). meters northwest of the town of Kifl. Therefore,the area in the west Its nearest urban neighbors in antithat could be called the Babylonian heartland, as opposed to the desicquity were Babylon,some 30 kilocated Sumerian heartland, offers the meters to the north, and Borsippa, about 15kilometers to the northwest. best chance of tracing the development of southern Mesopotamiancul- Deylam's identification with ancient Dilbat is based on the discovery of ture in its later stages. Here, in the Dilbat tablets there in the late nineshadow of Babylonitself, the thin teenth century by local diggersand thread of civilization that links the Old Babylonian,Kassite and Neoby Hormuzd Rassam, who excavated there on behalf of The British MuseBabylonianexpressions of that culture across the intervening dark age um (Unger 1931:21-23; 1938:21819; Rassam 1897:265, 347; Reade gaps may be rediscovered. 1986:xxiv, xxxiv). These tablets providestrong eviand Dilbat al-Deylam Te11 dence in favorof the identification Although this region was explored

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

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95

of Deylam with Dilbat. However, during the last century or so there have been persistent questions about the modern name and the location of the ruins of ancient Dilbat. This is largely due to the fact that, until now, Deylam has neverbeen properly of excavated.Rassam, the "excavator" not was carrying certainly Deylam, out a responsible dig, even by the standardsof his own era;he was essentially mining the site for tablets and other artifacts. A cursory examination of the literature on Dilbat reveals many different spellings and pronunciations for the name of the site. Today it is consistently called Deylam by local inhabitants, and that is its name in the recordsof the IraqiDepartment of Antiquities and Heritage.That Deylam has indeed been the site's name for the last century-and-a-half is evident from the reportsof those who actually visited the place. A Frencharchaeologicalexpedition that saw the site in the 1850s referred to it as "Deylem"(Oppert1857-1863, volume 1:238-40). Rassam, who dug there, called it "Daillum"(Rassam 1897: 265). Surveyorsfor the British army during WorldWarI recorded the name as dylm in Arabic,but, as sometimes happenedon the maps they prepared,the Arabic name was incorrectly transcribed.In this instance, the transcription"Dulaim" appearsbeside the Arabic dylm. As a result, the name Dulaim is sometimes found today in the archaeological literature. A more serious problem is that Deylam has been confused with a site that has a similar-sounding,but completely different, name

-

Dulaihim

(Unger1931:24; 1938:219).Dulaihim (or Dilehim) is a tell of the fourth and third millennia located about 20 kilometers southeast of Nippur (Groneberg1980: 51).Putting Dilbat here is out of the question for two reasons:no Dilbat tablets have ever been reportedfrom Dulaihim, and the ancient texts at our disposal clearly and consistently place Dilbat

220

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in northwesternBabylonia,in the vicinity of Babylon,and nowhere near Nippur. A third site, Mukhattat, has also been considered as a possible candidate for the location of Dilbat, at least for the Old Babylonianperiod. Mukhattat is near Deylam, and some Old BabylonianDilbat tablets were reportedlyfound there by local diggers in the late nineteenth century (Ungnad 1909:iii-iv). Since the identification of Deylam with Dilbat is based on Rassam'sdiscoverythere of Neo-Babyloniantablets, it has been suggested that perhapsDeylam was Dilbat only after the end of the Old Babylonianperiod (Unger 1931:23; 1938:219).

Contourmap of Deylam, showing the two distinct mounds that make up the site and areas A, B and C excavated in 1990. The largereastern mound, approximately400by-500-meters,contains the ruins of ancient Dilbat. The western mound dates to Sassanian/EarlyIslamic times.

an/Achaemenidsherds that may be strays from the eastern part of the site, the pottery from the western tell allows us to date it to the Sassanian/EarlyIslamic period. The largereastern tell yielded sherds from the EarlyDynastic I through Achaemenid periods. This part of the site, therefore,was occupied, albeit probablynot continuously, from the beginning of the third millennium to the middle of the first, suggesting that the periods Recent Excavationsat Tell al-Deylam in which we were particularlyinterWebegan examining Tell al-Deylam ested should be both present and accessible. during the eighteenth dig season of It was on this eastern mound the University of Chicago'sNippur that we encountered evidence of earExpedition. During several short lier digging on the site; the northern visits to the site in early 1989 we end is coveredwith the spoil heaps prepareda topographicmap and and filled-in trenches of Rassam and collected surface pottery.Deylam a the illicit diggersthat followed him consists of two distinct mounds, in scramble for tablets. In the the to the smaller triangularone west, linear mound along the northeastern and a largermound, about 400-by500-meters,to the east. Surfacesherds edge of the tell might be the remains show that the two mounds were occu- of a city wall, but this suggestion has not yet been confirmed through pied during differentperiods. With the exception of a few Neo-Babyloni- excavation.

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

During the winter of 1989-90 we excavatedthree soundings on the eastern mound at Deylam. In the first of these, Area A, we peeled away nearly 3 meters of ashy layers containing sherds of the Old Babylonian period, but found no architectural remains, in our small exposure. The second sounding, Area B, also exposed a relatively small area, 4.5-by-4.5-meters.In the lowest level reached thus far we found the remains of what appearto be parts of one or more fairly modest houses of the late Old Babylonianperiod. Associated with these houses were intramuralburials, the bodies having been laid on their sides in the flexed position without coffins. The pottery from these burials and the associated floor layers is similar to the late Old Babylonianpottery from Tell ed-Der (Sippar-Amnanum).The Der pottery can be securely dated to the seventeenth centurybecause it was foundin association with dated texts (Gasche 1989:75-99). Most distinctive among the forms of this late Old Babylonian corpus are goblets (tall drinking vessels) that appearto be transitional in shape between the goblets of Hammurabi'sand Samsuiluna'sera (eighteenth century) and those belonging to the Kassite period. We found no inscriptional material in this late Old Babyloniancontext. However,it should be noted

that the latest dated Old Babylonian tablets bearing the name of Dilbat are from the latter half of the seventeenth century, just as was the case at Tell ed-Der (Finkelstein 1972: numbers 32, 53, 60, 156, 221, 224). These Dilbat tablets, it must be remembered, were dug up illicitly and were not from controlled excavations. We found one very unusual vessel in a late Old Babyloniancontext. It was shaped ratherlike a bottle, but unlike a container for liquids, it was open at both its wide andnarrowends. Its sides had been perforatedwith a number of small holes and there were two skid-like feet along one side of the body, the "bottom."The latter apparently kept it from rolling around when it was placedhorizontally.Near the wide end there was a single protuberance on the "top"side -the side opposite the feet- and between this protuberanceand the wide end was a slit. Similar objects have been found at Nippur (Peters1897, volume 2: plate 6), Emar (Margueron1985)and elsewhere in the ancient Near East. These appearto be either traps or cages for small animals, in which case a piece of wood or baked clay must have been inserted into the slit at the wide end to keep them from escaping. Cutting down into the Old Babylonian remains was the first of a series of three superimposed late Kassite

It has been suggested that this bottle-shaped ceramic object from the seventeenth century level of Area B is either a trapor a cage for a small animal. Both its wide and narrowends are open, and its sides arepierced with a number of small holes. It was intended to sit horizontally on skid-like feet. A massive protuberanceand a wide slit are found on the side opposite the feet. A disk-shapedobject of some kind inserted into the slit could have sealed the wide end of the vessel shut.

pottery kilns that extendedupwardto the surface of the mound. Generally speaking, all that remained of these roundor ovalkilns were the ash-filled pits that constituted their fireboxes. In one case, however,a small portion of the superstructurewas preserved, including a few courses of the springing of its domed top. The remains of many more such kilns could be seen on the surface all across the southern half of the mound This computer-generatedmodel shows a bird's-eyeview of the mounds of Deylam from the southwest. The vertical dimension of this model has been exaggerated.The ridge on the north- along with numerous Kassite pottery eastern side of the eastern mound may representthe city wall, but this has not yet been demonwasters. The kilns were generally on strated throughexcavation. the small side, rarely more than 2 meters in diameter. Their great number, however,suggests that there was a substantial pottery industry at the site in Kassite times, and the surface remains leave the impression that Dilbat was essentially an industrial settlement duringthat period. Burials had been cut into the ashy buildup aroundthe kilns. The late Kassite ceramics found in these burials indicate that they, as a group, are contemporarywith the kilns. Among the burial pottery types were

