The University of Manchester Research
Summary report on excavations at Tell Khaiber, an administrative centre of the Sealand period, 2013-2017
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Citation for published version (APA): Campbell, S., Killick, R., Moon, J., Calderbank, D., & Robson, E. (2019). Summary report on excavations at Tell Khaiber, an administrative centre of the Sealand period, 2013-2017. Sumer, 65, 15-–46.
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SUMER
JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY OF IRAQ
VOL LXV 2019
Republic of Iraq Ministry of Culture, Tourism & Antiquities State Board of Antiquities and Heritage
SUMER
JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY OF IRAQ
VOL. LXV 2019
SUMER
Journal of Archaeology of Iraq
VOL.LXV2019
Editor- in chief
Dr. Abdulameer Al-Hamdani The Minister of Culture, Tourism & Antiquities Chairman of the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage
Director of Editing
Jacob Jawdat
Editorial Board
Prof. Dr. Nicolas Postgate (University of Cambridge) Prof. Dr. Elizabeth Stone (Stony Brook University) Prof. Dr. Jason Ur (Harvard University) Assis. Prof. Dr.Stephanie Rost (New York University) Assis. Prof. Dr. Michelina di Cesare (University of Rome, la Sapienza)
Design by
Karamallah Shgait Meftin
Arabic Revision
Zaman Hussain Mohammed Ahmed Kadhim Nsaif
General Review Elham Shakir Jawad
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1. ARTICLE 10. Author1, A. B., and Author2, A. B.
1999-2000: the Article I Wrote. SUMER 50: 42-59.
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Year: The Book I Wrote. Series Information. Place: Publisher.
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Republic of Iraq Ministry of Cultural, Tourism and Antiquities State Board of Antiquities and Heritage SUMER Journal of Archaeology of Iraq VOL. LXV 2019
Content
- FORWARD ………………...……..…………………………………………………………………………...... 1
- THEORETICAL AND METHODICAL APPROACHES IN THE INTERPRETATION OF A CHILD BURIAL_EXCAVATION AT TELL SAKHARIYA_IRAQ. Abdulamir al-Hamdani ……………………………………………………………………………………….……..5
- SUMMARY REPORT ON EXCAVATIONS AT TELL KHAIBER, AN ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRE OF THE SEALAND PERIOD, 2013-2017. Stuart Campbell, Robert Killick, Jane Moon, Daniel Calderbank and Eleanor Robson …………………………. 15
- URUK-WARKA. ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2016 – 2018, PRELIMINARY REPORT. Margarete van Ess With a contribution by Jörg Fassbinder …………………………………………………...….47
- AL-HIRA SURVEY PROJECT – CAMPAIGNS 2015–2018. Martina Müller-Wiener, Martin Gussone, Mohammad Hadi Bidan, Ibrahim Salman, Ulrike Siegel, Burkart Ulrich, Frank Stremke ...... 87
- TELLO/GIRSU: FIRST RESULTS OF THE TWENTY-SECOND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SEASON (AUTUMN 2016). Sebastien Rey, Fatma Yassir Husain, Jon Taylor, Angelo Di Michele, Ashley Pooley, James Fraser, Gareth Brereton, Cordelia Hall, Joanna Skwiercz, Faith Vardy, Hilary McDonald, Faleh Noman & Hayder Idan ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...…..111
- TŪLŪL AL-BAQARAT, MOUND 7 (TB7). PRELIMINARY REPORT - SEASONS 2015-2018. Carlo Lippolis, Eleonora Quirico, Jacopo Bruno, Giulia Ragazzon, Hasanian A. Mohammed, Ahmed S. Kazai, Saadoun K. Shetod, Haydar Taha' and Ali Kamil ………………………………………………………...…….133
- THE IRON AGE DINKA SETTLEMENT COMPLEX NEAR QALADZE (PESHDAR PLAIN) ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATION, 2015-2018. Karen Radner, F. Janoscha Kreppner and Andrea Squitieri …………………………………………………....165
Forward
Ever since took over the duties of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Antiquities at the end of 2018 and the presidency of the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH) in mid-2019, the SBAH's career has begun “once again” in the field work, publishing and research; the universities, research centers and international organizations have also begun coming to Iraq in order to start work, that includes surveys, excavations and projects aimed at protecting and preserving the heritage of our country, Iraq, as well as for the rehabilitation and training of the staff of the SBAH. Thousands of smuggled artifacts have been repatriated in coordination and cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other national and international parties; these artifacts including hundreds of cuneiform tablets from Cornell University, and from the Hobby Lobby Group, as well as artifacts from Jordan, Britain and Turkey. For the first time, the University of Pennsylvania Museum is returning Cuneiform tablets that were taken from Ur during the 1992 excavations for maintenance, delivering 387 tablets and broken tablets “fragmented” to the Iraqi embassy in Washington. This year, after several attempts since 1983, Babylon was on the UNESCO World Heritage List to begin allocating funds to develop the city as an archaeological and tourist attraction. Therefore, conservation projects began to correct the wrong work that took place in the 1980s. This work is carried out in coordination with UNESCO to avoid a recurrence of wrong conservation, with the participation of the World Monuments Fund. In the same context, SBAH has sent scientific reports to the World Heritage Center in order to remove the cities of Ashur, Hatra and Samarra from the list of heritage under threat and return it to the normal list; for example, in Ashur, in cooperation with the Ministry of Water Resources, a work of stone-toothed and iron- boiled nets was initiated to stop the erosion caused by the Tigris hitting the eastern part of the city, which UNESCO requested in order to remove Ashur from the list under threat. A National World Heritage Team has been formed to prepare dossiers and files of historical cities and archaeological, heritage and natural sites to be nominated to the list of UNESCO’s world heritage, as there is an initiative list of 12 archaeological and natural sites, including Nimrud, Nippur, Al-Amadiyah Gate, and Wadi Assalam Cemetery, the Medieval sector of Baghdad along the Tigris, The lake of Sawa, the Sea of Najaf, and the ancient pilgrimage route between Kufa and the Macca. In order to publicize the Iraqi heritage, the Ministry and the SBAH have sought to open archaeological sites and museums in Baghdad and the provinces to local and foreign visitors and to extend the working hours of the Iraqi Museum and provincial museums from morning to evening. In order to restore the memory of Iraq, which has bled in Mosul and other cities captured by ISIS and other terroristic groups, the SBAH and the Ministry, in coordination with international centers and institutions, have begun an organized
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campaign to restore and rehabilitate the Al-Nuri Mosque, the Nabi Younis Mosque, the City of Nimrud, Ashur and the Mosul Museum. The European Union also submitted a project to restore heritage buildings in the old part of Mosul, and the International alliance for the protection of heritage in conflict areas (ALIPH) submitted a project to restore some of the worship places of mosques and churches in the old part of Mosul, while the University of Pennsylvania sought to restore another worship places in the Nineveh Plain, comprised churches, mosques and temples of Ezidi. Excavations have also begun in the ancient city of Nineveh, both in Tell Quyinjaq and Tell Al-Tawba (Nabi Younis). In the field of rehabilitation of world heritage sites, the government has allocated funds for the rehabilitation of Samarra as the historical capital of Iraq, Babylon as Iraq's civilizational city, the southern marshes and the cities of Ur and Uruk. The joint excavation projects between the SBAH and international universities have been reinforced in several locations, including the Expedition of the German Archaeological Institute in Uruk (Warka), the Expedition of the American University of Stony Brook in Ur (Tell Muggayyer), the University of Pennsylvania expedition in Lagash (Telool al-Hiba), the Expedition of the Italian University of Rome in Nina (Tel Zurgul), the French expedition in Larsa (Sankara), The British Museum Expedition in Girsu (Tello), the Slovak Expedition at Umma (Tel Chokha), the Oriental Institute Expedition of the University of Chicago at Nippur (Tell Nuffer), the Expedition of the University of Munich in Shurubak (Tell Fara), the British Expedition of the University of Manchester in Telool Khaiabir, the Italian Expedition of the University of Turin in Telool Al-Baqarat, the Expedition of the University of Rome in Tell Abu Tbira, the German Expedition in Hira, and the Expedition of the American University in Iraq Sulaimaniya) in Ashur. In addition, to excavations, field survey projects has also started in the area of the ancient city of Umma to the west of Rifaie in Dhi Qar province by The University of New York, in the Nomaniyah area of Wasit province by the Italian University of Venice, and in the ancient city of Kufa by another Italian team. Excavation permits have also been granted for a number of other expeditions, including the Russian expedition in Tell Dahaila in Dhi Qar, and in Tell Wajif in Maysan province. As part of strengthening the link between the SBAH and the Directorate of Antiquities in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, meetings were held with colleagues in the region to prepare a unified antiquities law for the country in place of the Antiquities low no. 55 of 2002 adopted by SBAH and the Law of 1974 adopted in the region, in addition to the registration of existing artifacts in the Museums of Sulaimaniya, Erbil and Dohuk in the National Register of the Iraqi Museum. A digital database and a new map of archaeological sites in Iraq, with a total of 15,000 archaeological sites, have been created to form the nucleus of Iraq's national register. The Ministry and its SBAH intend to hold an international conference on antiquities next year, discussing topics such as the future of field work in Iraq, recovering smuggled antiquities, publishing, researching and composing, maintaining and restoring antiquities, and discussing the establishment of a new museum for Iraq, that is supposed
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to be larger than the current museum to be a cultural complex. The complex will include a museum, a theatre, a conference hall, gardens and entertainment venues, as the current museum building does not accommodate the entire exhibits and the storage does not accommodate more antiquities. The current building can be converted into a museum of Islamic art. In the hands of the readers is the new issue of the deep-rooted journal SUMER,. An editorial board of the English section of the journal was proposed to include a group of scholars from American and European universities who specialize in Iraqi civilization, most of whom conducted and still field work in Iraq. The issue includes eight articles in Arabic, five of which are on the results of excavations of national expeditions, while the foreign section of the journal included seven articles and articles on the results of excavations of foreign expeditions.
