Ancient Iraq (53 page)

Chapter
2

1
. On Mesopotamian archaeology in general, cf.:
A. PARROT
,
Archéologie Mésopotamienne
, 2 vols, Paris, 1946 – 53;
H. FRANKFORT
,
The Art and Architecture of the Ancient Orient
, Harmondsworth, 1954;
SETON LLOYD
,
The Archaeology of Mesopotamia
, London, 1978.

2
. Up to the end of the third millennium
B.C
., temples and palaces were, with rare exceptions, made of sun-dried bricks. Baked bricks were almost exclusively used for the pavement of open courtyards, bathroom floors and drains. In many buildings of later periods only the lower part of the walls was built of kiln-baked bricks.

3
. The Akkadian (Assyro-Babylonian) word is
tilu
. Sentences such as: ‘I turned this town into a mound (
tilu
) and a heap of ruins (
karmu
)’ are frequently found in Assyrian royal inscriptions.

4
. More details on excavation methods can be found in
SETON LLOYD
,
Mounds of the Near East
, Edinburgh, 1962. Cf. also
A. PARROT
,
AM
, II, pp. 15 – 78. On certain sites where buildings are not too deeply buried, time and money can be saved by ‘scraping’ the superficial layers of debris. This provides a kind of ‘map’ of the town and enables the archaeologists to detect areas worthy of true excavations. Tell Taya, in northern Iraq, is an example of this method (
Cf
.
J. CURTIS
(ed.),
Fifty Years of Mesopotamian Discovery
, London, 1982, figs. 57 and 58).

5
.
M. B. ROWTON
,
CAH
, I, 1, p. 197.

6
.
ANET
, pp. 269 – 70.

7
.
ANET
, p. 271.

8
.
ARAB
, II, p. 433.

9
.
TH
. J
ACOBSEN
,
The Sumerian King List
, Chicago, 1939.

10
. A. UNGNAD,
RLA
, II, 1938, p. 412 ff.

11
. For a general survey of this complicated problem, cf.:
A. PARROT
AM
, II, pp. 332 – 438. The dates 1792 – 1750
B.C.
were proposed by
SIDNEY SMITH
in
Alalakh and Chronology
, London, 1940, and accepted by an increasing number of scholars (
cf
.
M. B. ROWTON
, ‘The date of Hammurabi’,
JNES
, XVII (1958), pp. 97 – 111).

12
.
W. F. LIBBY
,
Radio-carbon Dating
, Chicago, 1955. For details on the technique, limits and problems of the Carbon 14 method, see:
C. RENFREW
,
Before Civilization
, Harmondsworth, 1976, pp. 53 – 92 and 280 – 94.

13
. For details, cf.:
S. A. PALLIS
,
Early Explorations in Mesopotamia
, Copenhagen, 1954, and
SETON LLOYD
,
Foundations in the Dust
, London, 1980.

14
. XENOPHON, Anabasis, iii, 4.

15
.
STRABO
, XVI, 5.

16
. For details, see:
C. H. FOSSEY
,
Manuel d'Assyriologie
, vol. I, Paris, 1904;
S. A. PALLIS
,
The Antiquity of Iraq
, Copenhagen, 1956;
C. BERMANT
and
M. WEITZMAN
,
Ebla
, London, 1979, pp. 70 – 123.

17
.
S. N. KRAMER
,
The Sumerians
, Chicago, 1963, p. 15.

18
.
D. J. WISEMAN
,
The Expansion of Assyrian Studies
, London, 1962.

19
. Summaries and preliminary reports of these ‘salvage excavations’ in Iraq have been published in a variety of specialized journals, notably
Sumer
. XXXV (1979) ff. and
Iraq
, XLIII (1979) ff. Some final reports are available in book form. For a general view of the ‘Assad dam project’ in Syria, see
J. C. MARGUERON
(ed.),
Le Moyen Euphrate
, Leiden, 1980.

Chapter 3

1
.
H. FIELD
,
Ancient and Modern Man in Southwestern Asia
, Coral Gables, Calif., 1956.

2
.
R. J. BRAIDWOOD
and
B. HOWE
,
Prehistoric Investigations in Iraqi Kurdistan
, Chicago, 1960;
T. C. YOUNG, P. E. L. SMITH
and
P. MORTENSEN
(ed.),
The Hilly Flanks and Beyond
, Chicago, 1984.

3
.
R. SOLECKI
,
Shanidar, the Humanity of Neanderthal Man
, London, 1971.

4
.
K. W. BUTZER
,
CAH
, I, 1 (1970), pp. 49 – 62.

