[Magazine] The Biblical Archaeologist. Vol. 55. No 4

71 Pages·1992·20.63 MB·English

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BiblicalA rchaet ologis
Perspectives on the Ancient Worldf rom Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean Volume 55 Number 4
A Publication of the American Schools of Oriental Research December 1992
Pushing back the Frontierso f Mesopotamian Prehistory 176
Page 188 Watkins
Trevor
A series of chance discoveriesa nd salvagee xcavationsi n north Mesopotamiar evealed
many sites that belongedt o the early neolithic periodb etween 8000 and 6000 B.C.ET. hese
producedi ntriguingi nformationo n the processeso f change that culminatedi n the wide
establishment of villages based on a mixed farminge conomy,p rovidingn ew insights on the
"Neolithic Revolution."
The Halaf Periodi n Iraq:O ld Sites and New 182
Stuart Campbell
From about 5200 B.C.E. to 4500 B.C.E., large numbers of Halaf communities appear over a very
largea reao f northernI raq,n orthernS yriaa nds outhernT urkeyU. ntil recently,i t was believed
that the Halafo riginatedi n northernS yria,b ut new evidence shows the Halafs eems to have
evolvedf rom localized Neolithic cultures, more or less simultaneously,o verm uch of its
later range.
The First Farmersa t 'Oueili 188
Jean-LouisH uot
The first cities of the ancient world appearedi n lower Mesopotamiad uringt he Uruk period
(3500-3200 B.C.E.). Toc omprehendf ully how these societies made the transitionf rom a
Page 196 hthuonrtoinugg hanlyd.R gaecthenertr inesgel iaferscthya lte T toe lal enl a-'gOruiceuillith uarsa alo dndee, tdha e nseew si tpeesr mspuesctt ibvee i.n vestigated
Jemdet Nasr:t he Site and the Period 196
RogerJ .M atthews
The site andc hronologicalp hase known as JemdetN asr were initially discoveredi n the 1920s.
Subsequente xcavationsi n Mesopotamiaf ailed to turn up additionale vidence for the period,
and its validity as a chronologicalp hase came into doubt. A recent programo f researchi nto
JemdetN asr, however,h as confirmeda nd furtherd efined the chronologicalp hase.
RoyalB uilding Activity At SumerianL agashi n the EarlyD ynastic Period 206
Donald Hansen
P
The EarlyD ynastic periodo f Sumerianh istory,f rom about 2900 to 2340 B.C.E.w, as the age
in southern Mesopotamiao f the early city-states.I n recent years,l arge-scalee xcavationsa t
the site of al-Hiba,t he ancient city of Lagash,i n southeasternI raqh ave addedt o our knowl-
edge of both the EarlyD ynastic I phase as well as the historic periodo f EarlyD ynastic IIIB .
Mashkan-shapira nd the Anatomy of an Old BabylonianC ity 212
Elizabeth C. Stone and Paul Zimansky
The earliest textual referencest o Mashkan-shapidr epict a town with humble origins.
During the first quartero f the second millennium B.C.E.h, owever,M ashkan-shapibr ecame
one of the most prominentc ities in Mesopotamiab ecause of its location at the northern-
most point where the systems of the Tigris and Euphratesr iversc onvergeds ufficiently to
permit navigationb etween them.
West of Edin:T ell al-Deylam and the BabylonianC ity of Dilbat 219
JamesA . Armstrong
Tell al-Deylamh as been identified with the ancient city of Dilbat since the late nineteenth
century when Dilbat tablets were discoveredt here. However,b ecause of the manneri n
Page 227 which the tablets were found, there haveb een persistent questions about the modernn ame
and the location of the ruins of ancient Dilbat. Recente xcavationsa t the site confirm that
Tell al-Deylami s the site of the ancient Babylonianc ity of Dilbat.