Dr. Abdulameer Al-HAmdani Minister of Culture, Tourism, and Antiquities Chairman of the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage
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Summary Report on Excavations at Tell Khaiber, An Administrative Centre of the Sealand Period, 2013-2017
Stuart Campbell, Robert Killick, Jane Moon, Daniel Calderbank and Eleanor Robson
Abstract
Excavations at Tell Khaiber by the Ur Region Archaeological Project have revealed a substantial building (hereafter the Public Building) dating to the mid-second millennium BC. The results are significant for several reasons: they shed light on Babylonian provincial administration; they reveal a previously unknown type of fortified monumental building; and they produced a provenanced, dated archive of the little-understood Sealand Dynasty. Here we give a summary of the main results, including the architecture and the material culture. There are also comments on the historical background, and a discussion of the form and function of the Public Building. Elements of this article appeared in a preliminary report on the first three seasons of excavations, published in Iraq 78, 2017.1 Here we report on the completed project, so some of our provisional conclusions as stated there have altered. A complete final publication is in preparation.
Historical background
The loss of control of southern disentangle the political circumstances Babylonia by the First Dynasty of fully.3 Periodic collapse of central states Babylon, and the story of the Sealand is a recurrent theme in Mesopotamia, kings, form an obscure episode of and indeed in many other early complex Mesopotamian history. The chronology societies,4 but the specific narratives are is complex 2 and it is impossible to hard to understand. In the case of the First Dynasty of Babylon, there are certainly external pressures from 1 Campbell, Moon, Killick, Calderbank, Robson, Kassites and Hittites, but internal stress Shepperson and Slater 2017. and systemic failings should be 2 Gasche et al 1998; Charpin 2004, Roaf 2012. We do not address the complex and unresolved matter of second millennium chronology here. All dates in this report follow the Middle 3 van Koppen 2010. Chronology, which dates the fall of Babylon to 4 Yoffee and Cowgill 1988; McAnany and ca. 1600 BC. Yoffee 2010.
SUMER LXV 15 examined too. Environmental through 2017 by the Ur Region degradation has also been proposed as a Archaeology Project.7 factor. However, collapse of societies is often incomplete, so the narrative of Tell Khaiber grand politics simplifies and overlooks Tell Khaiber is in Thi-Qar Province, the detail of the social impact. The thirteen kilometres west of Nasiriyah. It trajectories of individual regions and is approximately 19 kilometres north- local communities may vary west of Ur, and 25 kilometres south of considerably, and they may include Larsa (Fig. 1). The toponym ‗Tell resistance as well as successful Khaiber‘ in fact applies to two separate adaptation to more general collapse. All mounds, both part of the same this requires a much more nuanced archaeological landscape.8 The two sites approach than simply following the rise are of similar size, both approximately and fall of centralising dynasties. c.300 x 250 metres in extent. The focus Since 1977 it has been believed that of our excavation is the mound generally the major urban centres of southern known simply as Tell Khaiber, where Babylonia were abandoned after central the main period of extant occupation control by the Babylonian kings dates to the Sealand Dynasty. The other 5 collapsed. Then in 2009, 474 unprovenanced tablets from the Sealand 7 Dynasty were published by Stephanie We are grateful to our colleagues and staff at Dalley, who argued that these texts show the State Board for Antiquities and Heritage, Iraq, for their invaluable co-operation and continuity of elite residences and cult assistance. For financial support we centres at many of the traditional urban acknowledge above all the generosity of Baron centres of southern Mesopotamia. 6 At Lorne Thyssen-Bornemisza at The Augustus the same time, there has been a long Foundation. Other supporters included the hiatus in field archaeology in southern British Institute for the Study of Iraq, the Gerald Averay Wainwright Fund for Near Iraq. Iraqi archaeologists have conducted Eastern Archaeology, the British Embasssy, some notable excavations, struggling Iraq; DigitalGlobe Foundation; Gulfsands against a background of extensive Petroleum Ltd; SKA International Group, looting and site destruction, but the input Unity Resources Group and Pilgrims Group. 8 of international archaeological projects As the mounds have been given multiple and sometimes contradictory names in the recent has been disrupted since the 1980s. In past, the project has adopted the simple 2012 international cooperation became designations ‗Tell Khaiber‘ and ‗Tell Khaiber possible again, and five seasons of 2‘. Both mounds were first documented by excavations were carried out from 2013 Henry Wright in the Eridu-Ur regional survey in 1965–6 (Wright 1981), in which Tell Khaiber is site 60, named Ishan Khaiber, while Tell Khaiber 2 is site 61, named Tell Gurra. In the Atlas of the Archaeological Sites of Iraq, Directorate General of Antiquities, Ministry of Information, Iraq 1976, both sites are called 5 Stone 1977; Gasche 1989; more recently e.g., Ishan Khaiber (Map 73: Site 108 Ishan Khaiber Van De Mieroop 2015: 123. Tell Khaiber; Site 107 Ishan Khaiber Tell 6 Dalley 2009: 5-9. Khaiber 2).
SUMER LXV 16 mound (Tell Khaiber 2) lies about one current hypothesis is that the same canal kilometre to the north-west and is not system served both settlements and contemporary: it dates to the Kassite remained in use throughout the Sealand period. It has been the subject of very Dynasty and the succeeding period. limited investigation consisting of surface mapping and three soundings.9 Our investigations focussed on the layers dating to the mid-second The Khaiber mounds are situated close millennium BC. There is in fact clear to an old branch of the Euphrates that evidence of earlier occupation at the site. runs to the south-west of its present The earliest material is a handful of course (Fig. 2). This branch forms part painted sherds, which are Ubaid 3–4 in of the Ur channels of the Euphrates that, date. There are small quantities of together with the Eridu channel which Jemdet Nasr (and possibly also Late took off from the river further west, Uruk) ceramics. For the third supported the extensive settlement of millennium, there is a substantial corpus this area during the Old Babylonian of Early Dynastic I pottery from the period.10 It would appear that the river surface of the mound and from fill of the continued in the same course in the later Public Building.12 A row of low humps second millennium. Two parallel relict to its north-west, with high canals, probably taking off from the concentrations of slag, indicates an Euphrates to the north of the Khaiber industrial area. Investigation here in mounds, are visible on the ground 2017 confirmed these structures as Early (marked with dotted white lines on Fig. Dynastic I in date. 2).11 They run between the low mounds of Tell Khaiber 2, immediately adjacent Geophysical prospection revealed to a large building visible in satellite possible buildings to the south of the images, and then continue past the Public Building. Limited excavation northern edge of Tell Khaiber before confirmed that these were also of Early heading south-west towards Ur. While Dynastic I date. It is clear that there was the direct dating of the canal remains to a substantial occupation of this period, be confirmed, one sounding at Tell much of it levelled off when the second Khaiber 2 suggested that it was cut from millennium Public Building was the same surface that has occupation constructed. associated with Kassite pottery and the A small hint of Ur III activity is upcast from its fill also contained shown by fragments of three baked characteristic Kassite ceramics. Our bricks with inscriptions of Amar-Suen.
