The prehistoric site of Ras al ‘Amiya is situated about five miles north of Kish, at a point midway between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates (Fig. 1). The whole settlement lies under the present surface of the alluvium and it only came to light some four years ago when a series of canals were cut through the area in connection with the Greater Musseyib Drainage Project.

Attention was first drawn to the site when it was discovered that sherds of the richly painted Hajji Muhammad variety, such as those shown in Plates XLIV, 5, XLVII, 10, XLVIII, 2, XLIX, 7 and LVI, 1–5, were associated with others of a more standard ‘Ubaid type (Plates XLIV, 2 and 7–9, XLV, 1, 2 and 9 and XLVI, 2, 5 and 6). The association of the two wares at once suggested that the settlement might have an important bearing on certain problems connected with the evolution of ‘Ubaid pottery and that excavations might produce useful results. At the same time the impending use of the canals in the area seemed to call for an early start to any such field work. With these considerations in view the British School of Archaeology in Iraq decided to support a small sounding at the site in the early summer of last year.

Trade in metals, notably the precious metals gold and silver, and the base metals copper and tin, represents one of the major aspects of Bronze Age commerce. It has been argued that the first large-scale growth of a metals trade, during the mid-third millennium B.C., stimulated the development of international commerce and made possible the wealth of the EB II period in the Aegean, Anatolia and the Near East. Trade in metals continued to be one of the most important elements of commerce down to the end of the Bronze Age. Thus a proper understanding of the nature and the scope of this trade is essential to the study of Bronze Age civilization and the nature of foreign relations in the third and second millennia B.C.

Since these metals were available only in certain areas, trade was essential for the development of metallurgy in those parts of the ancient world without native mineral resources, especially the Aegean and Mesopotamia. As virtually no work has been done on sources or uses of silver in the Bronze Age this paper will concentrate upon trade in gold, copper and tin. Technological developments will be discussed only in so far as they made possible the utilization of certain types of ores and hence influenced the growth of trade.

Tell Arpachiyah and Tepe Gawra, two sites located in the Mosul region of Iraq, together provide the basis for much of Northern Mesopotamian prehistory. Excavations by Sir Max Mallowan at Tell Arpachiyah in 1933 and by the University of Pennsylvania at Tepe Gawra between 1932 and 1938 produced the key ceramic sequences for the Halaf and northern ‘Ubaid cultures in particular. Halaf and ‘Ubaid pottery subsequently excavated at other sites in northern Iraq and in Syria and Turkey as well has, as a general rule, been interpreted in terms of Arpachiyah and Gawra ceramic sequences. It therefore seems worthwhile to re-examine the early pottery of these two important sites using the recently developed technique of neutron activation analysis. A carefully designed programme of neutron activation analyses would provide a new perspective on the Tell Arpachiyah and Tepe Gawra pottery and could perhaps answer some important questions about the Halaf and ‘Ubaid cultures in the Mosul region and beyond.

Firstly, activation analysis offers a method for correlating more directly the Arpachiyah and Gawra prehistoric sequences on the basis of pottery imports. The analysis of Halaf potsherds from sites in the Khabur headwaters region has already demonstrated that painted pottery was being traded there on a considerable scale by the latter part of the Halaf period. It seems likely that pottery could also have been traded between Tell Arpachiyah and Tepe Gawra from quite early on since the two mounds are separated by a distance of only twenty-five kilometres. If the pottery exported from one of these sites could be identified by neutron activation analysis at the other site, then the degree of temporal overlap between the prehistoric occupations of the mounds could be better assessed.

Most of the inscriptions relating the events of the reign of Tiglath-pileser III, king of Assyria 745–727 B.C., have been found in the ruins of Nimrud (Kalḫu). The latest of these finds are two fragments, which have been subsequently joined to form the lower left part, or about a fifth, of one large baked clay tablet (see Pl. XXIII). The first of these fragments (ND 4301) was found during the 1955 excavation of the Nabu Temple. It lay in the rubbish 80 cm. above the centre of the stone floor of the Tašmetum cella, not far from the cylinder seal ND. 4179 which was in the S.W. corner (Sq. C4. NTV). The other fragment, ND. 4305, was found in surface soil cleared from the west end of a trench (E-W at H.6). Even when joined these fragments do not afford a single complete line and the broken nature of all fifty-eight lines precludes the full understanding of the text and prevents more than a tentative treatment especially in the translation and comment.

