In 1973 the journal Iraq published the results of our first three seasons of excavations at the Hassuna settlements of Yarim Tepe I and the Halaf levels of Yarim Tepe II, situated in the Sinjar Plain of Northern Iraq. Following that publication the Soviet archaeological expedition, under the direction of R. M. Munchaev, continued its extensive studies in the area up to and including 1980. Prior to 1976 its major efforts had been centred on the separate tells of Yarim Tepe I and II, which were excavated over large areas down to virgin soil. This article presents the general results of our studies in the earliest levels of these sites and is a direct continuation of our 1973 article.

In parallel with the excavations at Yarim Tepe I and II the Soviet expedition undertook a survey of a considerable part of the Sinjar Plain in the vicinity of Telafar, in the course of which were discovered a number of settlements belonging to various early stages in the development of the agrarian cultures of ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest period (8th–7th millennia bc) is represented by a preceramic fortified settlement, Tell Maghzaliyah, which is situated on the southern slopes of Jebel Sinjar in the vicinity of Telafar. Culturally and chronologically the settlement can be compared with Jarmo and Çayönü Tepesi.

Cypriot pottery of the Iron Age can now be dated much more closely through sites which have been published from north Palestine, notably Megiddo, Samaria and Hazor, and also from trial excavations which have been undertaken in Syria. Yet further east the excavations at Nimrud help to fill the picture. These sites again throw light on the early levels at Al Mina, for though Professor Gjerstad inspected the Cypriot material, no specific report was made upon it.

In this paper, the Cypriot and Syrian pottery will be examined in detail with special reference to the collection of sherds which were handed over to the University of London, Institute of Archaeology, by the British Museum at Sir Leonard Woolley's behest. The writer is indebted to him for making it available. In the light of the comparative material, an endeavour will be made to clarify the position of the early levels at Al Mina with regard to other sites in the Near East and also to establish a chronological sequence, and to determine its bearing on the dating of the Greek pottery.

When Sir Leonard Woolley published his reports in 1935–36 on the excavations at Al Mina (J.H.S., LVIII (1938), 1–30, 133–70; A.J., XVII (1937), 1ff.), he stressed the importance of the Cypriot pottery from the occupation of Levels VIII–VI. In subsequent studies (J.H.S., LIX, 1ff.; LX, 1ff.; Boardman B.S.A. 52 (1957) 1ff.) only the Greek pottery was examined.

Ivory as a material has a unique and fascinating appeal by virtue of its rich warm colour and sheen. Since very early times, ivory has been synonymous with luxury, as witnessed in the Old Testament reference to Ahab's “house of ivory”, the epitome of luxurious living; in Amos' imprecation against the rich “that lie upon beds of ivory”; and in Ezekiel's lament for Tyre, perfect in beauty, where the very benches are made of ivory. In addition, we are told that Solomon's royal throne was made of ivory, commissioned from Phoenician craftsmen who excelled in this art. Finally, the identification of ivory with luxury and hence corruption is clear in the Homeric allusion to the “Gate of Ivory”, through which dreams pass that mislead.

The discovery of actual ivory objects more-or-less contemporary with the literary references during excavations of the Assyrian palaces at Nimrud in the mid-nineteenth century thus engendered great excitement. The pieces were not only beautiful in themselves; they also brought the ancient traditions to life.

In the excavations at Nimrud in 1952 and 1953 were found several pieces, varying in size, of inscribed clay prisms bearing historical texts of Sargon II. Most of these pieces have proved to be parts of two ‘upright’ prisms, and have been actually joined together. Three other fragments, to be mentioned below, do not belong to these assemblages. The partly-preserved inscriptions thus obtained are duplicate, and as such the two copies have to some extent the valuable quality of restoring each other's text where damaged or missing. It is a misfortune, however, that by singular chance much the same columns of the prisms remain in both copies, so that stretches of the text exist in two examples with only minor variants, while other long passages are lost from both; it is a further misfortune that much of the missing part was evidently the more interesting for the modern student, comprising the beginning and end of the inscription, of which little now remains. The better preserved portions are concerned mostly with the campaigns of Sargon, and therefore do not present very much that is new in matter, though in arrangement they have the peculiar feature of seeming to disregard chronology, as will be seen hereafter, substituting perhaps a general geographical order.