As there is no pottery or other material 9 Campbell, Calderbank, Killick and Moon of the Ur III period anywhere on the site, 2017. it seems likely that these bricks were 10 Wright 1981: 330; Pournelle 2003: fig. 26. 11 Two clearly distinct canal lines are visible at Tell Khaiber 2, each 15–20 metres wide and running adjacent to each other: they are presumably successive recuts of the same 12 The pre-second millennium pottery is treated canal. in Calderbank and Moon 2016.
SUMER LXV 17 brought from elsewhere at some point in main wall all sat above a levelling antiquity. deposit of compacted grey clay at least 20 cm thick. Material from periods later than the Public Building is very scant. The only The internal arrangement of the structure is a square, baked brick one on building at this time is only partially the south-eastern slope of the mound. It known. The main element in the was investigated in 2017 and seemed to southern corner is a series of six parallel be a robbed grave, of uncertain date. vaults up to 1 m high almost 12 m long Scraping at and just beyond the north- running from the main wall as far as the east limit of the Public Building central courtyard. These cover an area of produced a few Kassite period sherds, 148 sq m. Arches integral to the internal surviving only in tiny humps at the courtyard wall show that the vaults were surface. open on this side and they supported either an above-ground floor or a Our main investigation was the Public superstructure: we do not know which, Building at Tell Khaiber, which occupies as the vaults were subsequently cut a substantial part of the north-east of the down and filled in. The original floor of site (Fig. 3). We also excavated a small the courtyard was a plastered surface cluster of approximately contemporary that ran up to the bottom of the courtyard buildings to its south. These are wall and spilled over into the voids separated by what may have been an under the arches. The vaults were open area, and probably representing confined to this part of the building and domestic houses. were not duplicated on the western side. The Level 1 wall demarcating the The Public Building western boundary of the courtyard was The Public Building was originally partially exposed in excavation and no built as a single rectangular block arches indicating vaults were present. To approximately 53 × 27.5 metres, with an the south the courtyard extended all the external wall 3.3 metres wide and a way to the main wall. External tower single narrow entrance on the north- 302 had a brick pavement floor which eastern side. On the corners of this extended under the walls of the room, block, and arranged at regular intervals with occupation material above the floor. along all four external sides, are This suggests that from the beginning projecting towers. These are integral to there was access into the interior of the the earliest phase of the building: towers, probably from above, since in no excavation against the external face of case were we able to identify any door the main wall on the north-west side associated with the construction level of showed that both the main wall and the these towers, neither in scraping, nor in walls of the towers were built on the excavation. same surface. The construction horizon The vaults were then demolished and was also reached in the SW and SE the area divided up into administrative corners of the central courtyard (Area rooms in which the tablets were found. 315) where the courtyard walls and the
SUMER LXV 18 A large room (Area 314) was also 40 metres south-east of the Public inserted along the southern edge of the Building, arranged on the same south- courtyard. Perhaps at the same time the west to north-east alignment. building was enlarged substantially to Approximately 300 square metres of the the north-east, giving it overall mound surface were therefore scraped in dimensions of 53 × 83 metres. The this area, and elements of three separate secondary nature of this addition is buildings recovered (Private Houses 1 to clearly illustrated by the brickwork 3; Fig. 6). Preservation of the walls on abutting the external room on the eastern this low-lying part of the site is generally corner of the original building. Where poor, so many of the walls stood only a the bottoms of the walls of the new build few centimetres high, and doorways were reached they were of comparable were problematic, either because the level to that of the original building and extant walls were not above threshold even in one case some 30 cm lower. This height or because of subsequent suggests that this enlargement of the rebuilding. Nevertheless, the houses building took place before any major provide us with a different type of phase of levelling and rebuilding of the context through which to appraise life at original structure. On the southeast side, Tell Khaiber in the mid-second thick horizontal plaster layers associated millennium BC. The alignment of the the construction extended 9m away from houses suggests that there are two the main wall before being truncated by separate building phases, with Houses 1 a deep trench. The new building and 2 pre-dating House 3. mimicked many of the features of the old, including the arrangement of a House 1 is a free-standing building massive perimeter wall and external with four rooms, covering about 53 sq towers with brick floors and matching m. A narrow alleyway on the north- shallow internal buttresses. The plan of eastern side separates it from House 2. the northern extension was recovered To the north-west is an open space, mainly through surface scraping. while sections of walling found close to However, wherever we have excavated, the edge of the excavated area suggest the main divisions of the plan produced that adjacent buildings are present on the by the surface scraping reflect the other two sides. Two rooms (Areas 403 original foundation, in particular the and 412) were empty of any arrangement of a central corridor leading installations. In the south-eastern room through into the southern block and two (Area 405) there was a tannur in the parallel corridors, blocks of single rooms eastern corner, and a freestanding bench against the long sides of the unit, and of mud-brick in the southern part of the wider blocks either side of the central room. There was also a bench against the corridor. wall in Area 404.
Private Houses House 2 as extant comprises three or possibly four rooms. As in House 1, the Satellite images of Tell Khaiber clearly walls were not well-preserved, standing show one or more buildings lying some in places less than ten centimetres high.
SUMER LXV 19 Its relationship to House 3 to the north is and 311, so we know these areas were also unclear. The latter was well defined for scribal use even before the division only on its western edge. It has at least took place. Area 300/305 was clearly an four rooms (Areas 406, 413, 414, and archive room, as tablets were found in 416) which cover approximately 97 distinct clusters along the north-east and square metres. Excavation was limited to south-east walls of the room, apparently one room (Area 414) so most of the plan the remnants of a once well organised is known only from the surface scraping. storage system. Although the doorway to Area 300 was not recovered, it is clear that it had no direct access to the courtyard, Area 315. It was therefore probably primarily used for the storage The Archive and manufacture of tablets and tablet (Eleanor Robson) clay rather than for their inscription. The room features a large round clay bin in Altogether one hundred and fify-two the centre of the floor, measuring inscribed tablets and fragments were approx. 75 cm in diameter and 15 cm found, after joins were taken into high. This was probably used to soak account, as well as numerous pieces of redundant tablets and re-model them into uninscribed tablet. Study of the inscribed new ones.13 Although the bin was empty material is ongoing. A selection was when excavated, several small tablets included in the preliminary report. The and fragments were scattered on the main results will be brought up to date floor around it, as if overlooked during and summarized here. Preliminary open- the final cleaning process. 14 The access text editions, photos and majority of the Tell Khaiber tablets glossaries of all inscribed objects are document the administration of grain available online at http://build- and agricultural personnel in the oracc.museum.upenn.edu/urap, where Akkadian language, but a dozen or more comments and contributions are fragments, mostly from the eastern welcome. corner of Area 300, represent the The tablets remnants of an elementary scribal training in Sumerian. The tablets almost all come from four rooms in the Public Building: Areas 300, The administrative tablets from Areas 305, 309, and 311. Around eighty, 300/305 are mostly unilateral records, mostly lists, accounts, and school texts, storing information, rather than bilateral came from Areas 300 and 305, while the remainder, mostly letters and letter- orders, were found in Rooms 309 and 13 On tablet recycling facilities, in both domestic 311. Each pair, 300/305 and 309/311, scribal settings and institutional buildings, see was originally one room that was later Faivre 1995; Tanret 2002: 4–8; Robson 2008: divided. Four tablets were found 237. For further preliminary analysis of the archive, see Robson 2019. underneath the dividing wall of 300/305 14 Tablets found around the recycling bin: and five under the wall separating 309 3064:18, 3064:101, 3080:1–5.