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

221

ian pottery from the sixteenth and fifteenth centuries. If such material is present in our collections of surface ceramics, we do not yet know what to look for in orderto isolate it from earlier and later material. Indeed, as was articulated earlier,one of the primaryreasons for shifting our focus to northwesternBabyloniawas because it seemed to offer the best opportunity to identify settlements and artifacts,especially pottery, dating to the dark ages. Our sounding in AreaB has shed a bit more light on the little-known seventeenth century, but it will take more work at Deylam and elsewhere before we can identify and describe the material culture from the succeeding centuries. At the bottom of Area B we uncoveredwhat appearsto be a domestic area of the seventeenth Our first season at Deylam procentury,representedby severalratherinsubstantial walls. Above this level we excavated the ash-filled fireboxesof severalsuperimposedpottery kilns of the thirteenth century;these can vided us with a reason to be caube seen in the section. tious when using surface sherds to predict what will be found beneath the typical late Kassite goblet and Whether we can generalize from this the surface.The sherds we collected on the surface in the vicinity of our rather small sounding to the entire wavy-sidedbowl. The corpus as a whole is probablyto be dated to the third sounding, Area C, rangedin tell, however,is an open question. thirteenthcenturyB.C.E. time from the very beginning of The surface sherds would tend to the second millennium (UrIII/Isin Assuming our dating of the pot- support the conclusion that there tery is correct,there was a substantial was a gap across the entire eastern Larsa)to the middle of the first (Neomound. We should be cautious, how- Babylonian/Achaemenid).No sherds gap in the occupation of Area B between approximatelythe late seven- ever,because we do not know the from the EarlyDynastic or Akkadian teenth and the thirteenth centuries. characteristics of Babylonperiods were found in the area.In diagnostic Below: Tallgoblets of this type are typical of the seventeenth century These were found in burials associated with the late Old Babylonian structuresof Area B. Right: This goblet and bowl from a burial in Area B are typical of the Kassiteperiod in Babylonia.Also illustrated are shell rings and a necklace of frit beads whose surfaces were originally glazed dark blue.

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222

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

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fact, only a few isolated sherds of these periods were found on the site as a whole. Nevertheless, just below the surface of Area C we unexpectedly came upon the top of more than 4 meters of Akkadianand/orlate Early Dynastic IIImaterial. We had not reached the bottom of the remains at the end of our first season of work. That such a substantial accumulation would be so poorly represented on the surface makes one wary of conclusions based on surface evidence alone. The remains we uncoveredin Area C are from a domestic area. Although our sounding contained only portions of several rooms of perhapstwo different buildings, we did excavatea 2-meter-highwall built of plano-convexbricks. This wall contained a blocked doorwaycomplete with its mud-bricklintel. Burials were associated with the buildings in Area C. These contained many pottery vessels that can be comparedwith similar examples from Kish, Nippur,Abu Salabikh,the Diyala sites, and Tell Razuk in the Hamrin Valley.There is some dispute about the dating of the pottery types we found, but they generally fall into the late EarlyDynastic III/ early Akkadian time range (Moon 1987;Gibson 1981:73-80; 1982). Among the objects that adorned the dead were long copper pins and bracelets as well as beads. Also found in the burials were shells containing a white paste, probablya cosmetic. The precise function of two white This groupof burialpottery from Area C contains types that are representativeof the third quarterof the thirdmillennium (EarlyDynastic III/Akkadian).At the left rearcorneris a goddess-handlejar;the vertical "handle"extending from the shoulder to nearly the rim has been decorated with a face and breasts. At the right rearcorneris a pedestaled bowl, commonly called a fruitstand. In front of the fruitstand is a small, high-footedjar with an unusual bunghole-typeopening and spout at the base of its body. In the center of the group is a spouted stand, apparentlyused to collect and drain off liquid from a vessel that sat

stone objects with bands of inlaid bitumen eludes us. A narrowhole in their tops could have accepted a thin rod or stick, so they might be handles or knobs of some kind. There were no copper vessels in the burials, and only a single uninscribed, ratherindifferently cut shell cylinder seal. This suggests that the people who lived and died in our Area C, while apparentlyfairly well off, were not among the socially elite of their city. The top of Area C was disturbed by early second-millennium pits from Isin-Larsatimes, in which the only inscriptional material was found. Piotr Steinkeller identified these as two fragmentarytablets containing writing exercises and a bakedbrick fragment bearing a stamped inscription of the Ur IIIking Amar-Suen commemorating work he carried out at the Ekur,the principal religious shrine in the city of Nippur. This brick was apparentlybrought to Deylam from elsewhere, perhaps during Isin-Larsatimes. No material from the Old Babylonian,Kassite or later periods was found in Area C. We did not recoverany firstmillennium remains in our soundings in spite of the presence of firstmillennium sherds on the surface in or near all the areas we excavated. Wedid not, however,open any squares

This third-millenniumwall in Area C, made of plano-convexbricks, contains a blocked doorway preservedto its full height. The slightly vaulted lintel can still be seen at the top of the blocking, while the dark ashy streak of the doorway'sfloor can be discerned at the bottom of the blocking. A footing, somewhat wider than the wall itself, runs at the wall's base. The meter stick is resting on an earlier wall, also made of plano-convexbricks.

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atop it.

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

223

the Euphratesand are quite visible in the otherwise very flat topographyof this alluvial landscape. Modernirrigation canals frequently run on top of the levees so that water can be easily directed down the levee slopes to the fields on either side. Deylam is not on one of these levees today,but is in a largebasin, or low area,between them. Also in this basin is the only other preSeleucid site besides Deylam that we found-Tell Rishad, which dates approximatelyto the second quarter of the first millennium. The presence of these two earlier sites in a basin is significant, because when they were living settlements, they had to have been on levees themselves, alongside either the river or one of its major canals. Dilbat, as we know from the texts, was on a branch of the Euphrates. The current topographicsituaA copper Artifacts discoveredin Area C. Tobp: three bracelets and a stone bowl pin, tion, with Deylam in the middle of a copper from a third-millenniumburial.Above: White basin, indicates that there has been stone objects inlaid with bands of bitumen. enough alluviation in this region over These may have been handles or knobs. the years to bury earlier levees and many of the sites that once sat atop them under the surface of today's in the northern half of the eastern basin. One reason that we were able mound, where the traces of the ear- to spot Tell Rishad, a low-lying site, lier excavations suggest that this was was that it had been cut through by a where Rassam presumably found his modern drainageditch and its darkerfirst-millennium tablets. In the fucolored, artifact-filledsoil stood out on the ditch'sspoil banks. ture we hope to expand our work in In Area C at Deylam we are althat direction. Only at that time will we be sure that Tell al-Deylam readywell below plain level, and the site continues lower. It may extend will be able to providemore information on the post-Kassitedarkage. back in time to EarlyDynastic I, if we can rely on the presence in later levels of ED I solid-footedgoblet The Environsof Tellal-Daylam We spent severalweeks of the 1989- bases. We infer from this that many 90 season exploring the countryside earlier sites in Deylam'svicinity now aroundTell al-Deylam, an areawhich lie buried under the later accumulahad not been examined archaeologi- tion of alluvium. Any future survey of earlier and cally for more than a century. The sites we found were almost all from smaller sites in the Deylam region the Seleucid through Islamic periods, will require the examination of Deywith the greatmaiority of these being lam's basin on foot, with special atParthianor later. These late sites are tention paid to the banks of the new strung out in lines along levees. The drainage ditches that crisscross it. Only in this way can buried sites be long, linear humps of these levees represent the lines of old branches of located. Such a procedure was beyond A Y

. n Is .........