Until the discovery of the royal archive of Mari belonging to the first half of the eighteenth century B.C., the principal sources for the study of the history of international law and diplomacy in the second millennium B.C. were the diplomatic records of the Egyptian and Hittite empires found at Tell el Amarna and Boǧazköy, covering the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries B.C.; few earlier documents of international character were known. The new evidence, combined with that of contemporary texts from Babylonia and Alalaḫ, proves that many of the rules and principles recognised in the fourteenth century B.C. as governing the relations of civilised states were already established some four centuries earlier.

Excavations at Tell Brak in 2006–7 explored two key episodes in Mesopotamian political and social history, developing early social complexity in the fifth to fourth millennia BC and the shift from territorial state to early empire in the second millennium BC. Late Chalcolithic complexity is represented in Area TW on the main mound and at the outlying sub-mound of Tell Majnuna, while investigation of the Old Babylonian to Mitanni state-to-empire transition involved excavation in Areas HH and HN (Fig. 1). Both sets of excavations tie into our exploration of larger issues of the creation and maturation of past urban landscapes, for which Tell Brak provides a great depth of data.

We would like once again to express our warmest gratitude to Dr Bassam Jamous, Director General of Antiquities and Museums, to Dr Michel Al-Maqdissi, Director of Excavations, to all their staff in Damascus, and to Sd Abdul Messih Baghdo, Director of the Antiquities Office in Hasseke, for their constant and friendly support. Financial support for the excavations was generously provided by the British School of Archaeology in Iraq, the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge, the National Geographic Committee for Research and Exploration (2006), the Society of Antiquaries of London (2007), Newnham College, Cambridge and the University of Cambridge. We are extremely grateful to all those who have made this research possible.

The Archaeological Expedition to the Ḫabur region of N. Syria was under the auspices of the British Museum and of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq. For financial assistance we were greatly indebted to a number of scientific bodies and to individual subscribers. The British Museum made it possible for Mr. R. D. Barnett of the Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities to give us his valuable help, and generous financial support was forthcoming from the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, from the University Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Cambridge, and from the Auckland Museum, New Zealand. Our warmest thanks are also due to the munificence of individual subscribers among whom were Mr. Louis G. Clarke, Lord Latymer, Sir Charles Marston, and Mr. A. L. Reckitt.

Not having seen the Mandali region for himself, the present writer is not able to give a proper ecological-topographical description of the Choga Mami area. Therefore this introduction must needs be superficial, based upon details published by Joan Oates, supplemented by information kindly supplied by her in personal communication.

Mandali lies roughly 125 km. E.N.E. of Baghdad as the crow flies, not far from the Iranian frontier. It is a staging post on the ancient caravan route to Persia and beyond. The excavation area is fairly near to the town in a north-westerly direction, a flat plain on the borderline of the alluvium in the marginal rainfall zone. The terrain is backed towards the N.E. by two low mountain ranges a few kilometres away, locally known as Jebel Kunah and Jebel Kaum a Sang. Phyto-geographically it is in the middle of what is described as the Persian Foothills Region.

The main source of water is and has always been the small river Gangir that from the N.E. cuts through a gap between the two mountain ranges, supplemented by other, less reliable, seasonal watercourses. Although, geographically speaking, this area is an extension of the Diyala plain, neither the Gangir nor any of the other watercourses of the region reach the Diyala drainage system, but are swallowed up in seasonal mudflats in the intervening desert S.W. of Choga Mami. Even now irrigation agriculture in the district is fed mainly by the Gangir, but on its way into the desert the water gets increasingly brackish and becomes useless for agriculture.

A series of important studies and observations over the last few decades has resulted in an increasingly clear understanding of the nature and composition of the Sumerian school curriculum in the Old Babylonian period, especially at Nippur. The sequence of lexical texts has been subject to extensive study, Lipit-Eštar hymn B has been identified as probably the first literary text to be read in the schools, and a further ten texts almost certainly followed Li B in the same sequence as they are given in the curricular catalogues.

