The Uruk Countryside
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The Uruk Countryside The Uruk Countryside The Natural Setting of Urban Societies Robert McC. Adams and Hans J.Nissen The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 1972 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. Published 1972 Printed in the United States of America International Standard Book Number: 0-226-00500-3 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 78-179489 ERRATA: This map replaces figure 1, pages 2-3. The overlay showing the location of dunes and seasonal swamps is erroneously placed on the original. -- - - I % ^ 173 ? I I I )194(1*195l .! \\ 31030'N.LAT. \, m0 z 261 387 j\·388298 ý4O0 R' o o10 20 KM. I I I BAT- Contents Illustrations vii Preface ix 1 CONFIGURATIONS OF SETTLEMENT Robert McC. Adams xi 1. Physiographic Characteristics and Problems 1 2. Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Early Urbanization 9 3. Continuity and Change in Early Historic Settlements and Watercourses 35 Historical and Topographical Notes: Ur III- Old Babylonian Periods Hans J. Nissen 4. Resettlement and Abandonment in Later Antiquity 55 5. Recent Life and Settlement 67 6. The Uruk/Warka Region in Historic and Comparative Perspective 85 2 ANALYSIS OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURFACE COLLECTIONS Hans J. Nissen 95 7. Typological Dating Criteria 97 8. Surface Collections 105 Appendix: Catalog of Surveyed Sites 219 Robert McC. Adams Index 239 Illustrations 1. Topographic map of ancient sites and water- 18. Cassite-Middle Babylonian settlements and courses in the Warka region 2-3 watercourses 40 2. Early Uruk and earlier sites 10 19. Neo-Babylonian-Seleucid settlements and 3. Late Uruk settlements and watercourses 13 watercourses 56 4. Jemdet Nasr settlements and watercourses 14 20. Parthian settlements and watercourses 60 5. Early Dynastic I settlements and watercourses 15 21. Sassanian settlements and watercourses 61 6. Late Early Dynastic settlements, watercourses, 22. Early-Middle Islamic settlements and water- and zones of cultivation 16 courses 64 7. Classification of early sites by period and area 17 23. Late Ottoman settlements and watercourses 69 8. Settlement typology, district boundaries, and 24. Contemporary tribal groupings in the Warka patterns of abandonment in the Jemdet Nasr region 70 and Early Dynastic I periods 20 25. Qalca Kharkhara, a late nineteenth century 9. Distribution of early sites by period and five- settlement and stronghold 75 kilometer square 21 26. Late nineteenth century enclave of irrigation 10. Actual and random dispersion of early sites by and settlement around Qalca Sussa 77 period 22 27. Ruins of Qalca Sussa 78 11. Early composite sites and site clusters 24 28. Plans of representative Late Ottoman strong- 12. A Jemdet Nasr marsh settlement 25 holds 79 13. Nonurban population density, average settle- 29. Qalca Falhiya, an early twentieth century ment size, and nearest neighbor coefficients in stronghold 80 early periods 26 30. Pottery type chart: Early Uruk-Early Dynastic I 101 14. A Late Uruk settlement cluster or enclave 28 31. Distribution of the types in figure 30 102 15. Relationship between population size and 32. List of sites from which the pottery is published 106 density in fifty-three Khuzestan villages 29 33-80. Pottery from selected sites 109-203 16. Population density in Uruk sustaining area 31 81-82. Metal vessels from selected sites 204-205 17. Akkadian-Old Babylonian settlements and watercourses 36 83. A baked clay temple model 215 J I Preface The archaeological reconnaissance furnishing the sub- tions whose paradigm shifted and is to a certain extent stantive data for this study was conducted over a four imposed only arbitrarily-it was undeniable that sys- and one-half month period during the winter and spring tematic study of the sustaining areas of the great cities of of 1967. It had its inception in a discussion between Pro- southern Sumer was long overdue. fessor Heinrich Lenzen, then director of the Baghdad From the outset, this study was conceived not as a Abteilung of the Deutsche Archaiologische Institut, and repetition of survey approaches previously employed in Dr. Henry T. Wright, who at that time was conducting other areas but as a further elaboration of them. Since a reconnaissance and soundings in the region around Warka lay near the lower end of the alluvium, it was to ancient Ur. Professor Lenzen expressed an interest in be expected that the remains of early periods would be extending an archaeological survey approach into the substantially less masked by later settlements and alluvi- desert lands around the great ruined mounds of ancient ation deposits than were similar remains farther north. Uruk-modern Warka-where for many years the Hence it seemed likely that settlement and irrigation pat- Deutsche Archaiologische Institut has sponsored one of terns might be investigated in considerable detail even the most far-sighted and comprehensive programs of for as early a period as