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Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

the limits of our time and resources during 1989-90, but we hope to carry this work out in future seasons. Mukhattat and Dilbat It has been proposedthat Mukhattat, a site in the vicinity of Deylam, might be Dilbat- at least in Old Babylonian times. This suggestion was originally made by German scholar E. Unger (1931:23; 1938: 219) and is based on the reporteddiscovery there of Old BabylonianDilbat tablets by illicit diggers.If Mukhattat is indeed Old BabylonianDilbat, then, according to Unger'sproposal,in some subsequent period the city was moved to Deylam, which accounts for the presence of Neo-BabylonianDilbat tablets at the latter site. It should be noted, however,that the Assyriologist who first published the Mukhattat texts doubted their reportedprovenience and concluded that they probably came from Deylam (Ungnad 1909: iii-iv). Nevertheless, in the absence of conclusive evidence one way or the other, Dilbat's location has remained a matter of question. Because of this, we had hoped to visit Mukhattat during our regional prospection but were unable to reach the site. Nevertheless, the results of our excavations at Deylam and of our survey of nearbysites strongly support our conclusion that Deylam alone was Dilbat. Forexample, the discovery of the requisite Old Babylonian levels at Deylam has removed the apparentneed to locate Dilbat at different sites during the Old Babylonian and Neo-Babylonianperiods. If Neo-BabylonianDeylam is Dilbat, then surely Old BabylonianDeylam is also Dilbat. Furthermore, both the description of Mukhattat and what we can now deduce from its location militate against that site's being Dilbat. The only published description of Mukhattat is that of the Assyriolo-

gist Jules Oppert,who visited it in the mid-nineteenth century (Oppert 1857-1863, volume 1: 239). His de-

scription indicates that Mukhattat is not a normal settlement site. Instead, it is a large mud-brickplatform, 14 meters square and 6 meters high, which-although located near other tells - stands by itself. Oppertbelieved that he had found the base of the giant statue erected by Nebuchadnezzaraccording to Daniel 3. Whateverthe purpose of this structure, it is clear that it cannot represent the ruins of the ancient city of Dilbat. Oppert'smap locates Mukhattat about 5.5 kilometers east-northeast of Deylam and about 2 kilometers north of Duwayr,the site closest to it that we visited (Oppert1857-1863, Atlas: plate 1).This means that Mukhattat sits on the big northsouth levee to the east of Deylam together with sites of relatively late date. Duwayr,for example, is a Seleucid fort, and the other sites are of Seleucid, Parthianor later dates. We identified no earlier sites, and certainly no Old Babyloniansites, along this levee. The branch of the Euphratesthat this levee represents, therefore, seems to have come into existence at the earliest in Seleucid times, after the death of Alexander the Great. In addition, Oppert observed that the mud bricks that made up the platform of Mukhattat were 15 centimeters thick. Such thick mud bricks are unusual in Babyloniaexcept in the Seleucid and Parthian periods. While the site cannot be accurately dated solely on the basis of such evidence, it nevertheless ac-

The solid circles indicate sites that were surveyed during our first season at Deylam. The thin lines representmodern-dayirrigation canals. Most of the sites and canals are on old levees that lie to the east and west of Deylam; these sites are Seleucid or later in date. Deylam and Rishad, both with pre-Seleucidmaterial, are in the low area, or basin, between the levees. Mukhattat, which we did not visit, is on the levee east of Deylam.

date. On present evidence, therefore, it seems unlikely that any site other than Deylam was ever Dilbat. Acknowledgments The first season of the Tell al-Deylam Projectwas funded in part by the grant I received as a FulbrightResearch Scholar in Iraq.Additional

cords well with Mukhattat's location among Seleucid and later sites. From the foregoing, then, it seems clear that the mound of Mukhattat is the ruin of a single, large structure and not the remains of an

entire city. Furthermore,it is probable that the site is of a relatively late Dilbat (Tellal-Deylam)is located in northwestern Babylonia,about 30 kilometers south of Babylon.

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Groneberg,B. 1980 Die Orts- und Gewiassernamen der altbabylonischen Zeit. Series: R6pertoiregdographiquedes textes cun6iformes,volume 3. Wiesbaden: Dr. LudwigReichertVerlag. Margueron,J.-C. 1985 Un piege a ronguersa Emar.Report of the Department of Antiquities Cyprus1985: 143-45. Moon, J. 1987 Catalogue of EarlyDynastic Pottery. Series:Abu SalabikhExcavations, volume 3. London:British School of Archaeologyin Iraq. Oppert,J. 1857- Expeditionscientifique en Mesopota1863 mie execut~epar ordredu gouvernement de 1851ai 1854par MM.Fulgence Fresnel,Felix Thomas et Jules Oppert,2 volumes and an atlas. Paris:Imprimerieimp6riale. Peters,J.P. 1897 Nippur,or Explorationsand Adventureson the Euphrates:TheNarrative of the Universityof Pennsylvania Expeditionto Babyloniain the Years 1888-1890, 2 volumes. New York: G. P.Putnam'sSons. Rassam,H. 1897 Asshur and the Landof Nimrod. Cincinnati:Curts & Jennings. Bibliography Reade,J.E. Adams,R. McC. 1986 Rassam'sBabylonianCollection: 1981 Heartland of Cities: Surveysof the Excavationsand the Archives.Pp. Ancient Settlement and Land Use xiii-xxxvi in TabletsFromSippar1 on the CentralFloodplainof the by E. Leichty.Series:Catalogueof Euphrates.Chicago:University the BabylonianTabletsin the British of Chicago Press. Museum, volume 6. London:British Armstrong,J.A. Museum Publications. 1989 The Archaeologyof Nippurfrom the Decline of the Kassite KingdomunStone, E. C. 1977 EconomicCrisis and Social Upheaval til the Rise of the Neo-Babylonian in Old BabylonianNippur.Pp. 267Empire.Ph.D. diss., University of 89 in Mountains and Lowlands: Chicago. Essaysin the Archaeologyof Greater Finkelstein, J.J. 1972 LateOld BabylonianDocuments and Mesopotamia,edited by L. D. Levine andT C. Young,Jr.Series:Bibliotheca Letters.Series:YaleOriental Series, Mesopotamica,volume 7. Malibu: BabylonianTexts,volume 13. New Undena. Haven,CT:YaleUniversity Press. 1987 NippurNeighborhoods.Series: Gasche, H. Studies in Ancient OrientalCivili1989 La Babylonie au 17e siecle avant notre ere:approchearcheologique, zation, volume 44. Chicago:Oriental Institute Press. problemes et perspectives.Series: MesopotamianHistory and Environ- Unger,E. 1931 Topographieder StadtDilbat. Archiv ment, series 2, Memoirs 1. Ghent: Orientalni 3: 21-48. University of Ghent. 1938 Dilbat. Pp. 218-25 in Reallexikon Gibson, McG. der Assyriologie, volume 2, edited by 1982 A Re-evaluationof the AkkadPeriod in the Diyala Regionon the Basis of E.EbelingandB.Meissner.Berlinand & Co. Recent Excavationsat Nippur and in Leipzig:Walterde CGruyter the Hamrin.American Journalof Ungnad,A. 1909 Untersuchungenzu den im VII. Archaeology 86: 531-38. Hefte der vorderasiatischenSchriftGibson, McG., editor 1981 Uch TepeI: TellRazuk, TellAhmed denkmiler veroffentlichenUrkunden aus Dilbat, Beitriagezur Assyriologie al-Mughir,TellAjamat. Series: Hamrin Report,volume 10. Copen6/5. Leipzig:J.C. Hinrichs'sche Buchhandlung. hagen:Akademisk Forlag.

funds were providedby the ASOR IraqExcavationGrant. I also wish to acknowledge the assistance of Dr. Mu'ayadSaid Damerji, Director of the Department of Antiquities and Heritage.The projectbenefited greatly from the interest and support of Dr. RobertMcC. Adams and Professor McGuire Gibson, and from the generosity of the Italian Archaeological Mission, who offeredus the use of their house in Hilla. I would also like to thank team members MargaretBrandt,Augusta McMahon and BeverlyArmstrong, as well as Johnand Peggy Sandersof Archaeological GraphicServices,who mapped the site. This article was readby McGuire Gibson, who made several helpful suggestions. Any errorsthat remain, however,are my responsibility alone.

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Correction Due to a productionerror,several pages in the article, "The Samaria Ivories, Marzeah and Biblical Texts,"by Eleanor Ferris Beach in the September issue of Biblical Archaeologist (55: 130-39) were printed out of order. The correct pagination should be 130-31, 13637, 134-35, 132-33, 138-39. The editors apologize to Dr. Beach and our readersforthe error.The entire article will reappear in a future issue of BA.