In Iraq, Vol. XVI, Pt. I, pp. 98–107, Professor Mallowan described the unique discovery of Assyrian writing-boards made of ivory and wood at Nimrud in 1953. They had been preserved in silt below water-level in a well in Room A B of the “North-West” Palace of Aššur-naṣir-pal. It is claimed that these boards, which originally formed a polyptych, are the earliest form of ancient book and as such warrant a more detailed study. In the article which follows, on pages 14 ff., Miss Howard describes the ivory boards and discusses the technique employed in their manufacture. It therefore remains to add such further evidence for the use of writing-boards in the Neo-Assyrian period as is available from contemporary literature. Scholars have long suspected that the Assyrians must have used wax-covered boards as a writing-material, but no example had hitherto been found.

The publication of BM 131124—a fragment of a stele from Sheikh Hammad on the Khabur—and a fresh treatment of another neglected fragment published by V. Scheil in 1917, identified and re-edited by A. R. Millard (above, p. 57 ff.) has increased considerably the small corpus of Adad-nirari's historical inscriptions. Each of the extant texts is a commemorative inscription, usually brief and self-contained, incised on a stele or a stone slab. Another feature which they all share is that they are mainly concerned with Adad-nirari's expeditions to the west, though the precise regnal year of these is not indicated there. This present inquiry will be concerned with the specific character of the best preserved inscriptions and their value as historical documents.

None of the extant historical records of Adad-nirari III published so far can be classified as annals. They all belong to a category which we would like to designate as “summary inscriptions”. A distinctive feature of this type—called Prunkinschriften by Schrader and “Display Inscriptions” by Olmstead—is the condensation of early with later events into one geographically but not chronologically coherent narrative. Usually an inscription of this category is much shorter than any edition of the royal annals, especially as it was inscribed upon a surface with limited space, such as a commemorative stele or a slab. It normally contains the following elements: (a) a prologue, consisting of invocation to the gods and the king's titulature; (b) a geographically arranged summary of events; (c) the main section explaining the circumstances leading to the composition of the inscription, introduced by the formula ina ûmēšūma = “at that time”; (d) an epilogue with maledictions.

In the remarkable expansion of archaeometallurgical studies in the last fifteen or twenty years Mesopotamia, where much pioneer work was done fifty years ago, has steadily slipped from view. This is in marked contrast to the time when Woolley's discoveries in the “Royal Cemetery” at Ur gave the Sumerians an assured place in general studies of early metallurgy. As research priorities in archaeometallurgy in the Near East moved to the investigation of the primary processes of metal exploitation and the development of support technologies, the source zones of Anatolia, of the Negev and Sinai, and of Iran inevitably eclipsed a region which had always been an importer of metals, to a greater or lesser degree already processed. This excluded Mesopotamia from a role as innovator in the basic techniques of metal recovery, and also probably in pioneering the skills of smelting and of alloying copper. Nor, for the same reasons, has Mesopotamia been drawn into the lively debate about the relative significance of external forces and internal transformation mechanisms in the development of metallurgy in prehistoric Europe, for which the primary eastern point of reference was Anatolia. But the certain fact that Mesopotamia had to import all her metal has kept metallurgy among the factors considered in current debates over explanatory models for the emergence of a complex society there in the later fourth and earlier third millennium B.C., some-times giving rise to conclusions hard to reconcile with the sparse archaeological record.

