46 research outputs found
THE LAND BEHIND THE LAND BEHIND BAGHDAD: ARCHAEOLOGICAL LANDSCAPES OF THE UPPER DIYALA (SIRWAN) RIVER VALLEY
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
Administrators' bread: an experiment-based re-assessment of the functional and cultural role of the Uruk bevel-rim bowl
On Babylonian lavatories and sewers
This study begins by examining the archaeological and documentary evidence for lavatories (toilets) and foul-water drains in ancient Mesopotamian dwelling houses. It goes on to investigate the use, etymology and history of the Akkadian word asurrû: in the Old Babylonian period it served mainly as a term for a kind of foul-water drain or “sewer” but later shed that meaning
New Investigations in the Environment, History and Archaeology of the Iraqi Hilly Flanks: Shahrizor Survey Project 2009-2011
Recent palaeoenvironmental, historical, and archaeological investigations, primarily consisting of site reconnaissance, in the Shahrizor region within the province of Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan are bringing to light new information on the region’s social and socio-ecological development. This paper summarises two seasons of work by researchers from German, British, Dutch, and Iraqi-Kurdish institutions working in the survey region. Palaeoenvironmental data have determined that during the Pleistocene many terraces developed which came to be occupied by a number of the larger tell sites in the Holocene. In the sedimentary record, climatic and anthropogenic patterns are noticeable, and alluviation has affected the recovery of archaeological remains through site burial in places. Historical data show the Shahrizor shifting between periods of independence, either occupied by one regional state or several smaller entities, and periods that saw the plain’s incorporation within large empires, often in a border position. New archaeological investigations have provided insight into the importance of the region as a transit centre between Western Iran and northern and southern Mesopotamia, with clear material culture links recovered. Variations between periods’ settlement patterns and occupations are also beginning to emerge
University of Pennsylvania Radiocarbon Dates XV
This material was digitized as part of a cooperative project between Radiocarbon and the University of Arizona Libraries.The Radiocarbon archives are made available by Radiocarbon and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact [email protected] for further information.Migrated from OJS platform February 202