UC Berkeley'sE xcavationsa t Nineveh 227
David Stronach and Stephen Lumsden
The city of Nineveh was the dazzling capitalo f the far-flungN eo-Assyriane mpire beforei t
was defeatedb y a combined forceo f Medes and Babyloniansi n 612 B.C.ET. he ruins of the
ancient city are now threatenedb y the rapidg rowtho f the modernc ity of Mosul, which has
shapeda ll of the recent excavationsa t the site, including those held by the Universityo f
California,B erkeleyb, etween 1987 and 1990.
Fromt he Editor'Ds esk 170
Lettert o the Readers 174
Introducintgh e Authors 172
Book Reviews 234
In Memoriam: Douglas Esse 236
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.
us. One significant new field enjoying a kind of renaissance
From the Editor s Desk is Islamic archaeology,a nother is Cultural Resource Manage-
ment (CRM).
When I became editor,t he debateo vert he natureo f "biblical
archaeology"h ad alreadyb een proclaimedd ead.M y predecessor,
David Noel Freedman, opined that the controversy "had not
provedp articularlyu seful or productive"( 1982: 195).H e called
for the scientific prosecution of each discipline: archaeological
research and biblical studies. He hoped that the interests of
each discipline could serve to clarify or resolve problems 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
AsI completem yt enthy eara s editoro f BiblicaAl rchae- Archaeology Review, also lamented the dearth of people "who
ologist with this issue, I find it somewhat surprising can handle, deal with and understandf rom the inside the mate-
that of all the issues in the field, the last severaly ears rials of both disciplines."T he late Nahman Avigad,i n a rather
have seen the returno f the Dead Sea Scrolls to center reflective mood at his home in the summer of 1990, told me
stage after some 40 years. If ever there was a story to enjoy such and my wife, Carol, and FrankC ross and his wife, Betty Ann,
a second round of attention, I would not have expected it to be that he feared the new generation of archaeologists would be
this. But perhapst hat is because it is not so much the retelling unable to interpret adequately the material they uncover be-
of the story of their discovery and decipherment that is being cause of their over-specializationi n technical skills and lack of
done, but rathert hat along with the retelling has come a media preparationi n historical and textual matters (E.M eyers 1992).
circus the likes of which has never beforeo ccurredi n the fields Where there has been an attempt to broaden the intellec-
of biblical and archaeologicals tudies. tual horizons of biblical archaeology to include, for example,
Cartoons have noted that the Scrolls contain the best the quest to reconstruct the social world of antiquity (Meyers
chocolate chip cookie recipe, that Elvis' remains have been and Meyers 1989),o r where the intersection of biblical studies
spotted in the tombs at Qumran, and that politicians should and archaeology has been effectively achieved, however,m any
seek solutions to the Middle Eastp eace negotiations in some of new insights have been gained and new vistas explored.
the texts. Calls for open access to hard-to-readp hotographsh ave As all readerso f BA know, the purview of ASOR has been
given way now to a discussion of how to publish them. Accusa- growingf orm anyy ears.T he establishmento f the CyprusA meri-
tions of an historical or theological coverup have faded some- can ArchaeologicalR esearchI nstitute on Cyprus more than 20
what into the background as the print and broadcast media years ago signaled the society's desire to bridget he intellectual
finally get hold of the facts from qualified scholars. Rationality divide that separates Athens from Jerusalem, Istanbul from
is being restored again, and ASOR and the Society of Biblical Amman. Todayt here is talk in variousq uartersi n supporto f the
Literaturea re planning to adopt formal measures regardingt he establishment of an overseas researchc enter in Syria, part and
issues of publication and pre-publicationa ccess to written and parcel of a largeri ntellectual concern of looking at the entire re-
non-written artifacts. gion of the eastern Mediterraneana s a whole across modern
No quarterlym agazine that seeks to reflect the broadi nput political boundaries, of making interconnections within cul-
of its society's membershipc an adequatelyk eep pace with such tural and chronologicale pochs in ordert o better understandt he
news-making events. Nonetheless, BA has from time to time full impact of archaeologicald ataa lreadyi n hand in most of the
been able to join the discussion in timely and constructive MiddleE astc ountries in which Americansw ork or havew orked
ways. Should the magazine ever move towarda bi-monthly for- (Egypt,I srael,C yprus,J ordanS, yria,L ebanon,I raq,T hrkeyI, ran).