Statementof Ownership, ManagementandCirculation October1, 1992 Title: Biblical Archaeologist.Publication Number 0006-0895. Frequency:Quarterly.Fourissues publishedannually.Subscriptionprice:$45 institutions, $35 individuals. Locationof Office of Publication: ScholarsPress, P.O.Box 15399, Atlanta, GA 303330399. Headquartersof publisher:Same. Publisher: ScholarsPress, P.O.Box 15399, Atlanta, GA 303330399. Editor:Eric M. Meyers,ASOR Publications, P.O.Box HM, Duke Station, Durham, NC, 27706. Owner:The AmericanSchoolsof OrientalResearch, 3301 North Charles St., Baltimore,MD 21218.The purpose, function, and nonprofit status of this organization and the tax exempt status for Federalincome tax purposeshas not changedduringthe preceding 12 months. The averagenumberof copies of each issue duringpreceding12 months are:(A)Total numberof copies printed:4,957; (B)Paidcirculation, mail subscriptions:4,379; (C)TOtalpaidcirculation: 4,379;(D)Freedistribution:78;(E)Totaldistribution: Total: 4,457; (F) Copies not distributed: 500; tCG) 4,957. The actual numberof copies of single issue publishednearestto filing date:(A)Totalnumberof copies printed:4,801; (B)Paidcirculation, mail subscriptions:4,158;(C)Totalpaidcirculation:4,158;(D) Freedistribution:65; (E)Totaldistribution:4,223;(F) Copies not distributed:578; fG)Total:4,801. I certify thatthe statementsmadebyme abovearecorrectand complete. Dennis Ford,ScholarsPress.

Khorsabad

9

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A map of the Assyrian triangle, showing the locations of Nimrud, Khorsabadand Nineveh, the three successive capitals of LateAssyria. Nineveh became the capital of the far-flung Neo-Assyrianempire with the accession of Sennacherib (704-681 B.C.E.), but succumbed

to a combined forceof Medes and Babylonians in 612 B.C.E.

UC

Berkeley's

Excavations at

came a vivid paradigmfor a sudden fall from wealth and power. The history of archaeological excavation at Nineveh spans a period of 150 years (Scottand MacGinnis 1990: 63), beginning in 1842, when Paul Emile Botta, the Consul of Francein the nearbytown of Mosul, first sought to unlock the secrets of Kuyunjik, the huge core mound of Nineveh. Five years later Austen Henry Layard was permitted to probe the same challenging mound on behalf of the British Museum. With an acute excavator'seye, he almost immediately located the principal apartments of Sennacherib's"PalaceWithout Rival" (Layard1853). When Layardleft archaeology in 1851 in orderto pursue a political career,his erstwhile assistant, Hormuzd Rassam, succeeded him at Nineveh. Rassam discoveredthe palace of Assurbanipal,the last great king of Assyria, and the memorable limestone reliefs that depict that monarch'selaboratelion hunt. When the Akkadian cuneiform script was successfully decipheredat this time, the focus of Rassam'slater work at Kuyunjik-and that of many subsequent excavatorsat Nineveh - shifted from the recoveryof stone sculpture to the retrievalof written records. In 1872, George Smith, a young Assyriologist, was examining one of the many thousands of tablets that had been shipped to the British Museum from Nineveh when he suddenly realized that he was reading a Babylonianaccount of the Flood. Such was his initial excitement that he is said to have raced aroundhis room tearing off his clothes!

Nineveh

byDavidStronachand StephenLumsden he city of Nineveh has

anextraordinary history.

Locatedin northern Mesopotamia at the confluence of the Tigris and Khosr rivers,where one of the main east-westtraderoutes of the ancient Near East crossed the Tigris, its beginnings can be traced back to 6000 B.C.E. From at least the late third millennium onwardsit was home to the celebratedtemple of "Ishtarof Nineveh."With the accession of Sennacherib (704-681 B.C.E.),it became the dazzling capital

of the far-flungNeo-Assyrianempire. Finally,when Nineveh succumbed to a combined force of Medes and Babylonians in 612 B.C.E.,the terrible

destruction of the once great city be-

The discovery of the tablet caused a sensation in Victorian Britain. When

it was learned that a significant part of the text was missing, a leading newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, promptly offered ?1,000 to anyone who would lead an expedition to Nineveh in order to find the missing lines. Appropriately enough, Smith was selected. The odds that he would succeed were hardly favorable, but

nevertheless

-

in what should have

been a fairy-taleending- after no more than a few days, Smith chanced upon a fragment of another tablet that largely completed the Deluge account. Tragically,however,Smith did not long outlive his triumph. Weakenedby dysentery at the end of a subsequent campaign at Nineveh, he died on the first stage of his homeward journey,a journeyundertaken well after the onset of summer's searing heat.

ModernExcavations Each of the most recent excavations at Nineveh-beginning with those of the IraqiDepartment of Antiquities and Heritage from the second half of the 1960s onwardsand ending with those of the University of California at Berkeleybetween 1987 and 1990-were shaped, at least in part, by the threat posed for the last 30 years by the rapidgrowth of the city of Mosul. Indeed,it was in response to the insistent pressure on many parts of the ancient site that the expedition of Dr. TariqMadhloom (1967, 1968, 1969)spent much of its time more than 20 years ago redefining and restoringthe line of Nineveh's 12-kilometerdouble wall. This provided a graphicreminder of the former splendor of the 750-hectarecity of the seventh century B.C.E. while saving two-thirds of the remaining open groundwithin the walls from the perils of development. The Lowerlbwn Survey.Another concern, apartfrom the threat of further building, led to the inception of UC-Berkeley'sLowerTown Project. This was an appreciationthat it was time to begin to elucidate the character and organization of Nineveh's long neglected, urban neighborhoods. Such an interest had never been, of course, a high priority for the site's early excavators. Economic and legal texts can illuminate many aspects of urban life without further supporting data, but the prior absence of any systematic archaeological investigation of the lower town districts at

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such sites as Nimrud, Khorsabadand Nineveh has to be seen as a serious shortcoming. As early as the beginning of the second season, in March 1989, a preliminary foot survey in the northeastern corner of the lower town suggested that almost one-fourthof the availableterrain in the Northern Sector of Sennacherib'sextended metropolis might never have been built upon. This sector of the city could have been wateredby a high level aqueductthat was probablyfirst introduced during the reign of Sennacherib and may have been partly given over,therefore,to intramural orchardsand gardens.It should also be rememberedthat Nineveh was not only reputedto have sheltered a large human population, but a large animal population as well. Jonah4:11 describes Nineveh as a "greatcity" of "morethan a hundredand twenty thousand persons"in which there was also "muchcattle." In yet another development, recent fieldwork indicated that a distinct plateau to the north of Kuyunjik could owe part of its considerable The plan of Nineveh in the seventh century At this time the twin high mounds of Kuyunjikand Nebi Yunuswere reservedfor royal and religious construction.

B.C.E.