Nineveh, like modern Mosul of which it is now a suburb, lay at the heart of a prosperous agricultural region with many interregional connections, and the temple of Ishtar of Nineveh dominated the vast mound of Kuyunjik (Fig. 1). Trenches dug on behalf of the British Museum, mainly by Christian Rassam in 1851–2, Hormuzd Rassam in 1852–4 and 1878–80, George Smith in 1873–4, and Leonard King and Reginald Campbell Thompson in 1903–5, impinged on the site. The main temple was almost completely cleared, together with an area to the north-west, by Thompson and colleagues in four seasons between 1927 and 1932 (Figs. 2–3). Many original King and Thompson records are kept in the Department of the Ancient Near East at the British Museum; some photographic negatives are at the Royal Asiatic Society in London. The numerous objects from Thompson's excavations are now divided between the Iraq Museum, the British Museum (where they are registered in the 1929-10-12, 1930-5-8, 1932-12-10 and 1932-12-12 collections, mostly corresponding to the four successive seasons), the Birmingham City Museum, the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, and the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge; some were given to other institutions, and to individuals who had contributed to the excavation costs.

The mound of Yanik Tepe is situated about twenty miles south-west of Tabriz, in north-west Iran, in the central district of the administrative province of east Azerbaijan (see Fig. 1). It stands three miles west of the small town of Khosrowshah, close to the railway from Teheran. This mound is one of at least fifty round the shores of Lake Urmia (now Lake Rezaieh) which were found during a survey of sites carried out by the writer in 1958–9. Most of these sites are round Rezaieh, on the west side of the lake, but there is a number of mounds at intervals along the east side and two or three on the north. The Solduz plain, just south of the lake, where Hasanlu is situated, has been thoroughly surveyed by the American expedition. Yanik Tepe itself is quite a large mound, covering an area of about twenty acres, and with a maximum height of 16.50 metres. It has gently sloping sides, is virtually without vegetation and—a great practical advantage to the archaeologist—is entirely uncultivated, since only irrigated land in this district will grow crops. Presumably, however, there were springs or streams in the vicinity during the Bronze Age. The present village of Tazekand, close to Yanik Tepe, depends for its livelihood principally on fruit-growing rather than cereals.

A Stela of Adad-nirari III was found during the eventful season of Spring 1967 at Tell al Rimah. It stood in position inside the cella of a Late Assyrian shrine, set beside the podium, a placing that is unparalleled among the find spots of other royal stelae. It was inscribed on the face with twenty-one lines, of which nine had been deliberately erased in antiquity; the writing ran across the skirt of the king, who was sculptured upon it slightly less than life-size, but not over the frame or sides of the stone (see Plate XXXVIII). The stela is 1·30 m. high and measures 0·69 m. in width at the base; it is parabolic in shape. It is made from a single slab of hard grey, crystalline “Mosul marble”, in an excellent state of preservation. No traces of paint were visible on the surface as it was unearthed.

A Fortunate and rare discovery has given us a new and complete inscribed stela of the well-known Assyrian king Aššur-naṣir-pal II (Pls. II-VI). This monument was found in its original position within a few feet of the excavations of his palace made by Layard and Rassam. The sandstone block had been erected near the doorway (Fig. 1) leading to the throne-room, and was inscribed with details of the ceremonies and festivities celebrating the formal opening of the palace in the year 879 B.C. The discovery itself occurred in April, 1951, during last season's work at Nimrud; as a result we are now able to write additional details into the history of the ancient Assyrian military capital. The new text is of especial interest because it also gives us for the first time a complete list of trees planted in the royal orchards set out near the city, and what may well prove to be the oldest extant Assyrian menu. A detailed account is given of the food prepared for the entertainment of 69,574 persons during the ten days' festivities. This information, together with many other particulars not hitherto available from the records of this reign, gives this text an unusual significance. Our interest in the Assyrian monarchy is heightened by the insight now given into the peaceful and far-sighted activities of this ruler whose reign is known mostly, but unfortunately, from its display of military might and “frightfulness.”