SUMER LXV 20 ones, being transactions between two tally (usually) small numbers of parties.15 We can divide them into three unspecified commodities (or distinct types:16 personnel) against each individual, either without formal headings or Memoranda: these are ephemeral marked as ma-hi-ir ‗received‘.20 No notes for an informal record of one list is totalled, and none attributed to or more pieces of information. They a named scribe or functionary. A are usually in the form of a prose few are dated to the month and day, narrative but sometimes a list, with one also to the year.21 horizontal rulings dividing the sections but no headings. They are Tabular accounts: at Tell Khaiber, all inscribed in landscape format these typically tally expected (i.e., parallel to the long edge of the quantities of incoming barley with tablet) and most are dated to the the amounts that were actually month and day, one also to the year received, using three quantitative (see further below).17 columns followed by the name of the worker concerned. All accounts Numerical lists: in this archive, seem to have been written in portrait these are all two-column format, with headings, so far as the enumerations of workers, perhaps surviving tablets suggest. In most collated from memoranda or cases, the deficit (muṭû(m), written perhaps written as a primary LÁL.Ì) is recorded as paid off (Ì.SÁ, 18 document. They may be in portrait, probably a writing for išaru(m), lit. landscape or round format, ‗straight, proper‘). 22 As with the apparently chosen according to the lists, there are no summations or length of the list. Some were attributions of accountability at the originally ruled in portrait format end of the document, though at least then rotated and written along the some (perhaps originally all?) were long side, with pointed stylus holes dated to the month and day, perhaps used to fill in the blank cells on the also to the year.23 centre of the tablet.19 Most concern small quantities of grain, typically specified as HAR.GAL.Ú(.MEŠ) 20 Cf. Rositani 2011: no. 79, a numerical list of hargallû or as ŠE(.GUR) ŠU.TI.A the number of harvesters provided by each of ENSÍ(.MEŠ) ‗grain received (from) eight iššiakku-farmers, probably from about the farmers (iššiakkū)‘ in the cases Hammurabi year 40. where headings survive. A minority 21 Numerical lists include: 1096:25, 3006:2, 3064:13, 3064:48–9, 3064:52–3, 3064:57, 3064:65, 3064:67, 3064:72, 3064:74, 3064:83, 3064:101, 3080:4, 3080:6. 15 Postgate 2014: 414. 22 Correcting Dalley 2009: 225, 239, 241, 247, 16 Postgate 2014: 414–7; Robson 2004: 116. 249, 258, 269, 271 who reads GÚ for LÁL.Ì 17 Memoranda: 3006:17, 3064:73, 3064:76, and ni-di for Ì.SÁ without translation or 3064:94, 3080:1–3, 3080:5. commentary. 18 Cf. Postgate 2014: 79–80. 23 Tabular accounts include: 1096:26, 3064:12, 19 E.g., 3064:67, 3064:72. 3064:15, 3064:18, 3064:26, 3064:33,
SUMER LXV 21 The documents from Areas 309/311, The documents are very similar in their by contrast, are primarily bilateral, format, content, terminology, ductus, recording transactions or and orthography to a subset of the communications between two or more Sealand Dynasty tablets from the members of the internal administration: Schøyen Collection published by Dalley (2009; 2010).27 While that corpus does Letters: five short letters, all written not appear to contain any memoranda, on landscape orientation tablets, are her ‗allocations of hargalû-grain/flour‘ addressed to one or other of the two and ‗personnel lists‘ map onto the Tell scribes of the archive, Atanah-ili Khaiber numerical lists, while many of and Mayašu. They open with the her ‗ledgers‘ are similar to our tabular classic Old Babylonian greetings accounts (though on a much wider range formula, e.g., [a]-na a-ta-na-ah-ì-[lí] of subjects). In particular the scribal / qí-bí-ma / um-ma DUMU- habit of marking empty cells in a table 20.KAM / a-hu-ka-ma, ‗Speak to with the pointed end of a stylus is shared Atanah-ili, thus Mar-ešra, your by both groups of tablets.28 Further, the brother‘, and give either information four legible year names in our corpus 24 or orders. The letters are undated. read (in Sumerian), mu a-a-dara₃ - galam-ma lugal-e ‗Year: Aya-dara- Payment orders: sixteen tiny, galama became king‘, as also found on landscape orientation tablets contain 29 five of the Schøyen tablets (Fig. 8). highly formulaic orders to pay members of the local workforce in According to later cuneiform tradition either grain or silver or both. They Aya-dara-galama was the eighth king of rarely give the name of the the Sealand Dynasty, which conquered authorising official and are dated to southern Babylonia from Samsu-iluna.30 the month and day but not the year.25 1096:27, 3006:1, 3006:9, 3064:20, 3064:62– In addition there are several fragments 4, 3064:71, 3064:98, 3064:107–8, 3064:116,= =3080:25. of administrative documents, inscribed 27 However, the tablets are not from Tell either with capacity measures or with Khaiber, which shows no signs of looting. personal names, which are not complete 28 E.g. Dalley 2009: pls. CLXXVII no. 64, enough to identify as either numerical CLXXIX no. 375, CLXXXI nos. 371–5, 389, lists or tabular accounts but must be one 394; 3064:67, 3064:72. But note too the same 26 feature on two unprovenanced numerical lists or the other. from the as yet unlocalised Dur-Abi-ešuh (thought to be on the edge of the Tigridian marshes), both dated to Samsu-ditana 2 (Lerberghe and Voet 2009: nos. 59, 62). 3064:51, 3064:89. 29 Dalley 2009: 11 year name D; 3006:17; 24 Letters: 1096:52, 1114:1, 1114:6, 1114:45, 3064:67, 3064:129, 3064:135. 3064:93. 30 See Charpin 2004: 342–6, 360–1 for a 25 Payment orders: 1114:7, 10, 11, 13, 16, 18, detailed presentation of the evidence for 21, 22, 25, 27, 29–34, 38, 39, 41, 43, 44, 49, Samsu-iluna‘s loss of control over the south, 51, 52. first in his 8th–11th regnal years and with 26 Administrative fragments include: 1096:24, further losses around his 30th.
SUMER LXV 22 Van Koppen‘s useful summary of the either prior to the laying of a new floor34 evidence implies that Aya-dara-galama or before the stored administrative was probably a contemporary of Samsu- tablets collapsed on top. ditana, the last king of Babylon, or Agum-kakrime, its first Kassite ruler, or One tablet carries a very basic exercise perhaps his successor Burna-buriaš I.31 in writing the elements of cuneiform Depending on one‘s allegiance to script (Fig. 7). The eight further Middle, Low-Middle, Low or Ultra-Low exercises that have been identified to chronology, that dates the Tell Khaiber date are all extracts from the thematic archive to somewhere between c.1620 word list Ur₅ -ra, a mainstay of and c.1480 BC. elementary scribal education, which underwent substantial expansion over its Finally, the archive room Area 300 has long history.35 The loosely standardised so far yielded some twenty fragments of version used in eighteenth-century tablets bearing elementary scribal Nippur comprised around 3600 entries in exercises. 32 Their discovery was a monolingual Sumerian, formally divided complete surprise, given that almost all into six chapters, but it had at least the known assemblages of Old and doubled in length and acquired optional Middle Babylonian school tablets that Akkadian translations by Kassite have an archaeological context are from times.36 The Tell Khaiber fragments, not urban domestic settings. 33 Unlike the surprisingly, represent an intermediate administrative tablets, many of which phase in the development of Ura: they survive more or less intact, all but one of are all monolingual, they expand on the these had clearly been deliberately Old Babylonian version(s), and, like ripped up ready for recycling, perhaps Kassite exercises, they often omit the immediately after production. The fact first sign of a word if it is identical to the that the great majority were found in the preceding entry.37 Most of the fragments eastern corner of the archive room, are from the chapters of Ura about slightly below the level of most of the metals and about stones; one is a list of administrative tablets, suggest that they wild animals and another may be from had been emptied out of the tablet the chapter on leather objects. Together recycling bin and dumped in a corner, they are drawn from chapters 2–4 of the OB Nippur version, chapters 7, 9 and 10 of the Middle Babylonian recension.
31 van Koppen 2010: 546–7, 462. 32 From the northern corner of Area 300: 3064:14, 3064:97; from along the north- 34 A similar deposit of fragmentary school eastern wall: 3064:88; from the eastern tablets is known from Level III of the āšipus’ corner: 3064:79, 3064:82, 3064:84, 3080:7, house (Ue XVIII/1) in late fourth-century 3080:9–21; from the south-west area: Uruk: see Robson 2008: 227–8 & n35, 237–8. 3064:106 35 Writing exercise: TK 1 3064:14; Ura: 33 For convenient overviews and references to 3064:82, 3064:84, 3064:88, 3080:9, further literature, see Robson 2008: 94 (Old 3080:13–15, 3080:19. Babylonian); Veldhuis 2014: 242, 281, 297 36 Veldhuis 2014: 149–57, 228–9. (Middle Babylonian). 37 Cf. Veldhuis 2014: 250–2.