AdadGate

HalahhuGate

NergalGate

SinGate

Shibaniba Gate Mashki Gate

Mushlalu Gate River

Khost

Kar-Mulissi GateGate DesertGate A nGShamash Arsenal Gate

2*

Gate

HalziGate Handuri Gate

Ashur Gate

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topographicstudies were initiated and new archaeological surface surHalahhuGate vey strategies were tested in order Adad Gate to determine the best ways in which Nergal Gate / to cover the broadbounds and diShibaniba Gate SinGate verse terrain of the projectarea (Lumsden1991). Johnand PeggySandersof the ~~a GMushlalu Oriental Institute of the University velY of Chicago gave us an all-important Seate Mashki River Khosr Gate start by providingthe first detailed Kar-Mulissi Gate topographicplan of a single sector of the lower town. This plan immediately confirmed the dramaticvariThenorthernsectorof Sennacherib'sextensive ations in the elevation that exist in LowerTown.Theplan shows the approximate this northern portion of Nineveh. At path of threeof the main thoroughfares. the same time inquiries made of the local farmers(whose fields now cover height to the existence of an old town much of the projectarea)revealed useful insights about those human mound that long predatedthe reign of Sennacherib.Todaythis area is and natural agencies that might have contributed, at least in fairly recent separatedfrom Kuyunjikby what years, to the present configuration may have been a deep moat; but whether this was always the case of the terrain. or whether this feature is one more We also have the same farmers to thank for the presence of a number testimony to the way in which Sennacherib was willing to recast major of deep trenches that now hold gas components of the landscapein order pumps. The exposed sections in two to meet the requirements of a sweep- of these cuts revealedthe presence ing new urban design -is something of pre-seventhcentury Neo-Assyrian that only future soundings will be levels and, at least within the limits able to determine. of the old town mound, it now seems Excavationsin the vicinity of safe to assume that still older occuthe Mashki Gate ("TheGate of the pation levels must lie beneath the WateringPlaces"),in an area designated MG, as well as others on the A computerimage of the view from the Northwest Mound (AreaNWM), northwest cornerof Nineveh. The more or less elevatedmiddle ground, which stands have provideduseful information. dominant mass of Kuyunjik, In Area MG, for example, the work of in front oftothe is likely include the area of Nineveh'sorigthe past two seasons has documented inal LowerTown. the presence of an elite quarterwith notably large courtyardbuildings flanked by sometimes broadroads. Five hundredmeters to the north, PierreBikai'swork in Area NWM has done much to reveala very different picture. Here we find the flimsy, crowdedconstructions of an artisan's quarterin which there is clear evidence for the production of both pottery and metalwork. It was in 1990 that the first steps were taken to expandthe survey overthe entire northern sector of the city. At this time intensive

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

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unexpectedly thick (7 meters) Late Assyrian overburden. Surfacetraversesin the fields to the south of the Sin Gate have yielded unusual quantities of kiln slag. Takentogetherwith the findings made in the three excavatedlevels of the Northwest Mound, this evidence almost certainly affirms the industrial characterof much of the northwest corner of the city. In yet another part of the project areathere are indications that a highly importantroadranin a more or less direct line from the Nergal Gate to the northeast corner of Kuyunjik. On the one hand the Nergal Gate was the only city gate to be graced by a pair of lamassu (gateguardians). On the other hand, the walking transects that were introduced in 1990 have revealeda large concentration of roughly cut, flat stone blocks, each worn on one side, that could have served to pavepart of Sennacherib's once celebrated, stone-pavedRoyal Road. Other significant roads appear to have included a partly excavated wide thoroughfarethat ran eastward from the Mashki Gate, as well as a possibly much-used roadwaythat descended from the Halahhu Gate on the summit of an old river terrace of the Tigris. Although the LowerTown Survey is still in a preliminary state, the urban landscape of the northern section of Sennacherib'scity has been roughly defined. In addition, light has also been shed on the patterns of post-Assyriansettlement in this part of Nineveh: so far evidence for Hellenistic occupation is confined to an area east of Kuyunjik, at the bend of the Khosr. Evidence for still later occupation is limited to scattered potsherds of mainly Islamic date. Excavations on Kuyunjik. In concert with the work that was undertaken in the northern part of the Lower Town, a separate set of excavations was conducted at various points along the southeast edge of the steep-sided Kuyunjik mound. In Area KG, at the head of a deep gully where a number

A Neo-Assyriancourtyardhouse fromAreaMGin the LowerTown.The western half of the structure only survives at foundation level, but the central courtyardand its surroundingappointments are well preserved.Morethan 2 kilometers away, part of Nineveh'slong east wall can be detected near the top of the photo. Unless otherwise noted, all photos by David Stronach.

Augusta McMahontrims a section in the deep sounding on Kuyunjik(AreaKG).The partly erodedremains of an Akkadian stone terracecan be seen on the left. A subsequent enlargement of the trench beyond the position of the white arrowrevealed the line of an Akkadian city wall that once guardedthe southeasternedge of this alreadylong-importantmound. (circa2300B.C.E.)

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of relatively early stratawere already exposed in section, a single, deep sounding eventually revealedthe heavy stone foundations of a city wall

of Akkadiandate,circa2300 B.C.E.,

as well as a series of early third millennium Ninevite 5 constructions. In conjunction with Max Mallowan's (1933)famous deep trench in the center of Kuyunjik,these excavations continue to expand our knowledge of the extent of what must have been an important Ninevite 5 settlement at Nineveh. Inevitably,however,one of the main attractions of working on Kuyunjikwas the opportunity that it providedto reexamine certain The recleaning of this decoratedstone thresholdleading to the throneroom of Sennacherib's palace permitted a fresh study of a possible early carpetdesign. It also revealed,in a panel monuments of Neo-Assyriandate. that divides the central field in half, Sennacherib'sonly known threshold inscription. Note the With this in mind, JohnRussell legs and feet of the flanking lamassu. Photo by D. Pickworth. elected to reexcavatethe so-called bit nakkapti (a structure otherwise in this historic throne-roomsuite al- at least for the moment, the only known as "Sennacherib'sEastern known threshold inscription of this, most any new gleanings can be said first uncovered that was Building") or any subsequent, Assyrianmonarch to take on a Two Hutchinson and in 1904 (Thompson special significance. be used to illusobservations a to 1929:64-66). According may hypothe(Russell 1991: 18-19, 32-33). trate the some first advanced Russell sis that point. In going over the visible remains Excavationsat the Halzi Gate years ago, this enigmatic structure of the sculptured slabs in the throne One further goal of the past two seawith its inscribed gatewaycould addition final the have represented room, Russell discovereda previously sons was to study the remains of the Halzi Gate, the southernmost point shallow niche directly unrecorded Sennacherib of the famed to palace of entry in Nineveh's strongly fortistrucentrance. This main the formidable that that duly gave opposite of has earlier not feature claimed its ture greatest parallels fied east wall. One of the largest of length only in the 500 cubits 914 Neo-Assyrianpalaces at Nim- A blue-paintedapotropaicclay figurinefound meters). (about in a foundation box at the southwest corner restill rud and This particularpoint Khorsabad,but it suggests of the Great Courtof the Halzi Gate. Photo or the Sennacherib's on one be to mains that, occasion, way proven by D. Pickworth. throne was removedfrom the south other (Russell 1991:86), but there end of the throne room to a point is now a farbetter understandingof eledescribed near the center of the long east wall hitherto the sketchily the monarch could look out monumental where of this ments gateway. that assert on the we can At the very least, adjoiningopen court. threshold from the documents A stone most this portal probably the throne room between the line of the main approachto the doorway the and adjacentretiringroom was palace along a route that could well for photographic reexcavated also have been connected to the stately, of the purpose of this Part purposes. pavedhighwaybetween Kuyunjik the possireexamine was to exercise and the Nergal Gate. a floral such that In the area of the throne room patterned bility threshold could have been carved of the Southwest Palace (to use the modern designation for Sennacherib's in imitation of an actual carpet;but, palace)we photographedthose reliefs whether or not this was the case, the that remain in situ. Other aspects of cleaning of the slab revealeda hitherto unremarkeddetail of some interest the work in this vicinity could be viewed as no more than supplemen- with referenceto the precise placetary to many other prior studies, but ment of a brief inscription that is,