“Evil Hittites without respect for the command of the gods, whisperers of treachery”—these and similar reproaches were hurled by Sargon II's scribes against the peoples of Syria and Palestine who would not submit to the Assyrian yoke, or who having submitted sought relief in rebellion. Sargon's anger marked a crisis in the long but intermittent Assyrian relationship with the Anatolian peoples of North Syria and the Taurus, loosely termed “Hittites”. The purpose of this article is to review the sources for this relationship from the fall of the Hittite Empire, c. 1200 B.C. until the final extinction of the Syrian successor states by the Assyrians under Sargon. In it I shall concentrate on the less well-known evidence of the hieroglyphic inscriptions and refer to the comparatively better-known Assyrian cuneiform documentation only in so far as it illuminates these. It is a study which I hope may be appropriately dedicated to Sir Max Mallowan, whose archaeological work has provided so much material of the latter type, and whose interests amply attested by his publications have always centred on the tracing of links between various cultures, not the least between Assyria and the West.

While the Diyala (Kurdish Sirwan) River Valley is storied in Near Eastern archaeology as home to the Oriental Institute's excavations in the 1930s as well as to Robert McC. Adams’ pioneering archaeological survey, The Land Behind Baghdad, the upper reaches of the river valley remain almost unknown to modern scholarship. Yet this region, at the interface between irrigated lowland Mesopotamia and the Zagros highlands to the north and east, has long been hypothesized as central to the origins and development of complex societies. It was hotly contested by Bronze Age imperial powers, and offered one of the principle access routes connecting Mespotamia to the Iranian Plateau and beyond. This paper presents an interim report of the Sirwan Regional Project, a regional archaeological survey undertaken from 2013–2015 in a 4000 square kilometre area between the modern city of Darbandikhan and the plains south of Kalar. Encompassing a wide range of environments, from the rugged uplands of the Zagros front ranges to the rich irrigated basins of the Middle Diyala, the project has already discovered a wealth of previously unknown archaeological sites ranging in date from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic through the modern period. Following an overview of the physical geography of the Upper Diyala/Sirwan, this paper highlights key findings that are beginning to transform our understanding of this historically important but poorly known region.

One of the intriguing aspects of studies on the Babylonian ‘prophecy’ texts has been the theory that, even though couched in familiar omen terminology and ostensibly predicting the future, the prophecies are post eventum and in fact reflect a specific historical period and real historical events.

It should be stressed that these ‘prophecy’ texts are in no way related to Old Testament prophecy and that they cannot be considered the collected utterances of a seer. Neither have they any relationship to the practices attested in Mari, which are probably of Western origin and not from Mesopotamia proper. The ‘prophecies’ must, I believe, be considered simply a peculiar part of the vast Mesopotamian omen tradition, from which the ‘prophecies’ appeared to differ only because they lacked protases (i.e. a clause ‘if such-and-such occurs’). The new material to be published here, however, shows that there are protases, at least in some cases. Of particular interest is the fact that some of the ‘prophecies’ can now be shown to be connected specifically with astrology.

It is now just on forty years since Professor Garstang made his first excavations in the mounds of Sakce Gözü (then known as Sak je Geuzi) accompanied by Mr. (now Canon) Phythian Adams and Mr. Hamilton Beattie. The first indication of the site had been the discovery of sculptured Hittite blocks on the surface in 1907. The excavations were conducted in the autumn of 1908 and 1911, and the weather was hot and sultry. To avoid malaria, the excavators had to pitch their tents high on the slopes of the Kurt Daǧ, and ride several miles each day to the scene of the work. The site, however, amply repaid excavation, for in two seasons a periphery wall was discovered enclosing to the north-east the portico of a palace ornamented with a fine series of late Hittite sculptures. As well, several trenches were excavated outside the wall. These revealed a series of painted pottery levels, and at bed-rock a black incised and burnished ware. The importance of this discovery and the early period represented, were at once recognised by Professor Garstang, although at this point no comparable matetiaJ was available. For although Tall Halaf had been discovered by Baron von Oppenheim in 1899, he was not able to excavate there until 1911, and the prehistoric kilns of Carchemish were not discovered by Woolley until two years later, in 1913. Years afterwards in 1936 when much work had been done on the prehistoric cultures of the Near East, Professor Garstang decided to republish the early wares from this site, making use of the comparative material then available. He was not, however, satisfied that all that could be known about Sakce Gözü had been discovered, and had long planned a furthet season in the field.