5
.
H. E. WRIGHT JNR
, ‘The Geological Setting of Four Prehistoric Sites in North Eastern Iraq’,
BASOR
, 128 (1952), pp. 11 – 24; ‘Geologic Aspects of the Archaeology of Iraq’,
Sumer
, XI (1955), pp. 83 – 90.

6
.
D. A. E. GARROD
and J.
G. D. CLARK
,
CAH
, I, 1, pp. 74 – 89 and 118 – 21.

7
.
M. L. INIZAN
, ‘Des indices acheuléens sur les bords du Tigre, dans le nord de l'Iraq‘,
Paléorient
, XI, 1 (1985), pp. 101 – 102

8
.
NAJI-AL-‘ASIL
, ‘Barda Balka’,
Sumer
, V (1949), pp. 205 – 6;
H. E. WRIGHT, JNR
and
B. HOWE
, ‘Preliminary Report on Soundings at Barda Balka’,
Sumer
, VII (1951), pp. 107 – 10.

9
.
D. A. E. GARROD
, ‘The Palaeolithic of Southern Kurdistan: Excavations in the Caves of Zarzi and Hazar Merd’,
Bulletin No 6, Amer. School of Prehist. Research
, New Haven (1930).

10
. Preliminary reports in Sumer, VIII (1952) to XVII (1961). Also see:
R. SOLECKI
, ‘Prehistory in Shanidar valley, northern Iraq’,
Science
, CXXXIX (1963), pp. 179 – 93, and the book quoted above, note 3.

11
.
E. TRINKHAUS
, ‘An inventory of the Neanderthal remains from Shanidar Cave, northern Iraq’,
Sumer
, XXXIII (1977), pp. 9 – 47.

12
.
A. LEROI-GOURHAN
, ‘The flowers found with Shanidar V, a Neanderthal burial in Iraq’,
Science
, CXC (1975), pp. 562 – 4.

13
.
R. J. BRAIDWOOD
, ‘From Cave to Village in Prehistoric Iraq’,
BASOR
, 124 (1951), pp. 12 – 18.
R. J. BRAIDWOOD
and
B. HOWE
,
Prehistoric Investigations in Iraqi Kurdistan
, Chicago, 1960, pp. 28 – 9, 57 – 9, 155 – 6.

14
. For more detail on the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods in the Near East, consult:
P. SINGH
,
Neolithic Cultures of Western Asia
, London and New York, 1974;
J. MELLAART
,
The Neolithic of the Near East
, London, 1975 and
D
. and
J. OATES
,
The Rise of Civilization
, Oxford, 1976.

15
.
R. SOLECKI
,
An Early Village Site at Zawi Chemi Shanidar
, Malibu, Calif., 1980.

16
.
R. J. BRAIDWOOD
and
B. HOWE
,
Prehistoric Investigations
, op. cit., pp. 52 and 170.

17
.
R. J. BRAIDWOOD
and
B. HOWE
,
ibid
., p. 50.

18
.
M. VAN LOON
, ‘The Oriental Institute excavations at Mureybet, Syria’, JNES XXVII (1968), pp. 264 – 90. J. CAUVIN,
Les Premiers Villages de Syrie-Palestine du IXe au Vile Millénaire avant J.-C
., Lyon/Paris, 1978.

19
.
F. HOLE, K. V. FLANNERY, J. A. NEELY, H. HELBAEK
,
Prehistory and Human Ecology in the Deh Luran Plain: an Early Village Sequence from Khuzistan, Iran
, Ann Arbor, Conn. 1969.

20
. For more detail on this subject, see:
H. J. NISSEN
,
The Early History of the Ancient Near East, 9000 – 2000
B.C.
, Chicago, 1988, pp. 15 – 27.

21
. J.
R. HARLAN
and
D. ZOHARY
, ‘Distribution of wild wheat and barley’, Science, CLIII (1966), pp. 1075 – 80; J.
R. HARLAN
, ‘A wild harvest in Turkey’,
Archaeology
, XX (1967), pp. 197 – 201.

22
.
L. R. BINFORD
, ‘Post-Pleistocene adaptations’ in
S. R.
and
L. R. BINFORD
(ed.),
New Perspectives in Archaeology
, Chicago, 1968, pp. 313 – 42;
K. V. FLANNERY
, ‘Origins and ecological effects of early domestication in Iran and the Near East’ in
J. A. SABLOFF
and
C. C. LAMBERG-KARLOWSKY
(ed.),
The Rise and Fall of Civilizations
; Menlo Park, Calif., 1974, pp. 245 – 68.

23
.
R. J.
and
L. BRAIDWOOD
, ‘Jarmo: a village of early farmers in Iraq’,
Antiquity
, XXIV (1950), pp. 189 – 95; J.
MELLAART
,
The Neolithic of the Near East
, pp. 80 – 82.;
P. SINGH
,
Neolithic Cultures
, pp. 116 – 21.