mat, and I believe it should, it might be possible to reportn ew To make note of these larger concerns, after much discussion
discoveries shortly after excavation. Meanwhile, there have and a poll of the editorial committee of BA and of many ASOR
been numerous other significant changes in the field that BA members, a new subtitle was recently added to the magazine:
reportsa nd ASOR seeks to represent.M any of them are still in "Perspectiveso n the Ancient Worldf rom Mesopotamia to the
an early stage of development, others are more or less behind Mediterranean."B ut the addition of this subtitle is a mere
170 Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992
attempt to hold together an emerging constituency whose in- hear from scholars with differentp erspectiveso n similar prob-
terests are broadeningb eyond the range of coveragen ormally lems and who hold different views on the same historical peri-
associated with biblical archaeology or even Syro-Palestinian ods. So, for example, why should the people working in Syriao r
archaeology. Despite Albright's all-inclusive understanding Thrkey not be sharing their research with those working in
of the meaning of biblical archaeology,n otwithstanding and Israel or Jordan?I s the very nomenclature of biblical archae-
despite the valiant efforts of his most eloquent defender of ology not somewhat limiting in the broaderN ear Easternc on-
that term (Cross 1973:2 0), the fact remains that in 1992, there text, putting political considerations aside?
are fewer than ever qualified individuals who can straddlet he In this connection, OxfordU niversity Press and the editors
two difficult and continually maturing disciplines of Syro- of ASOR'se ncyclopedia have decided to rename their project
Palestinian archaeology and biblical studies; and for those "Encyclopediao f Near EasternA rchaeology,"p reviously called
scholars concerned with differentp arts of the Near East, bibli- "Encyclopediao f Archaeologyi n the BiblicalW orld."H opefully
cal studies on the literary-textuals ide simply may have little in the new format some of those largerc oncerns of the field may
relevance. be brought to bear on the specific problems that confront the
In addition to the issue of broadeningb iblical archaeology's "olda rchaeology"a s it is practiced in various countries of the
cultural perspective, there is another challenge facing ASOR region, encouragings cholars to view a problem in the smallest
and the magazine and journals that describe and report the re- context or in a particularc ountry of a particulars ub-regiono f
search activities of the overseas centers and membership.T he the Middle East. It is perhaps indicative of the times that I end
challenge is CRM and many of the activities associated with it. my term as editor with a special issue focusing on the archae-
CRM extends the chronological rangeo f archaeologyf rom the ology of Iraq.
more distant past into the recent past with its emphasis on res- During the past decade, many individuals have helped me
toration of archaeological remains of all periods for use in the make BA into the magazine it is today.T hose people justly de-
present. Establishmento f local museums, construction of tour- serve much of the credit for the numerous publishing awards
ist facilities, reconstructiono f archaeologicalr emains,p repara- BA has received during that time. Their names appeari n our
tion of access roads to out-of-the-ways ites are as much part of masthead, and I express to them my sincerest gratitude. Todd
CRM as is the development of a national interest in local his- McGee, Senior Editor,h as been extraordinarilyh elpful during
tory and culture and also an international appreciationo f that this most recent period of transition. I would also like to thank
culture. CRM is becoming a distinctive way in which develop- those who served on the editorial committee through the past
ing nations present their national heritage and identity to the decade for their assistance and to express my appreciation to
outside world of tourists, scholars and other interested visitors all the outside readers for the time they contributed to "peer
and observers. review."M y editorship has been even more gratifying than I
How individual countries engage the past in defining their' expected, and observing the many changes in the field via the
present should, in my view, become one of the central issues hundredso f articles submitted has been a true learning experi-
in any sort of archaeology today, however it may be defined, ence. I wish my successor in this position, David Hopkins,
wherever it is practiced, and whatever it is to be called. This every success.