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the city's 15 gates, this rectangular, protrudingstructure invited new work for two principal reasons: first, it had only been the object of a single brief excavation in the late 1960s; secondly, the evident depth of the surviving mud-brickdeposit suggested that we might come upon undisturbed remains that would not only document something of the history of the gate through its various phases of construction, but also during the last moments of its active use at the time of the siege of 612 B.C.E. Workbegan near the southeast corner of the gate where the top of a number of stone orthostats could be seen to break the surface of the ground (Stronach1989).At the very start of the excavations there was a welcome bonus: following the removal of only a few centimeters of earth it became obvious that more than one of the stone slabs carriedan inscription of Sennacheribthat referredto his construction of the walls of Nineveh. In the end we were able to expose a line of 22 orthostats that formed the west side of a large inner courtyardthat measured 19-by-45-meters. Of the court's four baked brick foundation boxes, three were examined and two were found to be intact. Each intact box yielded a lightly baked, apotropaicclay figurine. While the statuette from the southwest corner consisted of a blue-

east facadewas 70 meters in length and that the single point of entry lay at the center of this stretch of walling, at a slight angle to the head of the bridgethat originally carriedtraffic over the adjoining defensive moat. Of the eight towers that once marked the buttressed and recessed stone curtain wall of the gate, Towers3 and 4 present an intriguing contrast. While the elegant masonry of Tower3 illustrates the unquestionably high quality of the stoneworking traditions that were availableto Sennacherib, Tower4 and a good part of the central portion of the east face of the Halzi Gate document a far more rough type of stone construction. The explanation for this disTower3 of the Halzi Gate after excavation. The stone blocks were arrangedin courses crepancy is not yet certain, but one of equal height with free variationsin length has it that the poorermasonry within theory the courses. Thelongerblocks measure was a result of a hurriedand extensive up to 1.5 meters in length. In all, Tower3 repairthat may have been the result provides a striking example of the often high of a preliminary,unsuccessful attack quality that can be found in Assyrian masonry of circa 700 B.C.E. on Nineveh that is not mentioned in the cuneiform sources. A highly entrance, and that of an adjacent plausible date for such an attack would be 614 B.C.E., a year that saw portion of the central corridor,was narrowedfrom 7 to 2 meters. But the city of Assur fall to an invading such precautions were not enough, Median army. needless to say, to resist the force of At all events it is clear that, at some moment beforethe final assault the climactic attack. Inside the outer door,andbeyond on Nineveh, its inhabitants took urof a hastily installed the of to the position quality gent steps improve their defenses. At the Halzi Gate, blocking stone, the excavatedportion of the central corridorof the Halzi for example, the width of the single

painted lahmu -a bearded, long-

Below left: The northeast edge of Tower3 and part of the 8 meters long recess between Towers 3 and 4. The roughstone masonry that begins to the right of the 2 meters rangingrod appears to mark the edge of a hurriedrepair.Below right: A detail of the roughstone face of Tower4.

haired, supernaturalfigure armed

with a mace and an axe - that from

the northeast corner was distinguished by the head of a roaringlion and the body of a man. This second figurine carries a flail in one hand and has a series of deep scores on the body, which clearly show that the artist intended to depict a full-length pelt. Appropriately enough, texts of this period specify that protective figures of this last kind were used to guard "the outer corners of a courtyard" (Wiggermann 1986). As far as the still incomplete, overall plan of the gate is concerned,

it is now evident that the protruding

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231

fresh review of the evidence from the (nodoubtpartlycontainedbehind the Halzi Gate, combined with evidence alreadylong extant, upstreamdams of amassed more than 20 years ago by Sennacherib)could have been used Madhloom (1967, 1968, 1969)at the to weaken the midpoint of the eastShamashGate andby'AmerSulaiman ern wall; and it would correspond,of course, with a once prevalentunder(1971)at the AdadGate, allows us to the allied on how anew speculate standing that the fall of Nineveh was forces of the Medes and the Babyrelated to the effects of flooding. This lonians managedto overcome the understandingis clearly reflected in defendersof Nineveh in the short the narrativeof Diodorus Siculus three months. of span only (Diod.1127.1-2; Scurlock 1990)and it for Especially striking, example, may be thought to find further sucis the fact that, while the entrance cinct expressionin Nahum 2:6, where to each of these three gates was simi- it is statedin propheticterms that "the rivergates"would be "opened"and larly narrowed,evidence shows that in Adad Gate "thepalace"would be "dissolved." the the that extreme only The entrance to the Halzi Gate. Beyond the Halzi the in and Gate exnorth the baked-brickdrain and certain fragmentary treme south were actually attacked. Acknowledgments remains of the latest phase of the stone curtain wall it is possible to make out the original Accordingly,it seems possible that Supportfor the excavations at Ninestone orthostats of the inner wall. The latter the attackers to draw the veh has come from the National Ensought Assyrcame to be buriedin deep secondary blocks defenders dowment for the Humanities, the ian towards the opposite of brickworkat the time that the entranceNational GeographicSociety, the way was reduced in width from 7 to 2 meters. ends of the elongated walled areabeNote also the skeletal remains (in front of the fore launching a critical assault at the MetropolitanMuseum of Art, New horizontal scale) that were beginning to be most vulnerable point in the eastern York,the Raymondand BeverlySackexposed on the floor of the narrowedroadway. defenses, i.e. at the precise spot where ler Foundation,the University of the RiverKhosrwound its way into Californiaat Berkeley,and Columbia the city. Such a reconstruction of Gate has revealedthe presence of University, as also from Mrs. Linda Noe Laine and other privatedonors. more than a dozen persons who died events would take into account the river Forpermission to work at Nineveh waters of the in which the a violent death- no doubt as they way were caught in the fury of the assault. Skeletons of individuals who were slaughteredon the roadway of the Halzi Gate at the time Each lies as he fell: one sprawled of the siege of Nineveh in 612B.C.E. The scene of carnagerecalls the "myriadsof slain, heaps of face down, one on his back with his corpses"referredto in the Book of Nahum. arms outstretched, and still another (a mere 13-year-oldboy) with a trilobate arrowheadlodged in his lower leg. Numerous bronze or iron arrowheads were found in the vicinity of these overlappingskeletons, together with the separateremains of a dagger, spearheadand pike. While these tangled figures appear to have been subject to cursory looting before they were buried by falling debris, a number of relatively valuable objects chanced to escape detection. These last items include a string of carnelian and lapis lazuli beads, a duck-shapedstamp seal of white chalcedony,and a dome-shaped seal of pale blue chalcedony that remains attached to its silver mount. The recent excavations have highlighted the human dimension of the violent events that took place in the fateful summer of 612 B.C.E. A

232

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...ir

Bibliography A. H. Layard,

I-

L

:. :. iii iiiiiiii ii iiiii~ i,,•i4iiii~,iiiiiil~iiii!•iiiii:~~i~

OF

4

mom

1853 Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon. London:Murray. Lumsden,S. 1991 UrbanNineveh:Investigationswithin the LowerTownof the LastAssyrian Capital, Mar Sipri4 (1):1-3. Madhloom,T. A. 1967 Excavationsat Nineveh, 1965-67. Sumer 23: 76-79. 1968 Nineveh, 1967-68 Campaign.Sumer 24: 45-51. 1969 Nineveh, 1968-69 Campaign.Sumer 25: 44-49. Mallowan,M. E. L. 1933 The PrehistoricSondageof Nineveh, 1931-32. Annals of Archaeologyand Anthropology20: 127-86. Russell, J.M. 1991 Sennacherib'sPalace without Rival

at Nineveh. Chicago:University of Chicago Press. Scott, M. L., and MacGinnis,J. 1990 Notes on Nineveh. Iraq 52: 63-73. Scurlock,J.A. 1990 The EuphratesFlood and the Ashes of Nineveh. Historia 34 (3):382-84. Stronach,D. B. 1989 When Assyrian Fell:New Lighton the LastDays of Nineveh. Mar Sipri

2 (2):1-2.

Sulaiman,'A. 1971 Adab al-Rafidain1:45-97 (in Arabic). Thompson, R. C., and Hutchinson, R. W. 1929 A Centuryof Explorationat Nineveh. London:Luzacand Co. Wiggermann,F.A. M. 1986 Babylonian ProphylacticFigures: The Ritual Texts.Amsterdam:Free University Press.

MarianneMarek,who was largely responsiblefor the excavation of the skeletal material from the Halzi Gate during the final season, is pictured beside one of the taller skeletons. Although the age rangeof the individuals found in this location is broad,Dr. Melody Domurad'srecent study of the preservedbone samples indicates that six of the adults wererobustmen in the prime of life with the musculature and healed wounds that would indicate a soldier'sprofession.