The six letters here edited, four of them substantially complete, are amongst the hitherto unpublished tablets found at Nimrud in 1952. The legibility of these letters, first copied by me in Baghdad in 1954, has been much improved by the skilled treatment they have received at the hands of Mr. C. A. Bateman of the British Museum; in one case the extensive improvement in legibility rendered it advisable to make a completely new copy, and on other tablets obscure passages have become (at least physically) clear. I wish to express my thanks to my friend and colleague Professor D. J. Wiseman, Joint-Director of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq, for arranging for these and other letters of the collection to be put at my disposal for further study.

LXV is written from Babylon by an official, probably the governor of Arrapha, on behalf of himself and the Turtan at the moment that the gates of Babylon had been forced at the final crushing of the Ukin-zer rebellion in 730 B.C. Possibly connected with the aftermath of the rebellion is LXVI, which is taken to be a reply to a royal enquiry informing the king that no Babylonian “fifth column” had appeared during the Assyrian action against the southern capital.

The Expedition to Nimrud sponsored by the British School of Archaeology in Iraq began its fifth successive season on March 5th, 1953, and was in the field for a period of two months until the end of the first week in May. The opening of the dig was preceded by a week of violent rain and the spring was exceptionally wet, but so effective is the drainage on an ancient mound that there was but little interruption to the work. Once again, on an average, more than two hundred workmen were employed and we made every effort to dig as much ground as we could, for this was to be our last campaign before publishing the results of what had been achieved since 1949. It is therefore intended that the report of our latest Expedition shall be followed by a book incorporating the general account of what has been done at Nimrud in the past five years. The plan of our campaign was thus directed with this end in view, and we aimed especially at assembling as much fresh information as possible about the main chronological sequence of the different periods of occupation in the city from the beginning of the ninth, until the end of the seventh century B.C.

Despite the large numbers of fibulae or safety pins that have been found all over the Near East remarkably little attention has been paid to the complete historical development of the fibula throughout the area. Accordingly the present article attempts to follow the main lines of the local development from the time when the first Mycenaean forms reached the area, down to the time when Roman ones finally replaced the last indigenous types.

As can be seen from the map opposite, the fibulae found in the Near East have an extremely wide distribution which, at least by the seventh century B.C. roughly coincided with the limits of the Assyrian Empire. In addition, the discovery of a number of related forms in the Caucasus would seem to indicate that various Near Eastern examples must have passed through Urartu as well.

From a historical point of view, the appearance of the fibula in the Near East can be directly related to the expansion of Mycenaean trade in the thirteenth century, which seems to have brought the new form to Cyprus and the adjoining Asiatic coast some time before 1200 B.C. Thereafter the type seems to have remained a predominantly local form in Syro-Palestine until increasing political and commercial ties between Phoenicia and Assyria finally brought the type further east about the middle of the eighth century B.C.

The Erbil Plain Archaeological Survey (EPAS) investigates settlement and land use from the Neolithic to the present in the Erbil Governorate of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, which includes a large portion of the core of the Assyrian Empire. In seven field seasons, it has documented a broad settlement landscape in a region of great social and political importance, especially in the Bronze and Iron Ages, including 728 archaeological sites. Its field methodology combines traditional surface collection with the use of historical aerial and satellite photographs, mobile GIS, and UAV (drone) photogrammetry. Preliminary results show some unexpected patterns: a high density of culturally Uruk settlements in the fourth millennium B.C., variable urban morphologies in the Early Bronze Age; and large but low-density settlements at the end of the Sasanian period or the early Islamic period. The project is explicitly testing several hypotheses about centralized Neo-Assyrian landscape planning in the imperial core. These hypotheses appear to be confirmed, although the situation was more complex than in surrounding provinces, probably due to the longer history of continuous settlement.