TAARII Newsletter the American Academic Research Institute in Iraq

FALL 2011 PAGE 1 TAARII Newsletter The American Academic Research Institute in Iraq ISSUE NO. 6-2 FALL 2011 © TAARII A JULY JOURNEY TO THE ENVIRONS OF UR elizabeth C. stoNe aNd Paul zimaNsky state uNiversity of New york, stoNy brook Is it now possible for an American with great enthusiasm, therefore, that from larger urban centers. Abdel-Amir archaeological field project to work in we took advantage of an opportunity suggested that this policy might be open southern Iraq? This was the question we to spend a week in the Nasiriya area to revision. There were other practical most wanted to answer when we flew to offered to us through the efforts of our considerations that made the Ur area Basra in early July 2011, although we Ph.D. student, Abdel-Amir Hamdani. attractive. Nasiriyah has experienced had other objectives as well. We have Before he entered the Ph.D. program less trouble than most of the rest of Iraq been to Iraq several times in the last two at Stony Brook, Abdel-Amir had been and there are two dig houses within the decades, but this was our first chance in the Inspector of Antiquities for Dhi guarded perimeter around Ur that could a long time to return as archaeologists Qar Governorate, and he remains in house an expedition. Franco D’Agostino, with a research agenda rather than contact with both the local and national of Rome, had already secured a permit observers of war damage. Since 1990, archaeological institutions of Iraq. For to lead an Italian expedition to Tell we have only been able to pursue our more than a year, he encouraged us to Abu Tubaira, a nearby multi-period studies of Mesopotamian settlement come to southern Iraq and by October site slightly larger than what we were organization, initiated in the Mashkan- 2010 had convinced us that the time had interested in, and offered to share shapir Project, by reworking old data come to act. In the past it was difficult to quarters and equipment with us. He was and analyzing satellite images. The latter obtain an excavation permit to excavate being given a certain amount of furniture offer some intriguing suggestions on a small site in Iraq outside of salvage by the Italian military contingent as it how sites might be structured, but these areas, and the few small sites that pulled out of Talil Air Base, south of need to be tested on the ground. One have been excavated are all located far Ur, so we could bring an expedition in issue largely ignored and go right to work, in previous research without having to is the relationship waste precious field between little sites time setting up a camp. and big ones: were There were also the small settlements good scientific reasons that dot the landscape for choosing a site around urban centers nearby. Thanks to the like Uruk, Nippur, extensive excavation and Ur microcosms program of Leonard of cities, specialized Woolley — and the locations with specific publication of his functions in a complex results — Ur is one of urban matrix, or purely the best known ancient residential outliers? Mesopotamian cities, Satellite images and providing extensive surveys of the environs samples of private and of Ur in particular public buildings for showed this to be very both the Isin-Larsa/ rich ground for looking Old Babylonian period at the problem. It was Figure 1.1. Quickbird Image of Tell Mathkhuriyah. Imagery courtesy of the Digital and the later Kassite Globe Corporation. PAGE 2 TAARII NEWSLETTER from the many Iraqi individuals and in their hospitality. After twenty years institutions that made this trip not just of working in Turkey, our Arabic is possible, but positively enjoyable.2 distinctly rusty, but with Amir Doushi at A second research objective was to our side, the conversation flowed and we visit a variety of sites in the Eridu Basin could almost forget the language barrier. and Ur area. Some of these showed We had another banquet with another quite distinctive traces of architecture in sheikh the next day (fig. 1.2), and at both satellite images, and we wanted to see of these meals the conversation focused what they looked like on the ground. on the role of the tribes in the new Iraq, The summer trip would provide us with a strong argument being made that the a better idea of what was showing up in south had been quieter than central and the images and what wasn’t. northern Iraq precisely because the We arrived in Basra Airport around tribal system was strong. Yet we had the 8 a.m. on July 7, 2011, on a Turkish clear sense that these men who wield Airlines flight from Istanbul. A man enormous power locally felt somewhat who said he worked for the Turkish left out of the new, very centralized, government was sitting next to us on political system. One argued that the the plane and told us that they were still collective nature of the tribes made them experimenting with the routes. We were a quasi-democratic system that should a little surprised to land in Najaf on be recognized. A day or so later we Figure 1.2. Lunch at the Mudhif. the way to Basra, and were even more spent the evening in a restaurant garden surprised a week later when our return beside the Euphrates with the literati period. There also seemed to be a good flight left an hour before schedule and of Nasiriyah — poets, film makers, number of small sites in the area to stopped again in Najaf. Experimenting playwrights, and the like — who were choose from. The one that seemed most indeed! At the Basra airport we were passionate about the role of the arts appropriate from our vantage point in met by Abdel-Amir and his friend Amir in the new Iraq and the importance Stony Brook was Tell Mathkhuriyah, Doushi, a translator and cultural advisor of education and literature (and film) one hectare in diameter with very who did much to facilitate our travels. to open people’s minds to new ideas extensive architectural traces visible There was also a documentary film crew in high-resolution satellite imagery who had come to record our trip. This (fig. 1.1). We could also see a military was not the kind of reception we were checkpoint by the site, which suggested used to on previous trips to Iraq. that it would be secure. The only After an uneventful drive to Nasiriyah question was the date of Mathkhuriyah’s and a quick stop in our hotel there, occupation: the few sherds we had seen we were taken to lunch at the Mudhif from it suggested the second millennium (guesthouse) of the sheikh who owned b.C., but they weren’t overwhelmingly the land around Tell Mathkhuriyah. He distinctive. Clearly we needed to visit welcomed us warmly, encouraged us the site and, if it proved suitable, solve to come and work, and treated us to a all of the logistical issues pertaining magnificent banquet. When we worked to working in a country that is still in Iraq in the 1980s, we did not have suffering from outbreaks of violence. this kind of experience when we lived We applied for an excavation permit in in Shomeli, the small town nearest to November. It was promptly granted to Mashkan-shapir, where the local Ba’ath us,1 with the idea being that we would representative discouraged Iraqis from make preliminary arrangements in interacting with foreigners. One of our the summer and commence work the neighbors in Shomali had invited the following winter. We set about planning women of the Mashkan-shapir team to the summer trip immediately and at tea in 1990, and the secret police turned Figure 1.3. Abdel-Amir Hamdani holding each step of the way, Abdel-Amir was up on her doorstep the next day. Iraqis the inscribed clay nail moments after its absolutely essential, lining up support no longer seem the least bit restrained discovery. FALL 2011 PAGE 3 and democracy. In spite base, and within sight of a of everything that has prison. It certainly passed happened in the past eight all security considerations. years, no one pined for the In the 1960s, Henry Wright past — rather they were had judged it to be entirely keen to find a positive way Kassite,3 but we found to participate in the future early second millennium of the country. ceramics as we began A few days after our walking up to the summit arrival we gave lectures at of the mound and only a the very elegant Arts Center few clearly Kassite sherds that had been built for the at the very top. Nearly fifty city by the Italians formerly years ago, Wright had noted in residence at Talil. This a Qal’eh (shaykh’s fort) in began with a memorial for that area, but apart from a Donny George and was small mound of dirt it was attended not only by a large no longer in evidence. We local audience, but also by Figure 1.4. Quickbird image of Tell Sakheriya with possible wall traces only spent about twenty dignitaries who had come shown in white. Imagery courtesy of the Digital Globe Corporation. minutes on this first visit from as far as Baghdad because it was hot and we and Babylon, and at least eight different Late in the afternoon of our first day had other sites to see, but Abdel-Amir television crews. Donny was eulogized in Iraq, we reached Tell Mathkhuriyah.

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