Thp:A handsome chalcedony seal with its still intact silver mount that was found beneath the tangled figures that lay on the Halzi roadway,all of which appearto have been swiftly buried beneath the collapsingand also burning- superstructureof the gate. Above:An impression of the finely carved design that occurs on the base of the seal. The design shows the dragonof Marduksurmount ed by the spade of Mardukand the stylus of Nabu. The associations of the cross-shaped object in the left field are not certain. Photo by D. Pickworth.

the expedition is much indebted to Dr. Mu'ayadSaid Damerji, the Director-Generalof the IraqiDepartment of Antiquities and Heritage. Warmthanks for help of many kinds are also due to Dr. SabahJasim Shukri, Mr. Manhel Jabrand Mr. Donny George. The excavations took place under the overall direction of David Stronach;Stephen Lumsden directed the LowerTown Survey; PierreBikai was Assistant Director and Principal Architect from 1987 to 1990;and JohnRussell assumed the duties of Associate Director of the Projectin 1990. The expedition'sinvaluable Foremanwas KhalafBedawi.

number 196;page 131,number 176;page 118,number 116;page 311, number 70). These could have been best handled by The ArabianGulf in Antiquity,Volume I, citing the author and year and listing FromPrehistoryto the Fallof the Achae- the works in a bibliography.While the text is voluminous and abundantlydocumenid Empire,by D. T Potts, xxvii + 419 pp. Oxford:Clarendon Press, 1990; mented, the photographsappearto have been addedas an afterthought,and the $110.00. plans seem ratherskimpy.Forexample, This volume representsthe first substan- there are no photographsof the very tial comprehensivetreatment of the great interesting ArabianUbaid sites. strides that have taken place in archaeRatherthan providecomments on detailed materials found within the releology in the Arabian Gulf since the mid 1950s. Potts'principalgoal seems to be vant chapters,I shall attempt to highto present an up-to-datesynthesis of the light those topics that will have the and historical most immediate interest to readers archaeological developments of the area since roughly 7000 B.C.E. of BA. Our knowledge concerning the The work promises to become a standard spread of seventh millennium B.C.E.culresourcedue to the encyclopedic comtures into the ArabianPeninsula has of found within. data pilation grown considerablythanks in largepart Partof the problem in dealing with to the work undertakenat Ain Ghazal the gulf is the question of what it should in Jordanby Gary Rollefson and others. be called. Most readerswould referto the This data, together with our understandarea as the PersianGulf. The shift to the ing of the North Arabiandesert, suggest term Arabian Gulf reflects a desire to that Afro-Asiatic(Hamitic-Semitic) view the gulf from the ArabianPeninsula populations expandedinto the Arabian side. Indeed,the vast amount of material Peninsula from the Levantine/Syrianrediscussed in the book comes from the gion sometime in the seventh millenniArabianside. Potts deals with the idea of um B.C.E.It is from this northern area that name shifts (pages 134-35) in antiquity, the Arabianlittoral sites are to be examandwe can see that the idea is still around ined (chapter2). The Ubaid expansion today,basedprobablyon modernpolitical into the gulf region ties closely into the considerations.Until the Iranianrevo"Gardenof Eden,"Paradise"or "Dilmun" lution in 1989, little was known of the accounts found in the HebrewBible and Arabianside of the gulf, and work was Mesopotamianaccounts. Wehave argued concentratedin Iran.Today,the opposite that the later historical accounts in is the case, hence the title. Nevertheless, Mesopotamiamost likely had their orivery little work has been done along the gin in the pre-literateUbaid period. Our Iranianside of the gulf. Sites found there understandingof the gulf and its past will ultimately change much of what is shorelines can now be keyed into our being considered today. understandingof Kuwait'sprehistory. Forthe reader,there are some trouRecently discoveredUbaid sites on Umm blesome and worryingproblems, conan Namil Islandand Ras al SabyaPeninsidering the princely sum of the volume. sula opposite BubiyanIsland confirm the shoreline situation for the Ubaid period First, there are no chronological charts. It is often difficult to grasparchaeologiand place the inland shoreline as far north as Amara in modem Iraqaround cal, geological and historical data for a region newly opened to exploration. 5500 B.C.E. That such charts would have benefited The question of camel domestication the book can be seen from the master is an interesting one for biblical scholars, chart Potts producedin his 1991paper and Potts summarizes the various views for the revised Chronologiesin Old (pages129-30, 257). I think he is correct in pointing out that most likely the WorldArchaeology volume (University camel was domesticated in the third of Chicago, edited by R. Ehrich).The other majorproblem is the layout. Potts millennium B.C.E.in the southern part of chose to use footnotes, without a biblithe ArabianGulf, and that graduallythe ography.This format is very cumbersome domestic animal moved northwards.The and may have helped drive up the cost of "sudden"rise of the IronAge oases states the book. Also, it is very difficult to deal within western Arabiamay be attributed with abbreviations-Op. Cit., Ibid,etc. in largepart to the massive introduction In The Arabian Gulf, the footnotes of the camel by 1500 B.C.E. The various incense productsof allow for long asides, bulky citations and Arabiahave yet to be satisfactorilydeobscure data (forexample, page 135,

Book

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tailed, but focus in the past has rightly been on frankincenseand myrrh (pages 186, 347, 349).It would appear,based on cuneiform documentation, that frankincense (SIM.GIG),myrrh (SIM.SES)and other aromatics(GIS.SIM,SIM.DILMUN) were in the gulf by the mid-thirdmillennium B.C.E.Archaeological investigations

in Oman promise to uncovernot only the early origins of the tradebut also the overlandroutes that pushed across the Rubal Khali and linked Dhofarand eastern Arabia. By design, the latter part of the book (chapters8, 9 and 10)incorporatesa steady diet of historical data. Unfortunately,it is often difficult to obtain the precise meanings of letters, ordersand bills of lading. Coupled with the enigmatic nature of the material remains, we find ourselves strugglingto interpreteven the most basic ideas for IronAge Arabia. As Potts points out, even the use of the term "IronAge"gives the wrong impression for the periods in question. Ironwas not used in the areauntil the Seleucid period (page383). In sum, this volume representsthe only place where so much material can be found regardingthe Perso-Arabian Gulf. Unfortunately,the narrativestyle and cumbersomefootnotes make it somewhat difficult to use. Nevertheless, the volume will remain a valuable asset to all scholars interested in relating the archaeologyand history of this region to wider problems in the Middle East. However,the price may inhibit some from acquiringthe volume. JurisZarins Southwest Missouri State The Reignof Nabonidus,Kingof Babylon 556-539 B.C.,by Paul-AlainBeaulieu, xiv + 241 pp. New Haven, CT YaleUniversity Press, 1989;$40.00. A book about an ancient king who excavatedthe foundations of temples and arguedwith his court-appointedcommittee of scholars overthe interpretation of the finds should be a natural selection for readersof Biblical Archaeologist. Nabonidus'interest in archaeologywas not purely antiquarian,of course. He seems to have been engagedin a process of religious and political revision, promoting the moon God, Sin, at the expense of Marduk,and seeking in his official pronouncements to place his reign, at the end of the Neo-Babylonian Empire,in the historical context of the earlier Assyrian Empire.The purpose

of his excavationswasto establishthe ancientfoundationsin orderto properly refoundthe temples,andNabonidus' programforthe variousgodsappearsto haveconflictedat times with the findingsof his scholars. TheReignof Nabonidusis the first studyof Nabonidus monograph-length A sinceNabonidusand Belshazzar: Studyof the ClosingEventsof the NeoBabylonianEmpire,by RaymondP. Dougherty(NewHaven,CT:YaleUniversityPress,1929).Beaulieuuses the samemajorsourcesas Doughertybut approaches employsmorecontemporary to historiography to coaxinformation froman additionalwealthof building inscriptions,documentsandletters. Systematicallysortingandstudying thesematerialsyieldsinformationconcerningvariationsin religiouspolicy, changesin officialappointments,the movementof cult objects,sacrificialofwithinthe empire, feringsandeven"gods" the stateof the economyandthe deploymentof the army,all of which serveas cluesto the historyof the king'sreign. A distinctivefeatureof the reign of Nabonidusis a periodof 10yearsof "double" kingshipin whichthe king's son,Belshazzar,servesas coregentin Babylonwhile the kingremainswith the armyin Teimain northernArabia.The reasonforsuchan arrangement is difficult to fathom.Doughertysuggested thatit wasrelatedto Nabonidus'preoccupationwith the cult of the moon god,Sin,andthat in the endthe priestly castein Babylon,disgustedwith the king'sreligiousreform,welcomedCyrus the Greatinto the city as monarch,thus bringingto an endthe Neo-Babylonian Empire. WhileBeaulieu'sresearchconfirms Nabonidus'heterodoxyin religion,in contrastto his son'sorthodoxy, theauthor concludesthatreligionis only one of the factors leading to the residence in Teima and the subsequent fall of the empire. Nabonidus appears,not as a disengaged fanatic, but as a playeron the world political stage whose excursion into northern Arabiarepresentsan extension of Babylonian military powerfor economic reasons. He may have encouragedCyrus to rebel against the Medes in orderto strengthen his own hand in world politics, but in the end he is outclassed by the Persian.If Beaulieu does not manage to completely illuminate the reason for the king's long sojourn in Teima (authorityfor the campaign could easily have been delegated), the limitation is in the availability of