SUMER LXV 23 Economy and society as seen through self-evident. As a first approximation, it the archive seems reasonable to assume that the lists record outgoings, which did not need to Even from these generic descriptions, be reconciled, while the accounts show it is clear that the archive represents the actual income tallied against expected output of an administration with a receipts. But no credits or debits are ever relatively light touch. When compared to totalled, or compared against one agricultural documentation from other another. Likewise, there appears to be no second-millennium sites, such as late formal apparatus of accountability on the Old Babylonian Sippar, Kassite Nippur, documents, such as sealings, or the Middle Assyrian Dur-katlimmu and Tell names and titles of responsible officials Sabi Abyad, its laconic nature is even or institutional authorities. more striking.38 The Tell Khaiber scribes, so far as we know, did not keep records The letters are between social equals— of labour contracts (if any were ever ‗brothers‘—which also gives the written), 39 record field sizes, monitor impression of an informal, transparent agricultural activity throughout the community. Nevertheless it is possible to year, 40 or account for seed grain, draft detect some formal chain of command, animals or field equipment such as beyond the very fact that the tablets ploughs or sickles. Of course, it is needed to be written at all. One tablet always possible that such documents records the names of three ÉRIN.MEŠ were stored elsewhere, written on ša sa-ar-ta i-pu-šu, ‗workers who have perishable media, and/or shipped behaved dishonestly‘, presumably in elsewhere with the grain.41 However, the readiness for future punishment. 42 tablets that do survive suggest that this Amongst the recipients of grain and was a small scale, relatively flour are three named scribes, DUB.SAR, unhierarchical operation in which much including Atanah-ili, the recipient of the was left undocumented. For instance, it letter quoted briefly above. The fact that was not always necessary to document his correspondent Mar-ešra can give a whether grain was being paid out or scribe orders, and seemingly write a coming in, as this was also apparently short letter in his own hand, suggests that he is, at least to some extent, in charge.43 At least two different men by 38 Rositani 2011 (late Old Babylonian Sippar); that name are attested in the archive, Sassmannshausen 2001: 103–9 (Kassite often on the same tablets: a date-palm Nippur); Wiggermann 2000 (Middle Assyrian gardener (NU.GIŠ.KIRI₆ , three Tell Sabi Abyad); Postgate 2014: 313–25 attestations), the son of Iluni (four (Midde Assyrian Dur-katlimmu). attestations), and/or an Mar-ešra who is 39 See, for example, the harvest contracts from (mostly late) Old Babylonian Sippar published by Rositani 2011: nos. 1–78, which are closely contemporary with the Tell Khaiber tablets. 42 1096:25. 40 An accessible overview of these tasks is given 43 See http://oracc.org/urap/qpn-x-people for a by Mauer 1983. current glossary of personal names from the 41 Cf. the notes in alphabetic scripts on some of archive. A full discussion of them will be given the tablets published by Dalley 2009: XXX. in a later publication.
SUMER LXV 24 not further described (four attestations). ERÍN.TAH É.GAL, ‗royal auxiliary troops‘, always receiving but never And then there are the dozen or so delivering grain. 47 Perhaps they were ENSÍs, iššiakku(m)-farmers, who are guarding the building. In addition, a few clearly a profession apart. They always lists and accounts record grain deliveries -ti appear as a group of ten (10 , ešertu and receipts from, or to, four or five ‗decury‘), either as the subject of their GÉME É.GAL ‗palace slave-women‘, own documents or listed quite separately often accompanied by their tailor. 48 from the other men, either on the reverse Despite the term ‗slave-woman‘ these of a tablet or at least separated from individuals appear to have a similar high 44 them by empty lines. Given the laconic status to the ten male farmers. One nature of the documentation, it is not yet memorandum also refers to grain possible to tell whether they are measured ‗by the royal measure‘.49 landowners paying tax, tenants paying rent, or state dependents working for The palace, then, was the ultimate rations. All three statuses have been authority. Whether it meant a particular proposed for second-millennium building or a person representing the farmers. 45 If they had any superior to royal court we do not know, but in some whom they reported, that person is never ways it does not matter. It almost named. Certainly, on the evidence certainly does not mean the deciphered to date, they were much less administrative building at Tell Khaiber, closely managed than their counterparts as there is nothing about its structure or elsewhere. contents to suggest that anyone even remotely wealthy or high status ever Nevertheless, it is now clear the lived there. It does mean, however, that farmers were not the top of the we need to understand the Tell Khaiber hierarchy. The headings on ten different archive not as a closed system but as a tablets—from tiny memos to large rural node in a much larger network of accounts, all frustratingly fragmentary— palatial information flow. each state that they record deliveries ‗to the palace‘. 46 The archive makes Around 150 further individuals are frequent mention of ešertus of named in the archive, many more than once. Some are identified by patronym, some by occupation, and others seem to 44 Tablets mentioning the farmers, by name or as require no further explanation. In some a cohort: 3064:33, 3064:48–9, 3064:53, 3064:57, 3064:67, 3064:72, 3064:83, 3064:94, lists men are grouped by profession, -ti 3064:101, 3064:107, 3080:2. and/or assigned to a 10 , ešertu ‗decury‘ 45 Cf. Rositani 2011: 28 (late Old Babylonian Sippar); Sassmannshausen 2001: 103–5 (Kassite Nippur); Wiggermann 2000: 188–90 (Middle Assyrian Tell Sabi Abyad); Postgate 2014: 313–8 (Middle Assyrian Dur-katlimmu). 47 1096:48; 1114:17, 1114:40; 1124:3; 3064:33, The Assyrian term for ‗farmer‘ is ekkāru, 3064:49, 3064:53, 3064:76, 3064:123, lúENGAR. 3064:135; 3111:01. 46 1096:26; 1114.4, 1114.48; 1124.1, 1124:4; 48 1114:48; 1124:1, 1124:4, 1124:5; 3064:128. 3064:63, 3064:76, 3064:89, 3064:107; 3080:2. 49 3080:3.
SUMER LXV 25 or group of ten.50 In the former case, the nappāhu(m), written SIMUG, occupation of the first man is given and ‗smith‘ those following are described as nāru(m), written NAR, ‘musician‘ TAB.A.NI, tappašu ‗his partner‘. In the neʾrār ēkalli(m), written ÉRIN.TAH latter case, the ten men PN1–PN10 may É.GAL, ‗royal auxiliary troops‘ be identified by patronym or profession, nuhatimmu(m), written followed by a summary line stating, MUHALDIM, ‗cook‘ ‗decury of PN1‘. The term rab ešerti, nukaribbu(m), written ‗decury leader‘, is not used. Professions NU.GIŠ.KIRI₆ , ‗date-palm 51 identified so far include: gardener‘ purkullu(m), written BUR.GUL, aškāpu(m), written AŠGAB, ‗seal-cutter‘ ‘leather-worker’ rēʾû(m), written SIPA, ‗shepherd‘ ašlāku(m), written lúÁZLAG, sasinnu(m), written ZADIM, ‗bow- ‗washerman‘ maker‘ atkuppu(m), written AD.KID, ‗reed- sīrāšû(m), written lúLUNGA, worker‘ ‗brewer‘ bāʾeru(m), written ŠU.KU₆ , ṣābū, written ERÉN.MEŠ, ‗fisherman‘ ‗labourers‘ hazannu(m), written syllabically, ṣāhitu(m), written Ì.ŠUR, ‗oil- ‗mayor‘ presser‘ huppû(m), written HÚB, a cultic šangû, written SANGA, ‗priest‘ dancer and/or weaver ṭupšarru(m), written DUB.SAR, iššiakku(m), written ENSÍ, ‗farmer‘ ‗scribe‘ kabšarru(m), written KAB.ŠAR, usandû, written MUŠEN.DÙ, ‗bird- ‗stone-carver‘ catcher‘ malāhu(m), written MÁ.LAH₄ , In general these titles give the ‗boatman‘ impression of a dispersed, mostly rural mukabbû(m), written community who are pressed into lúTÚG.KAL.KAL.LA, ‗tailor‘ agricultural service at harvest time, nagāru(m), written NAGAR, whether through a formal obligation ‗carpenter‘ such as ilku(m)-duty, moral pressure to nāgiru(m), written na-gi-rum, serve the community, or the incentive of ‗herald‘ payment. We have not yet found any documentation of specialist agricultural occupations such as ploughmen or oxen- drivers. 50 Professional groupings and decuries: 3064:33, 3064:49, 3064:53; professional groupings only Some of the harvest must have been (?):3064:48, 3064:57, 3064:107 (fragment), 3080:2 (note); decuries only (?): 3006:2 stored locally, because there are two (fragment). surviving accounts of ŠE LIBIR, ‗old 51 See the Akkadian glossary at http://oracc.org/urap/akk-x-oldbab/ for further details.