magazine and other ASOR publications should thus be pre-
pared to address such fields as "historical"o r Islamic archae- Bibliography
ology as this century drawst o a conclusion, and to publicize and Cross, F.M .
describe and criticize, where appropriate,t he progresso f CRM 1973 W. E Albright'sV iew of Biblical Archaeology and its Metho-
in the various countries of the Middle East. dology.B iblical Archaeologist 36: 2-5.
Similarly, as ASOR'sn ew section on archaeology in the De1v9e8r5, W S.G yr. o-PalestinianA rchaeology and Biblical Archaeology.P p.
public schools gets off the ground, it would be good to have 31-74 in The Hebrew Bible and Its Interpreters,e dited by
another, written forum in which ideas on teaching Near East- D. A. Knighta nd G. M. Thcker.C hico: ScholarsP ress.
ern archaeology in the context of courses in "WorldH istory" Freedman,D . N.
would be aired. WhetherB A will be an appropriatem edium for 1982 Lettert o the readers.B iblical Archaeologist 45: 195-96.
Meyers,C ., and Meyers,E .
such exchange, I leave to my successors to decide. 1989 Expandingth e Frontierso f BiblicalA rchaeologyE. retzI srael2 0:
The point I would like to make is that while the debateo ver 140-47.
"biblicala rchaeology"m ay be a thing of the past, the phenome- Meyers,E .
non of "biblical archaeology"m ay prevent people working in 1992 Nahman Avigad (1905-1992). Proceedings of the American
Academy for lewish Research,v olume 58.
various disciplines and in various areaso f Near Easternc ulture Shanks,H .
and archaeology from adequately sharing their views with a 1992 The Dangers of Dividing Disciplines. Biblical Archaeology
largera udience, who I believe would be most eagert o learn and Review 18 (5):6 4.
Eric M. Meyers
Editor-in-Chief
Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992 171
JamesA . Armstrong
the Authors
Introducing
Elizabeth C. Stone
Stuart Campbell RogerM atthews
Donald P Hansen
StuartC ampbell completed his first degreea t the Univer-
sity of Edinburgh in 1984, studying the Halaf pottery
from the site of KharabehS hattani as his master'st hesis.
Stephen Lumsden Since then he has worked extensively 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 Edin-
Jean-LouisH uot burgh, while working as a free-lance archaeologist and
computer typesetter.
Donald P. Hansen, Stephen Chan Professor of Ancient
Middle Eastern Art and Archaeology of the Institute of
Fine Arts of New YorkU niversity, has excavatedw idely
in various countries of the Near East including Turkey,
Iran,E gypta nd Iraq.I n Iraqh e has directed excavations at
Tell Abu Salabikhf or the Oriental Institute of the Univer-
sity of Chicago and is currently director of the Institute
of Fine Arts-MetropolitanM useum of Art Expedition to
al-Hiba (ancient Lagash).
Although he has also dug in Italy, Tunisia and Jordan, Jean-LouisH uot is Professor of Middle Eastern Archae-
JamesA . Armstrongh as workedm ostly in Iraq,w here for ology at the Sorbonne (Universite de ParisI ). He is Direc-
many years he has been a member of the team excavating tor of the Delegation Archeologique Francaise n Iraqa nd
Nippur on behalf of the Oriental Institute of the Univer- of the excavations at Larsaa nd 'Oueili. He has written
sity of Chicago. As a Fulbright scholar in Iraq during several books dealing with the archaeology of Turkey,
1989-90, he directed the first modern excavations at Tell Iran and Iraq. Formerly Director of the Institut d'Art
al-Deylam, ancient Dilbat. Dr. Armstrong is a research et d'Archeologie in Paris, he is currently Director of
associate at the Oriental Institute, where he is also a lec- the Ecole Doctorale d'Archeologie (GraduateS chool of
turer in Syro-PalestinianA rchaeology. Archaeology).