24
.
P. MORTENSEN
;
Tell Shimshara: the Hassuna Period
, Copenhagen, 1970.

25
. To our knowledge, only summaries have yet been published in
Iraq
, XLI (1979), pp. 152 – 3 and XLIII (1981), p. 191.

26
.
D. SCHMANDT-BESSERAT
, ‘The use of clay before pottery in the Zagros’,
Expedition
, XVI (1974), pp. 11 – 17.

27
. On the origins and significance of pottery, see
H. J. NISSEN
, op. cit., pp. 27 – 32.

Chapter 4

1
. On Mesopotamian proto-history in general, in addition to the books listed in note 14 of Chapter 3, see:
J. MELLAART
,
Earliest Civilizations of the Near East
, London, 1965;
M. E. L. MALLOWAN
,
Early Mesopotamia and Iran
, London, 1965;
SETON LLOYD
,
The Archaeology of Mesopotamia
, London, 1978;
C. L. REDMAN
,
The Rise of Civilization
, San Francisco, 1978.

2
.
SETON LLOYD
and
FUAD SAFAR
, ‘Tell Hassuna’,
JNES
, IV (1945), pp. 255 – 89.

3
.
c. s.
COON, ‘Three Skulls from Hassuna’,
Sumer
, IV (1950), pp. 93 – 6.

4
.
T. DABBAGH
, ‘Hassuna pottery’,
Sumer
, XXI (1965), pp. 93 – 111.

5
.
R. J. BRAIDWOOD, L. BRAIDWOOD, J. G. SMITH
and
C. LESLIE
, ‘Matarrah, a southern variant of the Hassunan assemblage, excavated in 1948’,
JNES
, XI (1952), pp. 1 – 75.

6
. Danish excavations in 1957 – 8. Cf.
P. MORTENSEN
,
Tell Shimshara. The Hassuna Period,
Copenhagen, 1970.

7
. Excavated by a Soviet team since 1969. For a summary of the results, see
N. Y. MERPERT
and
R. M. MUNCHAEV
, ‘Early agricultural settlements in the Sinjar plain, northern Iraq’,
Iraq
, XXXV (1973), pp. 93 – 113; ‘The earliest levels at Yarim Tepe I and Yarim Tepe II in northern Iraq’,
Iraq
, XLVI (1987), pp. 1 – 36.

8
. Preliminary reports by
D. KIRKBRIDE
in
Iraq
from vol. XXXIV (1972) to vol. XXXVII (1975). Also see, by the same author, ‘Umm Dabaghiyah’ in J.
CURTIS
(ed.),
Fifty Years of Mesopotamian Discovery
, London, 1982, pp. 11–21.

9
. Excavated by the Yarim Tepe team. Summaries in ‘Excavations in Iraq’ in
Iraq
, XXXV (1973), XXXVII (1975), XVIII (1976) and XXXVIII (1977).

10
. Japanese excavations from 1956 to 1965, resumed in 1976. Final reports by
N. EGAMI
et al.: Telul eth-Thalathat
, 3 vols., Tokyo, 1959 – 74.

11
.
E. E. HERTZFELD
,
Die Ausgrabungen von Samarra
, V, Berlin, 1930.

12
. Preliminary reports by
B. ABU ES-SOOF, K. A. AL-‘ADAMI, G. WAHIDA
and
W. YASIN
in Sumer, XXI (1965) to XXVI (1970). For a global view of the results:
J. MELLAART
,
The Neolithic of the Near East
, London, 1975, pp. 149 – 55.

13
.
H. HELBAEK
, ‘Early Hassunan vegetables from Tell es-Sawwan, near Samarra’,
Sumer
, XX (1964), pp. 45 – 8.

14
.
J. OATES
, ‘The baked clay figurines from Tell es-Sawwan’,
Iraq
, XXVIII (1966), pp. 146 – 53.

15
. In the Hamrin basin, Samarran houses, pottery and implements have been found by Japanese archaeologists at Tell Songor and by Iraqi archaeologists at Tell Abada.
K. MATSUMOTO
, ‘The Samarra period at Tell Songor A’ in
J. L. HUOT
(ed.),
Préhistoire de la Mésopotamie
, Paris, 1987, pp. 189 – 98;
SABAH ABBOUD JASIM
, ‘Excavations at Tell Abada’,
Iraq
, XLV (1983), pp. 165 – 86.