SUMER LXV 26 barley‘ from a previous year. 52 The assemblage of objects and Ultimately, however, much of it was artefacts found in the Tell Khaiber destined ‗for the palace‘ a-na É.GAL, as Public Building and the nearby Private documented on at least half a dozen Houses conforms to that usually labelled tablets.53 ‗Old Babylonian‘. 55 Dating it specifically to the time of the Sealand Other cuneiform items kings would not be possible without the chronology supplied by the tablets. The Three fragments of baked brick bear most useful question we can ask of the the stamped standard short inscription of material assemblage is ‗How does it the Ur III king Amar-Suen, known from reflect or augment what we know about many dozens of exemplars. Pieces of life in and around the Public Building baked brick occur occasionally in from the textual information?‘ excavation and in surface clearance, but not in the quantities one might expect, Clay plaques are the most easily given their relative indestructability, if a ecognized ‗Old Babylonian‘ artefact building of royal patronage were type from the excavations. Four represented, and we assume for now that complete ones were found, six more they may originate elsewhere. incomplete, and three further fragments, two probably from the same badly worn A headless fragmentary clay figurine plaque. All depict a single human figure of a seated animal has inscribed on its 54 (Fig. 9). One is a male worshipper in a flank: fringed cloak (Fig. 9a), one a naked A.ZU GAL dGU. ┌LA┐ [...] female offering her breasts (Fig. 9d), and mu-bal-li-┌iṭ┐ [...] no less than five, actually cast from the KUR GAL [...] same mould, depict a clothed female in a flounced dress and head-dress, with Great healer (of) the goddess Gula [...] clasped hands (Fig. 9b-c). There was reviver [...] also a broken off female head. 56 They great land/mountain [...] have no special associated context, as they were found in various places in and The symbol of Gula is a dog, and the around the Public Building, and their figurine might be of one, although the paws, which survive, are more lion-like.
It was found in surface clearance over 55 The British system of single-context the Public Building, and may belong to numbering is used at Tell Khaiber. All an eroded level of it. numbers assigned to artefacts comprise a four- digit number denoting the context it was found Artefacts in, followed by a number that designates that individual artefact. Certain finds (selected by the SBAH) are assigned an additional 52 Accounts of old barley: 1096:26, 3064:51. identification, beginning TK1 and followed by 53 Tablets mentioning deliveries ‗to the palace‘: a number. These can include more than one 1096:26, 3064:63, 3064:76, 3064:89, 3064:107, object. 3080:2. 56 3064:06, from debris in Area 300, the room 54 1005:18 with most of the tablets.
SUMER LXV 27 find-spots were of course where they However, there is a similar one were discarded, not necessarily where published from Larsa, albeit not closely they were used. provenanced.60
All the plaques are made in a mould, For the use of seals and sealings we from lightly baked clay. They are crude, have rather sparse evidence. No sealings sometimes from a worn mould, and the with seal impressions were found at all, clay is not fine or well-prepared. This is although there was a small number of typical of the similar plaques that are what appeared to be unimpressed tags or attested from at least the Ur III to the sealings, of clay and bitumen. Negative Neo-Babylonian period, all over evidence should not, of course be relied Mesopotamia. 57 There is an extensive upon, and clay sealings can be very hard repertoire of themes, including animals, to spot. However, the majority of double figures, gods and goddesses, deposits were dry-sieved at Tell Khaiber, musicians, demon masks and erotic so we are fairly confident that the scenes, but none of these were found at absence is a real one. We conclude that Tell Khaiber, which only produce single this was not a hub of commerce, nor a human figures. Much is written about place to which goods were sent sealed these strangely compelling little for security or identity. Four cylinder artefacts: they feature in studies on seals were found. One, of stone, is of an religion, gender and sociology. It is early third millennium geometric style. reasonable to assume that the very Another stone one shows a worn portable nature of plaques means they presentation scene, and the other two were most probably for some kind of were clay, one too worn to say much personal use, and the cheap and careless about. The best preserved one was of a manufacture suggests they were not style compatible with the date of the expensive to obtain. Public Building (Fig. 10). It was found in occupation debris in Area 302. It is The male worshipper and the clothed crudely made, of lightly baked clay, with 58 female have close parallels at Ur, and, a simple presentation scene, across while there are many plaques with a which a flock of goats and a long-tailed single naked female facing front with her bird are walking. Most cylinder seals in hands in front of her, she is generally museums, collection or publication are slim, with a defined waist, hair in coils beautifully carved stone examples, often on her shoulders, and her hands unprovenanced. But as Al-Gailani Werr 59 clasped. Our generously-built lady, has pointed out, clay seals are in fact with flowing, plaited hairstyle and hands very widely attested, especially in the cupping her breasts, is not so common. Old Babylonian period, and have the same subjects and styles as their more
expensive stone cousins. Poorly-drawn 57 Moorey 2014 presentation scenes like ours, with 58 Woolley and Mallowan 1976: pl.71, 68 and pl. 70, 56-60, respectively. 59 E.g. Hill, Jacobsen & Delougaz 1990: pl.61 b- 60 Huot 2003: fig. 18 & fig. 30:18, provenance d, from Khafajah. given as ‗Région de Larsa‘.
SUMER LXV 28 animals in casual attendance, can be Although there were fragments of seen on clay seals from Ur, Girsu, copper throughout the excavations, Khafajah, Susa and Ishchali.61 many of the more complete examples came from the area of the Private Almost all the metal artefacts and Houses. Among these were a spearhead fragments found at Tell Khaiber to date (Fig. 11), a mirror, 63 an awl or are, as one would expect, of copper projectile, a chisel-like implement, and a alloy, and verified by a systematic bar with a loop on one end. However, programme of metal analysis using another spearhead was found in Area 62 pXRF. There are generally low levels 301 in the Public Building, 64 and a of tin in almost all the copper artefacts, complete spatula in Area 302. 65 There but at concentrations that were unlikely was also a copper bowl and an adze, to give any benefit as deliberate alloys. both broken, found together and perhaps This suggests re-use and re-smelting of intended for re-cycling, in the northern metalwork, with increasing dilution and corner of the Public Building. (Fig. 12 mixing between true bronzes and pure and 13). They belonged to a level now copper. This may be consistent with Tell eroded away. The spearheads are Khaiber being in a position quite far obviously weapons, while the mirror, down the supply chain, and reliant on re- equally obviously, is not, but otherwise use and recycling. Copper items also it is hard to determine whether some of sometimes occur with patches of iron the implements were intended for craft adhering to them. Whether this activities or violent ones. The fragments represents incomplete alloying (with the included pieces of wire, pieces of pins, iron perhaps not melting fully) or the rods and bars, sometimes with pointed remains of composite objects, is ends, and scraps of copper sheet. All uncertain, but it does suggest some these indicate a working environment, of experimentation with metals. tools and fittings, perhaps elements of harness and fishing equipment. None of them were certainly used for decoration alone. 61 Al-Gailani Werr 1988: figs. 34, 48, 62, 79, 84; also pls. 1:48, II:62, III:84. A double pot grave in the north corner 62 The instruments used were a Niton XL2 of House 1 contained a woman wearing GOLDD (lent by Niton Uk in 2014) and a Niton XL3t GOLDD+ in 2015. A set of a modest amount of jewellery, including standards, included selected standards from the two thick pins found in the pectoral area CHARM set of standard metals (Heginbotham (Fig. 14). 66 From pXRF analysis we et al: 2015), was used to confirm that the metal know that these were made from an mode of analysis of the instruments correlated alloy of silver and copper. The+woman highly with the reference values. This suggests that readings can,with care, be used quantitatively. However, measurements were taken on the surface of cleaned metal artefacts 63 4006:01, 4034:3, 4022:1 and 4003:8. where there was still corrosion present. We 64 3039:4, close to the mound surface, but should therefore expect values for different probably associated with a high plaster floor. elements to be impacted by enrichment and 65 3025:23. leaching. 66 4041:10 and 4041:11.