172 Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992
7TrevoWr atkins
Paul Zimansky
David Stronach
Stephen Lumsden received his Ph.D. in Near Eastern David Stronach read Archaeology and Anthropology at
Archaeology at the University of California, Berkeley,i n CambridgeU niversity before holding Fellowships at the
1990. He is the ASOR Mesopotamian Fellow for 1992-93, British Institute of Archaeologya t Ankaraa nd the British
in which capacity he is continuing his studies of Nine- School of Archaeology in Iraq.I n 1960 he directedt he ex-
veh. He is currently teaching in the departments of Near cavations at Ras al Amiya and in 1961 he was asked to
EasternA rchaeology and of the History of Art at Bilkent direct the newly founded British Institute of Persian
University in Ankara,T urkey. Studies. While in Iran he excavated at Pasargadaea nd
Tepe Nush-i Jan.H e has been Professor of Near Eastern
RogerM atthews is Director of the British Archaeological Archaeology at the University of California, Berkeley,
Expedition to Iraq.H e received his B.A. from the Univer- since 1981.
sity of Manchester before taking an M. Phil. and Ph.D.
from the University of Cambridge.H is involvement on TrevorW atkinst eaches Near Easternp rehistorya nd proto-
many Near Eastern projects includes Field Director at history at the University of Edinburghi n Scotland, and
the Sumerianc ity of Abu Salabikh,a nd he directs his own has carriedo ut field research in Cyprus, northeast Syria
field project at JemdetN asr in central-southern Iraq.H e and north Iraq. For four years he collaborated with the
has lived in Iraqf or several years and has a particular in- British ArchaeologicalE xpeditiont o Iraqo n salvagee xca-
terest in the early development of writing, seals and ad- vations in the TigrisR iverv alley,w orkingo n sites with oc-
ministration, as well as in late prehistoric ceramics of cupations rangingf rom before 5000 B.C.E.t o about 500 c.E.
Mesopotamia. In 1990 he completed the third season of salvage excava-
tion at a badly damagede arly prehistoric site at Tel Afar.
ElizabethC . Stone receivedh er Ph.D. from the University
of Chicago in 1979. In addition to extensive field experi- Paul Zimansky received his Ph.D. from the University of
ence in England, Germany, Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq and Chicago in 1980 and was a FulbrightL ecturera t the Uni-
Syria, she has directed the archaeological project at Tell versity of Aleppo in 1981-82.S ince 1983 he has taught in
Abu Duwari (ancient Mashkan-shapir)I, raq,a nd assisted the Department of Archaeology at Boston University
in the excavations at Tell Hamide, Iraq. She has been where he is an Associate Professor.H e has excavated at
teaching in the Anthropology Department of the State Nippur (Iraq),B astam (Iran)a nd Ain Dara (Syria).M ost
University of New Yorka t Stony Brook since 1977. recently he has directed excavations at Tell Hamide in
northern Iraq and served as codirector of the Tell Abu
Duwari Project.H e is the editor of Mar Sipri,t he newslet-
ter of ASOR'sc ommittee on Mesopotamian Civilization.
Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992 173
Letter to the Readers The issue begins with TrevorW atkins'sr eview of the excit-
ing new finds made in northern Iraqo n very early agricultural
and preagriculturalv illages. These sites have strong ties with
t is not withouti ronyt hat the GulfW arf ocusedp opular similar developments known from the Levant,i ndicating that
attention on the land of ancient Mesopotamia and its the move towards an agricultural economy took place over a
contributions to human history at precisely the moment much wider geographicala reat han previously assumed. Stuart
when scientific recovery of its heritage, which had been Campbellt hen offersn ew insights on the Halaf,o ne of the more
quietly progressingf or decades, was precipitously interrupted. enigmatic of the Neolithic cultures of northernI raq,a nd shows
Sites have been bombed, museums looted, archaeologicalf ield- the economic relationsb etween sites to haveb een characterized
work halted, conservation efforts suspended and plundered by an unsuspected complexity. Jean-LouisH uot's contribution,
artifacts funneled into the illicit antiquities markets. The concerned with his work at Tell el-'Oueili and the earliest in-
moderni nhabitantso f Iraq,w ho take greatp ridei n their descent habitation of the southern Mesopotamian plain, summarizes
from the creators of the world's first civilization, now suffer what is probably the most dramatic recent discovery in the
under conditions that compel them to devotet heir energies and south: Ubaid 0 and the light it sheds on continuity and integra-
resourcest o solving basic problemso f daily survivalr athert han tion between developments in southern Iraqa nd the neolithic
explorationo f the past. Yett he Mesopotamianl egacy is unques- sequence in the north. These articles demonstrateh ow modern
tionablyp recious,a ndt he attention that political events brought researchi s allowing the identification and analysis of the vari-
to Iraqd id much to highlight how little of what the specialists ous strands of development that led, eventually, to what we
were doing was known to a wider public. If the stimulus for pro- know as Mesopotamian civilization.
ducing a special issue of Biblical Archaeologist on this theme Most of the other articles detail aspects of the first two mil-
was unfortunate,t he need for one is indisputable. lennia of urbanism. Roger Matthews, director of the British
Ancient Mesopotamia is best known as the home of the ArchaeologicalE xpeditioni n Iraq,r eturns to the site of Jemdet
first great urban civilization, which came into existence in the Nasr to reevaluatet his importante arly urbans ite and its role in
southern floodplain during the fourth millennium B.C.EN. ot the development of Mesopotamianc ulture. This is followed by
only did humankind's first cities appear here, but associated Donald Hansen's discussion of his work at al-Hiba, ancient
with them are a host of social and technical achievements that Lagash,a key site for understandingt he EarlyD ynastic period
were to profoundly impact all subsequent societies in the Old and the florescence of Mesopotamia'sc ity-states. Our own dis-
World,a nd eventually the New; the wheel, writing, armies, law cussion deals with a society dating a millennium later, and
codes, astronomya nd astrology,a ll make their first appearance applies survey techniques to generate a preliminary under-
in southern Iraq. A glimmer of the spiritual and intellectual standing of the overall organization and structure of the city
creations of this civilization can be seen shining through the of Mashkan-shapir.T he dark age that followed the demise of
biblical versions of such stories as the Flood, the plight of the Mashkan-shapira nd most of the other cities of southern Meso-
righteous sufferer,a nd the discoveryo f an infant leadera float on potamia in the second quartero f the second millennium pro-
a river,n ot to mention more direct transmissions, such as the vides the context forJ amesA rmstrong'sw orka t Deylam (ancient
Epic of Gilgamesh. Dilbat). Here, in the northwest region of the southern flood-
There is much more in Iraq'sp ast, however.N eanderthals plain, he sought a site that had not sufferedt he fate of those in
occupied caves in northernI raqb y 70,000 B.C.Ea.,n d some of the the south, and where this enigmatic period in Mesopotamian
most important recent discoveries concern the earliest agricul- history might be elucidated. This period of relative obscurity
turalists who lived in the foothills and on the banks of the Tigris did not last forever,a nd in the first millennium Mesopotamia
from the eighth through the sixth millennia B.C.EI.n historical returnedt o the world scene with the largee mpires of Babylonia
periods, Iraqw as a place in which many ethnic groups and lan- and Assyria. Wee nd this volume, appropriatelyw, ith an article
guage families coexisted, and there was experimentation with by David Stronacha nd Stephen Lumsden on their recent work
numerous forms of governmenta nd mechanisms for mobilizing at Nineveh, perhaps the most famous of all Mesopotamian
social power. It was an important part of the Persian Empire, archaeological sites. Their work has shed new light on the
and Alexander the Great died in Babylon. In the time of the organizationo f this, the largest archaeologicals ite in the Near
Romans and the Parthiansi t was the frontier between East and East, and on its final defeat and destruction.