The purpose of this interim presentation is twofold. Firstly, to attempt to demonstrate that in addition to Li B there are three other core compositions, namely Iddin-Dagan hymn B, Enlilbani hymn A, and Nisaba hymn A, which are read early in schools and do not appear in the curricular catalogues. Secondly, to present an additional piece of evidence which bears directly on the observation that at least the first ten entries of the curricular catalogues give, in sequence, the next ten texts read in schools after the four elementary hymns.

In November 1938, after completing the excavations at T. Brak, the Expedition, which had been operating at that site under the auspices of the British Museum and of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq, moved to T. Abyaḍ in order to examine a number of selected sites in the Baliḫ valley. Our soundings at five mounds in this district occupied a period of 6 weeks' work, and thanks to the knowledge of kindred archaeological material acquired during four previous campaigns in the Ḫabur valley, we were enabled in this short space of time to obtain a clear picture of the main sequence of culture on the Baliḫ from the early chalcolithic period down to the middle of the second millennium B.C. The more spectacular results achieved at T. Brak and the discoveries made during the last season at T. Chagar Bazar in the Ḫabur valley will be described in subsequent numbers of Iraq. In the meantime it will be convenient to dispose of the Baliḫ valley material forthwith, as briefly as possible, since most of the finds from this district merely amplify and confirm the evidence already obtained on the Ḫabur.

It is usual to see man's early achievements evaluated in the light of progress in architecture, decorative art, production of implements, and social organization. Less commonly is considered the profound impact on the essence of animals and plants rendered by his early experiments in transplanting them from one environment to another, and yet, nothing man has ever done has been of greater importance, nothing of more lasting consequence to civilization. What was achieved during the first millennia of agriculture is still of paramount importance to modern society and will for ever so remain. Unconscious of his impudence, man forced plants to grow beyond the areas where by nature they were at home and, in doing so, was instrumental in reshaping their genetic constitution, thus enabling them to follow him in his. expansive migrations practically all over the world. Without wheat and barley, the pyramids, the ziggurats, the Greek temples, and the modern skyscrapers would never have been built. And yet these two important plants did not naturally belong to these lands, but were forced to adapt themselves to conditions prescribed by man's need for extended living space.

During the last few decades, the belief of last century, that the great monuments of the deserts of Egypt and Mesopotamia represented the beginnings of human culture, has been replaced by the realisation that these magnificent human achievements were preceded by much humbler establishments. The remains of primitive villages were found in Egypt, demonstrably much older than the pyramids, and deep beneath the towering ziggurats of Mesopotamia were disclosed correspondingly inconspicuous sites. However, on closer examination it was agreed that even these early remains were too far advanced in sophistication of technique and art to represent the very commencement of established human society.

The third and final season of excavations at Yanik Tepe, near Tabriz, was carried out from 10th August until 5th October, 1962. The work was made possible by the following contributions, which are gratefully acknowledged: the University of Manchester (£600); the University Museum, Cambridge (£250); the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (£250); the Russell Trust (£200); the British Academy (£150); the City Museum, Liverpool (£100); the City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham (£50). This amounted to a total for the 1962 season of £1,600. The total sum of contributions for the three seasons of work at Yanik Tepe is £3,350. The staff during the 1962 season comprised the following: the Director and his wife, who was responsible for the register of finds, the greater part of the object-drawing and the house-keeping; Mr. Edward Keall (Surveyor and Draughtsman); Messrs. David Biernoff, Mark Davie, Patrick Guthrie-Jones and Ian Todd (Archaeological Assistants). Mr. Biernoff also recorded the animal bones, and he and Mr. Keall repaired the pottery; Mr. Todd was responsible for the photography of the objects. Mr. Sarafaraz was appointed by the Director-General of the Archaeological Service of Iran as Inspector to accompany the expedition during the 1962 season, and he also acted as an Archaeological Assistant.