SUMER LXV 29 in the grave also wore a necklace of 48 igneous or other types of stone, which beads of various stones: agate, carnelian, must represent imports. turquoise and lapis lazuli.67 The necklace had clearly been well-used, as there were Stone vessels were not very numerous: many chips and much wear to the stones. 25 examples, all represented by The lapis is of poor quality and the fragments except two, and one of those turquoise and carnelian beads of was a typical third millennium shape, so indifferent workmanship, though the probably residual from disturbed earlier 69 agate beads are finer. Either semi- levels. The other near-complete one precious stones were not readily was found very near the mound-surface, 70 available, or the woman was not very but probably derives from Area 616. It wealthy. While we have to guess a little is made from a soft, green close-grained at her social status, we can say she was stone fairly typical for Tell Khaiber, also important enough for an intramural used for flaked and re-touched tools, for burial in a good-sized house, in a which it cannot have been well suited. neighbourhood wealthy enough that the Other stone bowl fragments showed use of substantial copper implements evidence of repair too, a practice was not a rarity. So we conclude that consistent with a scarcity of good stone. there was not a lively trade with regions The most numerous stone tools of all producing semi-precious stones. were querns, which we can assume were Although there was little evidence for for grinding some of the grain for which stone jewellery, there were many the tablets provide so much evidence. implements made from stone: querns, Mostly they are found broken, often grinders, pounders, rubbers, tools of worn very thin in the middle, which multi- or unknown purpose, door- presumably caused them to break. Many sockets and vessels (Fig. 15 and 16).68 In have been used on both sides. A large fact, items fashioned from stone are the quern was found in Area 124, but as it most numerous artefacts we found, apart was broken into two halves it was from pottery, which is a little unexpected probably discarded rather than used in 71 in a landscape that is so poor in stone. that location. Many of the coarser items are of a The familiar notched flint blades that limestone similar to that occurring not are elements of composite sickles were far away, in the vicinities of Eridu and not uncommon: 47 examples altogether. Samawa, and the colourful conglomerate Being so durable, some may be residual beachrock used for some of the querns from the third millennium occupation, was probably relatively local as well, however none at all were recovered from from the former shore of the Gulf. Other artefacts, however, appear to be of
69 1166:33, a squat, neckless, wide-mouthed 67 TK1 133 (multiple individual find numbers). small jar, with a horizontal bevelled rim. 68 Over 350 items, in addition to unidentifiable 70 6064:01. fragments. 71 1022:05 & 1094:01.
SUMER LXV 30 our brief exploration of such levels Evidence for glass and glass outside the Public Building. compounds comes in the form of a composite ‗eye-stone‘ of a brown, glass- What were all the stone tools for? like substance, with the white part made Several professions or occupations are of paste or faience, and of fragments of a mentioned in the texts, and while this possible second one, white with a deep does not mean they were being followed ultramarine centre: both were found in at the settlement itself, we do have debris in Area 101. There is no evidence physical corroboration for the work of of an inscription on either. Eye-stones the farmers (flint sickles, querns and were ‗decorative items and served grinders), the smith (metal implements), neither as apotropaic objects nor as eye- the cook (cooking pots and fire inlays‘. 72 installations), and also the reed-cutter, if, as can be reasonably assumed, he used There were a few crude, simple objects flint sickles and a boat. Perhaps the made for baked or unbaked clay, the leather-workers and oil-pressers were latter possibly the work of children. among those who made use of stones They included figurines, animal and with ends now pitted from pounding and human, models of boats and wheels, and their flat surfaces worn smooth from two clay rattles, one complete with tiny rubbing, as well as some of the other, pellets inside, as shown up by X-ray smaller stone pieces that are enigmatic in (Fig. 17-19) shape but have clear traces of wear. Pottery Bird, sheep and fish bones reinforce the presence of bird-catchers, shepherds A full study of the second millennium and fishermen. Impressions of palm-leaf pottery from Tell Khaiber has already 73 matting in dried clay and in the many been completed, so it will suffice here fragments of bitumen encountered are to summarize the main characteristics of already evidence of palm-gardening, the assemblage and the broad even before we have specialist results conclusions. from the botanical samples. For Altogether about 150,000 pottery traditional female pursuits we are limited sherds were collected and examined, of to fifteen (probable) spindle whorls and which 9,319 were diagnostic (rims, seven bone needles, which might just as bases, or with otherwise distinguishing well have been for leather working. features). In addition we recorded 483 Potsherds were sometimes used as tools complete or nearly complete vessels, and too, the most common type being 234 further ones that were partially roughly shaped pierced discs, often interpreted as net-sinkers, of which about fifty were found in Area 601 alone, perhaps representing all that was 72 See Clayden 2009: 36. For an provenance left of a net: a further trace of the eyestone from an Old Babylonian context see fishermen. Kepinski-Lecomte 1992: m472 on p. 383, and fig. 167. 73 Calderbank 2018.
SUMER LXV 31 complete.74 The assemblage comprises a probably imports. As is usual for this limited range of vessel types which can period, there was a high degree of be grouped into 19 ‗families‘ of intended stylistic standardisation among distinctive shapes, made up of 78 the commonest shapes. Statistical types. 75 As well as the usual analysis of vessel attributes alongside preponderance of cups and bowls, these scientific analyses of vessel X-rays families also include traditionally less demonstrate, however, that this well-recorded vessel types, such as standardisation is not an indicator of pithoi with narrow base holes, often mass production, as is often assumed.76 interpreted as beer brewing vats, as well Rather, it was the result of low intensity as cylindrical beakers with structured production by individuals of variable volumetric separations on the exterior skill levels (Fig. 20 for a selection of the surface, which have been interpreted as commonest forms). measuring equipment. While the composition of the pottery All of the pottery contained a certain was fairly uniform, its manufacturing amount of grit and sand, probably processes involved several techniques. A naturally occurring. Vegetable matter, in particularly interesting discovery was the form of straw or chaff, had been that only a low proportion of vessels, added to at least 62% of the fabrics. usually small ones such as bowls, were Very few vessels contained deliberately actually completely wheel-thrown. added minerals, these being generally Amongst other vessel types, sections or coil-made cooking pots. Almost all of components, such as bases and rims, the pottery can be grouped into 8 fabric were sometimes wheel-thrown types, based essentially on the amount separately before being joined, scraped, and fineness of vegetable matter added. and finished to varying degrees on a The very few exceptional wares are discontinuously turning wheel. The coiling method was employed extensively, either to make whole 74 Every piece of pottery recorded was given a vessels such as pithoi, or to make unique ‗pottery number‘, formed of the components of vessels. Essentially, the context number, preceded by ‗p‘ and majority of the pots found at Tell followed by a number individual to that Khaiber were made by a composite piece, e.g. p3088-138. Those that are also included in the object catalogue (more process, which usually involved the complete pieces, not for discard) have one or wheel-coiling method at some point. No more additional designations (see footnote pottery-making areas of second- 52). For clarity, only the pottery numbers are millennium date were identified on the given in this report. Tell Khaiber mound: those that are 75 The families are: bowls with plain rims; bowls with shaped rims, large, hole-mouthed jars; extant are surrounded by wasters either vessel stands; trays and basins; pithoi; pithoi of bricks or of third millennium vessels. with pierced bases; goblets; bottles; cups; Neither are potters mentioned in the jugs; small hole-mouthed vessels; cylindrical bases; bowl bases; ambiguous rims; ambiguous bases; special types including lids and stoppers; and re-used vessels. 76 E.g. Armstrong and Gasche 2014: 95.