West. After the Arabc onquests, it became the most important The findings reported in this issue would not have been
center of power in the world under the Abassid Califs. possible without the encouragement and cooperation of the
The articles in this issue covero nly the middle rangeo f this Iraqi Department of Antiquities and Heritage, and especially
extended sequence - from the early agriculturals ocieties in the the Director-Generalo f Antiquities, Dr. Mu'ayadS aid Damerji.
areat o Mesopotamia'se arliestc ivilizations.T he last two decades We all owe a special debt of gratitude to the generosity and
have witnessed a tremendousg rowthi n our knowledgeo f these, professionalism of our colleagues in the department and the
due partly to the intense research spawned by various salvage Iraq Museum, and to the hospitality of the Iraqi people with
projects in areast hreatenedb y construction and other develop- whom we lived and worked.
ment projects, and partly by the increasing sophistication of Guest CoordinatingE ditors
modern archaeology.A ll the authorsi n this issue were conduct-
ing excavations in Iraqo n the eve of the gulf war, and all have
used this forcedr espite from fieldwork to take stock of our cur-
rent understanding.
Elizabeth C. Stone
and Paul Zimansky
174 Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992
IraqC hronological Chart
Southern Mesopotamia Northern Mesopotamia
TraditionPael riod TraditionPael riod
Approx.
Designations Politics Developments People dates Designations Politics Developments People
B.CE.
Parthian
250
Seleucid Deatohf
Alexander
Persian Incorporaintetdo Heroditus's 500
Persiaenm pire descriptioofnB abylon Falolf N ineveh AssurbaniIp al
Neo-Assyrian Neo-Assyreimanp ire Sennacherib
Neo-BabylonianR egioneaml pire Massivseto ne
Assyriainnf luence 750 architecture AssurnasirIpI al
Varioudsy nasties Darakg e Darakg e
1000
1250 MiddAles syrian MiddAles syrian
Kassite Kassitdeo minance Kassitree building empire
ofs outhercnit ies
Nuzi Mittanneiamnp ire FloruoiftN uzi
1500
Abandonmoefn t
southersnit es
OldB abylonian Babylonhiaeng emony Samsuiluna
Codoe fH ammurabHi ammurabi
Larshae gemony Rim-Sin 1750 OldA ssyrian Assyriamne rchantSs hamshi-Adad
overso uth Sin-iddinam inA natolia
Isin-Larsa Isina ndL arsa Riseo fA morite
competfeo rc ontrol dynasties Zabaya
2000
UrI II Empire Peako fa dministratUivre- Nammu
bureaucracy
GutiaInn terregnuCmol lapse Gudea
2250
Akkadian Empire Akkadibaenc omes Naram-Sin Akkadiiannfl uence
writtelnan guage Sargon
III Royablu riaalstU r 2500
EarlDy ynastic II City-states Wallecdit ies, Eannatum NineviVte
palacecs,i ty Smaclle nters
growtaht e xpense 2750
ofc ountryside
Gilgamesh?
3000
JemdeNt asr
Originofsc uneiform, Uruekx pansion
writinrgi,s eo f upt heE uphrates
Uruk Uruakn do thecri ties
Templaets
4 Northe'rUnb aid TepGe awra
4000
3
Ubaid Farmivnigll ages Tempsleeq uence
atE ridu Tradines tone
2 Halaf toolsa ndp ottery
5000
1 Samarran Wallesde ttlements,
Firsktn owsne ttlement irrigatiaonnd s eals
0 atT elell -'Oueili Hassunan
Ceramics
6000
Londg istanctrea de
ino bsidian
7000
AceramNice olithic Useo fd omesticated
plantasn da nimals
8000
Epipalaeolithic Permanseenttt lement
9000
Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992 175
TELAFARA MoSU475 150' asl. 15 Miles
35 SiLi00'il 25 Kms.
Pushing
II N
BAGFHDAD .............-....
back the IRAQGNNIG -DERHALL
~i~~i~...
i. .......................~..