The objects from Toprak Kale in Armenia are often referred to in archæological literature, but usually in vague terms or with one author contradicting the other. Thus for Perrot and Chipiez (1882) the bronze furniture-ornaments are simply Assyrian products found in Armenia. Heuzey, writing in 1912, was clearly not in favour of their being Assyrian; they belonged to the art of Urartu. This was the deduction to be drawn from Belck and Lehmann-Haupt's excavations at the end of the last century. Lehmann-Haupt's own views were that the culture of the Urartians was “almost wholly western with only minor traces of Assyrian influence,” while its own influence on Etruscan art was very noticeable. Karo and Hertzfeld laid great emphasis on the importance of Urartu as a centre of metal-working, and Hertzfeld asserted that Urartian art was a native, aboriginal creation, which influenced Assyrian art, finally passing into that of Achaemenid Persia, as shown by certain pieces in the Oxus Treasure. Schachermayer declared Urartian art to be a phase of that art of a larger cultural metal-working area embracing Eastern Anatolia and Tabal (Phrygia). Götze expanded this area to include Western Persia.

In September 1974 the University of Edinburgh began a survey of archaeological sites in the Khabur headwaters region of North-eastern Syria. One of the principal aims of this survey was to collect materials for a preliminary study of prehistoric ceramics and geological clays in that area by neutron activation analysis. From its inception this project received the aid and encouragement of the Department of Antiquities of the Syrian Arab Republic, and we should like to give special thanks to M. Bahnassi, the director of the Department of Antiquities, and to M. Bounni for their help. The work was supported by grants from the Russell Trust and from the Munro Foundation.

Previous to the survey, a long series of neutron activation analyses had been completed on prehistoric pottery, mainly of the Halaf period, from excavated sites in Northern Iraq and Eastern Syria. A comparison of the chemical compositions of Halaf sherds from different sites indicated that some varieties of Halaf painted ware had been extensively traded. It was hoped that a study of clay and pottery compositions at a number of ancient sites within a limited geographical area would provide evidence for the detailed form of this pottery trade, and would reveal the sources of the clays used in prehistoric pottery manufacture.

The Late Assyrian sculptures are somewhat difficult to use as a historical source. They are widely scattered, with the compositions split up, and modern studies have been mainly concerned with artistic developments or the material culture of the Assyrians. Those who are reasonably familiar with the subject-matter, moreover, are inclined to forget that what may seem self-evident to them is not necessarily so to others, and have tended to concentrate on the elucidation of specific points rather than on more general studies. The one major exception is the work of Billerbeck and Delitzsch on Shalmaneser's Balawat gates, and there are articles on the army by J. Hunger, and on large-scale figures by L. Heuzey, which remain of fundamental value, but it may be worth seeing what can be learnt from a new approach.

In this article, therefore, which is written for the benefit of non-specialists and necessarily incorporates much that is already known, I have attempted to isolate the principal categories of Assyrian shown in the sculptures and other official monuments. One should not press evidence of this nature too far, as the sculptures like the annals are propaganda and represent only what the rulers of Assyria wished us to remember; the subject-matter is also affected by stylistic considerations. There is nonetheless, at all times, a mass of information which must bear some positive relationship to the truth.

As was first observed by Gordon Loud, one of the more distinctive features of Late Assyrian architecture is the striking similarity to be seen in the plans of all palaces of this period, both in their general layout and in the arrangement of the various component parts and individual suites of rooms contained therein. Loud's study was based on buildings excavated at Khorsabad, but the architectural formula which he discovered to govern the planning of both the royal palaces and private residences at this site, are equally applicable to palaces found at other sites of this period and, furthermore, can now be enlarged upon in many details. In the present article a brief resumé is first given of the general characteristics of Late Assyrian palace planning, and this is followed by a comparative analysis of the various types of ‘state apartments’ to be found in such buildings.