the late fourth and early third excavation yet developed in the Middle East. Other com- millennia, a time during which Uruk emerged as one of mitments led Dr. Wright to demur from conducting such a the oldest and largest of Mesopotamian urban centers. reconnaissance himself, whereupon the initiative fell to To this end, a program was envisioned that would ex- me. tend over a considerable span of years. The first step was Having previously conducted somewhat analagous to have been a wide-ranging reconnaissance of the kind operations over much of the northern portion of the reported here, in which systematic coverage was sacrificed Mesopotamian plain, I viewed the possibility of extend- for knowledge of the larger geographic setting. From that ing the same approach into the classic heartland of point onward, plans were projected for detailed studies southern Sumer as a most welcome opportunity. Pro- of the hydrology and ecology of portions of the ancient fessor Benno Landsberger had once characterized the irrigation system. Also contemplated were further, more manuscript of my earlier study of changing systems of systematic resurveys aimed at small areas and particular settlement and irrigation on the alluvial fan of the lower problems, and ultimately test soundings in representative Diyala River as an attempt to describe a dialect before early sites. the paradigm of the heartland was known.' Although I It should be stressed that the field approach in 1967 do not fully share his view that the most significant de- was not only planned but executed on the assumption velopments of the past were encapsulated in a restricted that it was only a part of this long-range framework. region and span of time-I prefer to regard Mesopo- What has emerged with increasing clarity from all such tamian civilization as a bundle of indefinitely ongoing studies is that archaeological surface reconnaissance is not dialects, an interacting system of regions and specializa- a sharply bounded, independently justified, and more or less fixed body of techniques, but instead is a variable 1. R. McC. Adams, Land behind Baghdad: A History of component within a wide and growing complex of eco- Settlement on the Diyala Plains (Chicago, 1965), p. ix. logically oriented investigations of the kind sketched ix PREFACE above. But in the sequel, political and other changes the surveyed sites. To a considerably larger degree than stemming initially from the June 1967 war made it im- these complementary but separate sections suggest, this possible to pursue the other elements in this wider com- entire work should thus be regarded as a product of joint plex. Hence the findings reported here are less well sup- authorship. ported and detailed than it was intended that they should It is a pleasure to acknowledge the personal and in- be. Indeed, the exceptional quantity and quality of evi- tellectual debts incurred in this undertaking. We are dence awaiting the archaeologist directly on the surface grateful, first, to Professor Lenzen for perceiving the need in the Warka region demands further work at the earliest for it and for unstintingly lending the resources of the opportunity. The spirit of developing a many-sided Deutsche Archiiologische Institut toward its successful ecological approach, however, is not consistent with the completion. Dr. Nissen was at that time a member of the postponement of publication pending some indefinite staff of the Baghdad Abteilung, and in graciously agree- final truth. Although we acknowledge the tantalizing in- ing to his full participation in the entire course of the completeness at many points of what it has been possible reconnaissance Professor Lenzen took an essential step in to learn thus far, the results nevertheless seem to signif- making this jointly sponsored project possible. My own icantly enhance our processual understanding of the participation, originally planned as an exclusively Orien- growth of a major ancient civilization. Perhaps equally tal Institute commitment, was made substantially more important, publication at this point serves to enlarge the effective through my appointment as Annual Professor of empirical basis for settlement-pattern studies-and it the Baghdad School of the American Schools of Oriental provides a target for criticisms that can lead to future Research for 1966-67. I also owe a more personal debt of improvements in methods. gratitude to Professor George R. Hughes, who took over By far the greater part of the fieldwork in the Warka my duties at home as director of the Oriental Institute region was conducted jointly by Dr. Nissen and myself. for the period of the fieldwork, and who then succeeded There was a rough and informal division of labor in which me in that post in July 1968. I attended mainly to mapping problems, with the aid of As on so many previous occasions, the officers and staff aerial photographs, while he selected sherd samples for of the Iraq Directorate General of Antiquities were unfail- systematic discussion and illustration.