Frontiers of
101)Kms .......i..i~~ .........lx~~i
Mesopotam* ianTES TEL
.... . ... . ..... . . . .. .
Prehistory ..TELML AGHZA.LY..... . .....
Watkins -360O'
by Trevor . .
serieosf c hancdei scover-
Sites of epi-palaeolithic and early neolithic date in Iraqi North Mesopotamia. M'lefaat,
ies and salvagee xcavations mentioned in the text but not shown here, lies about 50 kilometers east of Mosul, on the road
has extended our knowl- to Erbil and the mountain country.
edge of north Mesopota-
mian prehistory by almost 2,000 The surface of Tell Maghzaliyeh In the late 1980s the final palaeo-
years. The sites all belong to the early was littered with obsidian blades lithic and the early neolithic periods
neolithic period between 8000 and and tools but there was no trace of suddenly began to spring to the fore
6000 B.C.E(. uncalibrated radiocarbon pottery. The USSR team enlargedt he on several salvage excavations. The
age) and constitute the raw material scope of their researchp rogrami n the discovery and investigation of early
for a cultural sequence to parallel early 1970s to include the excavation neolithic sites in northern Iraqc an
the Levantines equence and that of Tell Maghzaliyeh, which provedt o be related quite simply to the large
from the Zagros region of northeast be a deeply stratified village site be- number of international teams in-
Iraq and western Iran. The new Iraqi longing to the early (aceramic)n eo- volved in the Eski Mosul Dam proj-
sequence has produced intriguing lithic period (Bader1 989).T he site ect. Early occupations were found on
information on the processes of was beautifully situated on a bluff sites that showed no evidence of such
change that culminated in the wide overlooking a perennial stream that occupation on the surface, and there
establishment of villages based on rises as springs in the limestone hills were even a few archaeologists who
mixed farming, new insights on the and soon loses itself in the alluvium set out to locate prehistoric exam-
"Neolithic Revolution." of the plain among the later tells ples among the many later sites.
The first archaeologists to reach where the USSR team had been dig- Only a relatively small number of
back beyond the 6000 B.C.Eb. arrier ging previously. early prehistoric sites were identi-
in Iraq,o utside the Zagros Mountain For a number of years Tell fied in this process, due partly to the
zone, were a team from the former Maghzaliyeh remained an isolated difficulty of locating sites that never
USSR working on the fertile plain phenomenon. It was separatedf rom grew to form conspicuous tells, and
south of the JebelS injarh ills, about the later, pottery neolithic cultures, partly to the very small number of
60 kilometers west of Mosul. Their to which it showed no resemblance people who actually went looking
main interest was in the classic vil- at all, and was equally unlike any for them.
lage cultures of the sixth and fifth other aceramic neolithic site known The Japaneset eam working at a
millennia B.C.E.w, hich are renowned either in the Levantinew est or the tell called Der Hall in the Tigris val-
for their sophisticated, painted pot- piedmont and mountain valleys to ley found the earliest of the new sites
tery. But they also found a single the east. To a considerable extent Tell in northern Iraq( Fujii 1986). At the
small tell site, Tell Maghzaliyeh, in Maghzaliyeh still poses insoluble base of the tell, under the next oldest
the Jebel Sinjarf oothills just a few problems of isolation from the cul- occupation, which dates to the early
kilometers north of their main area tural recordt hat is now becoming fifth millennium B.C.E., they found a
of work that did not fit into any availablef rom nearby sites of com- thin stratum that contained only flint
known cultural category. parablea ge. tools. The chipped stone assemblage
176 Biblical Archaeologist, December 1992