whether Akkadianwas the source for the sudden emergence of an alphabetin Ugarit. A renownedAssyriologist, Saggs is able to bring many diverse fields to bear on the topic. In the context of archaeology,history and language,the readersees trade routes develop,gifts exchangedbetween kings, and commoners rise from humble status to prestigious positions. Saggstakes pains to indicate how diverse fields complement each other. Forexample, his analysis regardingthe decline of iron-workingin Mesopotamia duringthe first half of the second millennium providesa good example of how archaeologicaland literaryevidence can be used to corroborateeach other. Greek and biblical sources are cited as well as a multitude of documents from the Near Easterncivilizations. When the extent of Phoeniciantradeis described,the Hebrew prophet Ezekiel offers a wonderful firsthand account of its impact upon Israel. TestimonyfromHomerconfirmsEzekiel's description as well as the assertion by Herodotus recordingthe Phoenicians' circumnavigationof Africa. The emphasis of Saggs'work is distinctive because it demonstrates that the civilizations of the Near Eastwere not isolated from one another,but interCivilizationBeforeGreeceandRome,by acted through commerce, culture and H. W Saggs,iii + 301 pp. New Haven, politics. In the chapterentitled "The Brotherhoodof Nations,"we readof CT YaleUniversity Press, 1989; $29.95. treaties and requests for extradition beCivilization BeforeGreece and Rome by tween Egyptand the Hittites, exchanges H. W.Saggsis a welcome contribution to of royalgifts between the kings of Babythe field of ancient Near Easternstudies. lon and Egyptand the adventuresof Although the work is directedto the gen- merchants travelingabroad.It becomes obvious that the cultural legacy and eral reader,it offersa wealth of current information regardingthe civilizations technological developments of the Near of Egypt,Mesopotamia,the SyrianCoast, East made a great impression upon the Turkeyand the Indus Valleythat will ap- Greeks, who in turn bequeathedthese achievements to the West. peal to scholars who are not directly involved with these fields of antiquity. Garth Alford The book begins with an account of University of Washington the discoveries of the various ancient civilizations and is followed by a chapter devotedto a historical overview.Subjects such as education, trade,law, medicine and religion are subsequently taken up, resulting in a lively account of the major facets of ancient civilization. In spite of the breadthof Saggs'treatment, his effort is far from superficial. BOOKPUBLISHERS Each chapterbegins with an investigasend all review copies to: Please tion regardinga particularfeature of anDr. C. Moyer James tiquity followed by a treatment of its Department of Religious Studies role in various ancient societies. CrossSouthwest Missouri State University cultural influences are considered, such 901 South National, Box 167 as whether the concept of the city-state Springfield,MO 65804-0095 in in Greece originated Mesopotamia,or

information ratherthan the ability of the historian. Biblical scholars will be interested in the book for literaryas well as historical reasons:traditions concerning Nabonidus and Belshazzarsurvive in the book of Daniel and the Prayerof Nabonidus from Qumran. Beaulieu suggests that Daniel 5 may representa historical memory that the Neo-BabylonianEmpire ended in the midst of a religious festival. The majorattraction of the book, however,is the quiet and unassuming way in which the author goes about practicingthe craft of historian. Inscriptions and documents that, in and of themselves seem to offer little in the way of concrete historical information, have much to say when dated, classified and examined collectively. While the book is intended for the specialist, it is accessible to a more general audience (althoughthere are occasions where the non-specialist will search for the translation of an Akkadianword).The Reign of Nabonidus is to be recommended both for its historical craftingand for its needed update of a pivotal period in ancient history. David W.Suter Saint Martin'sCollege

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Me In riaDouglas

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In Memorilam Douglas

L.

Esse

The passing of Douglas L. Esse, Assistant Professor in Near Eastern Archaeology at the Oriental Institute in Chicago, is a tragic loss forhis family,his friends,and our field. Shortly afterhis appointment at the Oriental Institute in 1987,when Doug achievedplacement in one of the most prestigiousand sought afterjobs in Syro-Palestinian archaeology,he was diagnosed with cancer. Forthe past four years he bravely fought this nefarious disease until he died on October 13, 1992. He was 42. Doug receivedhis M.A. in 1977 andhis Ph.D. in 1982 with honors from the University of Chicago,Department of Near Eastern Languagesand Civilizations. His Ph.D. dissertation was titled "BeyondSubsistence: Beth Yerah and Northern Palestine in the Early Bronze Age."It was this work that laid the foundations for Doug'sprimaryresearch interests in the development of urbancivilization in ancient Palestine. At the time of his death, Doug was the leading American scholar working on the problem of early state formation in this part of the Near East. His recent book, Subsistence, Trade,and Social Change in Early BronzeAge Palestine (1991,Oriental Institute) is a model synthesis that utilizes Doug's own site surveydata from northern Israel, previously excavated materials from the 1963-64 Oriental Institute excavations at Beth Yerah,and anthropological theory to explain the emergence of urban communities in ancient Palestine. Perhaps his most thought provokingarticle on this subject is

236

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992

"SecondaryStateFormationand Collapse in EarlyBronze Age Palestine,"which appearedin the proceedings of an international colloquium held by the CNRS in Israel.In addition to the Bronze Age, Doug had recently made an important contribution to IronAge archaeologywith the of a partiallypublishedstratumof Megiddo. "exhumation" By combing the ResearchArchives at the Oriental Institute, Doug discoveredthat StratumVI,datingto the IronI was only partiallyreperiod (circaeleventh century B.C.E.) portedon andthat entire buildings, streets and numerous human skeletons that relate to the fiery destruction of the city were not published. Doug's scholarly insights on Megiddo contribute to the hotly debated transition between the LateBronzeand IronI Age periods in Palestine. As an archaeologist,the field held an allure for Doug that is manifest in his many years of excavation in the Mediterraneanlands. His field experience began in Israel at Tel Dan in 1975, and expandedto include Hazorea (Tel Qiri), Yoqneam and Ashkelon, where he was Associate Director of the Leon Levy Archaeological Expedition from 1984-87 in collaboration with his mentor, friend and later colleague, Professor Lawrence Stager. Other fieldwork opportunities took him to Carthagein Tunisia and Idalion in Cyprus. But his real love was working in Israel and this culminated with his own project, The Oriental Institute Expeditionto Tell Yaqushin the Jordan valley initiated in 1989. Yaqush,a village site spanning the entire EarlyBronze Age sequence (3500-2300 B.C.E.) is an extremely innovative project that was funded by a prestigious National Endowment for the Humanities award.Whereasmost EarlyBronzeAge excavationshave focused on largeurbansites, the Yaqushprojectis unique with Doug'sfocus on the village and daily life as a window on the social, economic and political forces that accompanied the first period of urbanization in the Near East. Visiting Doug at Yaqushduring his last excavation season in the fall of 1991 was a pleasure. A few months earlier,his doctors in Chicago had given him some time between chemotherapy and other treatments. Doug was determined to make the most of his time, so he packed up his family, organized an excavation crew and flew immediately to Israel so that he could continue his field research.Doug was in his element working with his students and Druze workers,living at KibbutzGesher in the warm Jordan valley, and exploring Yaqush. Over the past four years, I have been fortunate to spend a few days each November with Doug, his wonderful wife Ann, and their lovely children, Joe and Allie, at their home in Chicago. During these troubled times, I, like other friends, marveled at Doug's unusual strength of character, his optimism and personal warmth toward others. He was an extraordinary man, genuinely liked and loved by his students, friends and colleagues. We will miss him. Thomas E. Levy University of California, San Diego

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