Recent fieldwork and archival sedimentary materials from southern Iraq have revealed new insights into the environment that shaped southern Mesopotamia from the pre-Ubaid (early Holocene) until the early Islamic period. These data have been combined with northern Iraqi speleothem, or stalagmite, data that have revealed relevant palaeoclimate information. The new results are investigated in light of textual sources and satellite remote sensing work. It is evident that areas south of Baghdad, and to the region of Uruk, were already potentially habitable between the eleventh and early eighth millennia B.C., suggesting there were settlements in southern Iraq prior to the Ubaid. Date palms, the earliest recorded for Iraq, are evident before 10,000 B.C., and oak trees are evident south of Baghdad in the early Holocene but disappeared after the mid-sixth millennium B.C. New climate results suggest increased aridity after the end of the fourth millennium B.C. For the third millennium B.C. to first millennium A.D., a negative relationship between grain and date palm cultivation in Nippur is evident, suggesting shifting cultivation emphasising one of these crops at any given time in parts of the city. The Shatt en-Nil was also likely used as a channel for most of Nippur's historical occupation from the third millennium B.C. to the first millennium A.D. In the early to mid-first millennium A.D., around the time of the Sasanian period, a major increase in irrigation is evident in plant remains, likely reflecting large-scale irrigation expansion in the Nippur region. The first millennium B.C. to first millennium A.D. reflects a relatively dry period with periodic increased rainfall. Sedimentary results suggest the Nahrawan, prior to it becoming a well-known canal, formed an ancient branch of the Tigris, while the region just south of Baghdad, around Dalmaj, was near or part of an ancient confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates.

BM 135586 = 1971–7–5, 1, until recently in private possession, is a hitherto unknown Neo-Assyrian letter belonging to the royal correspondence of Nineveh, and indisputably an important specimen of its genre. In 39 completely preserved lines, it contains a message to the Assyrian king Esarhaddon (680–669 B.C.) from his son Šamaš-šumu-ukīn, who at that time was the crown prince of Babylon. So far only three very short and fragmentary letters sent by Šamaš-šumu-ukīn in this office had been known, and they are now completely overshadowed by the new text, which is here published by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum. It is of dark grey-brown colour and measures 41 by 82 mm. For all further details concerning the tablet and the script I refer to the photographs and copy published on Plate XIX.

More than one hundred monumental sculptures of winged human-headed bulls have been identified among the remains of Assyria's capitals, of which around forty come from Nineveh. When these ancient Mesopotamian stone giants re-emerged they became a symbol of Neo-Assyrian power. This article aims to study the genesis of these emblematic figures by looking at the earliest iconographic examples. This genealogical development will lead us to consider the etymology and iconographic transcriptions of the Akkadian terms traditionally associated with the figures of winged human-headed bulls, and to ponder their evolution in the various fields of artistic production.

Forty-three colossal sculptures of winged human-headed bulls have so far been discovered in Nineveh: two at the Nergal gate, a few fragments from the Bit Nakkapti and around forty monumental sculptures in the remains of Sennacherib's Palace. Situated on each side of the main gates, these figures guarded the city and palace entrances. They were carved from monolithic limestone blocks and completed after they had been set up either in gateways, in which case the head is in line with the body, or in the alignment of the walls flanking the entrances, with the head turned at an angle of ninety degrees. Botta suggested that these colossi had originally been surmounted by a straight lintel; however, Place's excavations in Khorsabad revealed the existence of brick arches built above some of the gates. Although they played a real functional role due to their position, their presence does not seem to have been architecturally indispensable because other entrances with similar dimensions were not strengthened in this way. Consequently, it would be better to speak of an “active façade”.

This paper presents a preliminary report on the first two seasons of work by The Land of Nineveh Archaeological Project (LoNAP) of Udine University that aims to understand the formation and transformation of the cultural and natural landscape of northern Mesopotamia, (embracing large parts of the governorates of Ninawa and Dohuk) from the Palaeolithic to the Islamic period. Its purpose is to comprehend patterns of settlement, land use and management, based on a regional archaeological surface survey and excavation. These objectives are closely tied to the geoarcheological and bioarchaeological reconstruction of the ancient natural environment and its evolution as a result of global climatic fluctuations and human impact.