SUMER LXV 32 texts recovered from the archive. There characteristics, but there is one glaring are, however, orders for large quantities absence of an expected type: the goblet. of specific vessels, probably drinking This ―is the most frequently and widely cups, to be delivered to the Public attested shape in the whole of the Building. second-millennium Babylonian ceramic corpus, having been produced by the Changes observed in the pottery were tens of thousands‖, and was ―essential to subtle rather than obvious over the every second-millennium Babylonian lifetime of the Public Building, and they household‖. 78 Goblets consequently occurred mainly among with the smaller dominate the archaeological vessels. For example, the carinated bowl assemblages of both the Old Babylonian (Type 5.1) that is the main open form and Kassite periods. Yet they are throughout the sequence, shows more completely absent in primary Sealand examples with a more rounded body period occupation at Khaiber (Fig. 21). (Type 5.2) after the first occupation A possible reason might be the phase. At the same time bowl Types association of this type with some form 10.1 and 10.2 drop in frequency. The of activity that does not take place wavy-sided bowl (Type 5.4), a shape during times of non-centralized political that would become typical of the Kassite control. Or perhaps whatever they were 77 period, begins to occur in some of the used for simply did not take place at Tell later phases at Khaiber, particularly in Khaiber, or indeed on Failaka or the mixed deposits on the surface of the Bahrain, where contemporary mound. Cups show similar small assemblages show a similar gap. differences: in particular they display a greater frequency of stable as opposed to Spatial distribution of pottery types in unstable bases as time goes on. As with the Public Building has been carried out. the wavy-sided bowls, very few typical The conclusions must be treated with Kassite cup forms are encountered, and caution, because they are based only on these mostly derive from deposits near the sample of deposits that were the surface belonging to deflated phases excavated. Tentatively, however, there is of occupation no longer extant. a difference in use between the northern and southern parts of the building, There is an almost complete lack of already apparent from the plan. Beer published well-stratified comparable brewing, for instance, is shown to have material from southern Babylonia itself, been restricted to the north of the but there are contemporary levels at building, whilst bulk and special storage Susa, Tell Yelkhi in the Jebel Hamrin, was more typically carried out in the and Failaka and Bahrain to the south. southern areas. In the northern section, While it is clearly related to pottery of processing and cooking appears to have the immediately preceding Old been an informal business, conducted by Babylonian period, the Khaiber individuals, while in the southern part assemblage certainly has its own
77 Armstrong 1993: pls.73-74. 78 Gasche et al. 1998: 26
SUMER LXV 33 we uncovered a large kitchen (Area between the collapse of Old Babylonian 316). The levels excavated here are rule, and political regeneration under the comparatively late in the sequence of the Kassite kings. The presence of a building, but if the use of the area had substantial Public Building shows us that not changed, one can imagine meals there was order and authority. The being cooked for important consumers, archive found in it demonstrates a well- perhaps under the oversight of a organised system for collecting and nuhatimmu (one is mentioned in the redistributing cereal products. Some of archive), and perhaps using more these products were destined for a specialised equipment, such as a possible ‗palace‘, and while we do not know bread mould found there, having being exactly where it was, or who lived there, re-used in its broken state as a door it is highly likely that it was related to socket.79 the Sealand Dynasty. It could have been at Ur or Larsa, both of which are nearby, Some differences in the pottery have or at one of the many sites in the area been noted between the Public Building still to be investigated.81 and the area of the Private Houses. In the latter there are far fewer bowls, more Wright noted very extensive settlement jugs and cups, and almost no cooking for the Ur-Eridu survey during the first wares. This might suggest that whatever half of the 2nd millennium BC, when Ur cooking and eating took place here was covered at least 60 ha, and a widespread not on a large scale. Instead, it is perhaps rural population is evidenced by 57 tempting to envisage small family small to medium sized sites. 82 Then groups sitting around a meal placed on a there was extensive abandonment until central woven mat, in the traditional the Kassite period, when there was a Iraqi manner. The greater frequency of resumption of royal monumental jugs and cups, on the other hand, points building at Ur. There was also to short-term storage and frequent small- regeneration in the countryside, although scale consumption of liquids. The this may not have been extensive presence of a small bottle in House 1 between the two main channels of the also suggests the storing of some kind of Euphrates. 83 The survey evidence is more valuable liquid.80 compatible with the known political events, i.e. the rebellion of the southern Conclusion cities under Samsu-iluna, his suppression of it, and the widely- The excavations at Tell Khaiber accepted view that the far south of provide new information about provincial administration during a period that has been essentially a ‗Dark Age‘ in 81 Another possible candidate for a regional Mesopotamian history: the period centre was recorded by Wright, a short-lived 45ha site (EP-34) c.16km to the west of Tell Khaiber, lying on the Eridu channel of the Euphrates and dated= =to late in the Old 79 8008:05. It is similar to the many examples Babylonian period (Wright 1981: 330). found at Mari: Margueron 2004: 515-516. 82 Wright 1981: 330. 80 4021:01 83 Wright 1981: 331–2.
SUMER LXV 34 Babylonia was de-urbanised, if not environment, with no clear indication of depopulated, for a period following displayed wealth or organised religious that.84 But surveys, even ones as well- practice. The artefacts confirm that conducted as Wright‘s, have their whatever the Public Building was for, it limitations. This is especially the case was not a temple. And while it may have with second-millennium pottery styles, included one or more residential suites, which have subtleties that are hard to it was not a palace. The pottery identify in a survey context, making assemblage, with its lack of elaborate precise chrono-historical correlations vessel types, shows us every-day, hazardous. A scenario of state collapse routine patterns of behaviour rather than and its consequences does not seem to occasions of ceremony or lavish match what we have found. The Public hospitality. The presence of weapons, Building at Tell Khaiber is not a rebuild both in the Public Building and in the of an abandoned or ruined predecessor, Private Houses nearby, reflects the but a new foundation, using a very defensive appearance created by the ancient tell to build it on. The reference towers. Women and children were to Aya-dara-galama in the texts means present at some point, as confirmed by that its prime use was when the infant and female burials that post-date secession of the area from Babylonian the remaining occupation levels. control was already several generations However, this was not a dwelling for ago. The references in our archive to a priestesses or royalty, but a place of palace, requiring grain to be sent, tell us business. We have some of the details of that there was centralized political that business, but are still searching for control of rural production. At the same its place in the overall political economy time, the defensive nature of the of southern Babylonia at this interesting building, and the royal auxiliary troops time of change and re-alignment. stationed there, suggest that this provision could not be taken entirely for granted.
It was suggested by Richardson that there were many ‗military communities located out in the countryside‘ in the Late Babylonian period, which may then have become more autonomous and self- sufficient.85 This fits with the evidence from Tell Khaiber so far. The picture of life in and around the settlement, as suggested by the texts, is largely corroborated by the material culture we have examined: this was a working
84 Stone 1977. 85 Richardson 2005: 282.
SUMER LXV 35
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SUMER LXV 38
Figure 1. Location of Tell Khaiber and Tell Khaiber 2
Figure 2. Contour map of Tell Khaiber. Arbitrary datum +10 m, 20 cm intervals
SUMER LXV 39
Figure 3. Plan of the Public Building at Tell Khaiber
Figure 4. Aerial view of the Public Building and surrounding area
SUMER LXV 40
Figure 5. Elevation of the arched vaults in the Public Building
Figure 6. Plan of the Private Houses at Tell Khaiber
Figure 7. Tablet bearing an elementary Figure 8. Tablet with numerical list (obverse). The reverse has writing exercise. 3064:14. Ht. 4.5 cm. a regnal date of Aya-daragalama. 3064:67. Width 9.8 cm. Lower fill Lower fill of Area 300. of Area 300.
SUMER LXV 41 Figure 9. Moulded plaques of lightly baked clay: a. Male worshipper. 1010:04. Ht. 9.7 cm. Under mound surface in Area 122. b. Naked female. 3009:07. Ht. 12.2 cm. Under mound surface, outside Area 310. c. Clothed female. 3002:1. Ext. Ht. 7.9 cm. Occupation/debris in Area 310. d. Clothed female. 1079:81. Ht. 9.0 cm. Occupation in Area 101.
Figure 10. Clay cylinder seal. 3025:22. Length 2.2 cm. Occupation/debris in Area 302
SUMER LXV 42
Figure 11. Copper spearhead. 4003:10. Length 13.3 cm. Surface clearance in Private Houses
Figure 12. Copper bowl. 6185:02. Diameter 11.4 cm. Figure 13. Copper adze. 6185:01. Length 16.9 cm. Surface clearance in north corner of Public Building Surface clearance in north corner of Public Building
Figure 14. Copper/silver pin. 4041:10. Length 7.4 cm. Grave 5, pectoral area. Area 403
SUMER LXV 43
Figure 15. Stone tools. a. Rubbing tool, of close-grained green stone. Length 5.2 cm. 6059:09. Surface in Area 600. b. Rubbing/pounding tool, of close-grained brown stone. Ht. 6.6 cm. 1077:06. Mud-brick collapse in Area 101.
Figure 16. Quern. 1139:24. Length 31 cm. Occupation debris in Area 314. Stone rubbing tool 3124:02. Length 13.9 cm. Fill of vault in Area 300.
Figure 17. Clay model of human figure. 3085:23. Figure 18. Moulded clay model of a bed. 3088:01. Ht. 7.9 cm. Occupation debris in Area 304. Length 11.3 cm. On floor of Area 304.
SUMER LXV 44
Figure 19. Baked clay rattle. 3087:02. Length 9.1 cm. Occupation debris in Area 304.
Figure 20. Pottery vessels. A selection of typical forms from Tell Khaiber.
SUMER LXV 45
Fig. 21. The most common second millennium bowl, cup, and goblet shapes through time.
SUMER LXV 46