16
. Preliminary reports by
J. OATES
in
Sumer
, XXII (1966), pp. 51 – 8 and XXV (1969), pp. 133 – 7;
Iraq
, XXXI (1969), pp. 115 – 52 and XXXIV (1972), pp. 49 – 53. By the same author, ‘Choga Mami’ in J. CURTIS (ed.),
Fifty Years
… pp. 22 – 9; ‘The Choga Mami traditional’ in J. L. HUOT (ed.),
Préhistoire de la Mésopotamie
, pp. 163 – 80.

17
.
M. FREIHERR VON OPPENHEIM
,
Der Tell Halaf
, Leipzig, 1931. Detailed publication:
Tell Halaf
, I,
Die prähistorischen Funde
, Berlin, 1943.

18
.
R. CAMPBELL THOMPSON
and
M. E. L. MALLOWAN
, ‘The British excavations at Nineveh’,
AAA
, XX (1933), p. 71 ff.

19
.
M. E. L. MALLOWAN
and
C. ROSE
, ‘Prehistoric Assyria. The excavations at Tell Arpachiyah’, 1933,
Iraq
, II (1935), pp. 1 – 78.

20
.
M. E. L. MALLOWAN
, ‘The excavations at Tell Chagar Bazar’,
Iraq
, III (1936), pp. 1 – 86; IV (1937), pp. 91 – 117.

21
.
ISMAIL HIJARA
et al
., ‘Arpachiyah, 1976’,
Iraq
, XLII (1980), pp. 31 – 54; J.
CURTIS
; ‘Arpachiyah’, in
Fifty Years
…, pp. 30 – 36.

22
.
P. J. WATSON
, ‘The Halafian culture: a review and synthesis’, in
T. C. YOUNG, P. E. L. SMITH, P. MORTENSEN
(ed.),
The Hilly Flanks and Beyond
, Chicago, 1983, pp. 231 – 50.

23
.
D. FRANKEL
,
Archaeologists at Work: Studies on Halaf Pottery
, London, 1979.

24
. This is a physico-chemical technique giving very precise measurements of about 30 elements commonly found in clay, A clay of a specific origin has a specific chemical composition which is both characteristic and unique, like a chemical fingerprint. Since pottery is usually made of the local clay, this method is used to determine the origin of a given piece of pottery (
I. PERLMAN, F. ASARO, H. V. MICHEL
in
Annual Review of Nuclear Science
, XXII (1972), pp. 383 – 426). On its application to the Halaf period, see:
T. E. DAVIDSON
and
H. MCKERRELL
, ‘The neutron activation analysis of Halaf and ‘Ubaid pottery from Tell Arpachiyah and Tepe Gawra’,
Iraq
, XLII (1980), pp. 155 – 67.

25
.
J. MELLAART
,
The Neolithic of the Near East
, London, 1975, pp. 169 – 70.

26
.
H. R. HALL
and
C. L. WOOLLEY
,
Al-'Ubaid
, London, 1927 (
UE
, I).

27
.
FUAD SAFAR, MOHAMMED ALI MUSTAFA
and
SETON LLOYD
,
Eridu
, Baghdad, 1982.

28
. Some French archaeologists have questioned the religious nature of these buildings and prefer to call them ‘prestige buildings’. They claim that they might have housed eminent members of the communities or served as community halls similar to the
mudhifs
of the Marsh Arabs. However, the majority of archaeologists believe that most of them were temples.

29
.
C. ZIEGLER
,
Die Keramik von derQal'a des Haggi Mohammed
, Berlin, 1953.

30
.
D. STRONACH
, ‘Excavations at Ras al ‘Amiya’,
Iraq
, XXIII (1961), pp. 95 – 137.

31
.
Y. CALVET
, in
Larsa et Oueili, Travaux de 1978 – 1981
, Paris, 1983, pp. 15 – 70; and in
Préhistoire de la Mésopotamie
, Paris, 1987, pp. 129 – 52.

32
.
J. L. HUOT
, ‘Un village de basse Mésopotamie: Tell el ‘Oueili à l'Obeid 4’, in
Préhistoire de la Mésopotamie
, pp. 129 – 52.

33
.
M. D. ROAF
, ‘The Hamrin sites: Tell Madhhur’ in
Fifty Years
… pp. 40 – 46.

34
. J.
OATES
, ‘Ubaid Mesopotamia reconsidered’ in T. C. YOUNG et al. (Ed.),
The Hilly Flanks and Beyond
, Chicago, 1983, pp. 251 – 72. These 45 apparently intermittent settlements are spread from the southern border of Kuwait to Bahrain and Qatar; another has been found in Bushir peninsula (Iran). They seem to have been camps of fishermen using ‘Ubaid 2, 3 or 4 pottery made in Mesopotamia and local flint tools.