Gawlikowski, Michał

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Propylaeum-DOK

Irak: Began — Kifrin 207
2. Hadita
Began Island
Polish Mission, Haditha Project *
*) Cf. in addition M. Gawlikowski, al-Athari 
1980/1, 37-8 (1st Season); Iraq 43, 194 (Resume 
of seasons 1979 — 81); LIAO 3 (Mars 1981) 4.
The excavations started in the autumn 1979 and 
continued through 1982 with five successive 
campaigns, conducted by a team from Warsaw 
University under M. Gawlikowski and M. 
Krogulska. The island represents an Assyrian 
fortress in the middle of the Euphrates, some 25 km 
downstream from ‘Ana, reoccupied in Parthian 
times and used as a Roman frontier post in the 
first half of the III century A.D.
The island is surrounded by a massive stone wall 
up to 6 m in width, rising directly from the water 
level. In its first phase, possibly Middle Assyrian, 
the fortress measured only 120 m through 29 m. 
Facing the current from the North, a massive 
bastion, 25 through 29 m, is still preserved up to 
5 m above the waterline. It probably supported a 
building which has left no traces. On the Western 
side an incurved wall buttressed by baked bricks 
joined with bitumen to prevent silting, formed 
probably a small harbour.
In Neo-Assyrian times this outer wall was 
extended, so as to form a bigger fortress 185 m long 
and up to 75 m across. Except at the site of the 
presumed harbour, the soil level rose through 
natural fluvial deposits to match the mostly 
artificial level within the original enclosure.
The finds relative to both periods are few and 
displaced. They consist almost exclusively of 
pottery fragments. The Assyrian literary sources, 
however, confirm the dating and allow the ident­
ification of the island as the fortress of Sabirutu, 
mentioned under Tiglat-Pilesar I and again under 
Tukulti-Ninurta II (A. K. Grayson, Assyrian 
Royal Inscriptions II (1976) pp. 27 and 102).
The island, under the name of Izan, reappears in 
the itinerary of Isidorus in the first century A.D., 
in relation to such places as Anat, Telbis and Hit, 
which are already mentioned in the Assyrian 
itineraries quoted above. The corresponding level 
consists of stone foundations of two partly excavat­
ed buildings, one of them a house and another 
probably a magazine. There are also several graves 
in huge storage jars, and one with a chamber built 
of stone. On the Eastern shore of the river there are 
some rock-cut tombs, presumably also from the 
Parthian period. The pottery finds are again rather 
poor and include mainly storage jars.
The Roman occupation started with a pottery 
kiln set in the ruins of the Parthian buildings, and 
soon a settlement developed upon the elder 
foundations. Most of the finds secured in the 
excavation come from this level. There are, first of 
all, many bronze Roman coins of the Severan period, 
and also some terracotta lamps together with 
large amount of pottery. Most abundant are slim 
«torpedo» jars, made waterproof with bitumen; 
they are common throughout the Euphrates valley 
and in Seleucia, but their chronological range is not 
yet firmly fixed. There are also thin glazed drinking 
bowls, rounded bottles, and other types with 
Mesopotamian connections. On the other hand, the 
ribbed cooking pots, fired deep red, are typically 
Syrian. This so-called brittle ware seems to appear 
only in places under Roman control, e.g. in Ain 
Sinu, Dura-Europos, and recently on the island of 
‘Ana. There is a number of metal objects, both 
bronze and iron, among them a bronze tray with a 
handle in form of a horse.
All this points out to a military occupation by an 
unit of the Roman army since the 198 A.D. war of 
Septimius Severus at the latest. The fortress stayed 
in Roman hands till the Sassanian onslaught in 
238 or slightly later. Apparently, it was never used 
again by the military, but there are Sassanian and 
Abbassid occupational layers.
Some inscribed pottery fragments carry letters 
in Palmyrene, Latin, and a local script closely 
related to Hatra inscriptions. We are thus allowed 
to believe that the troops in charge of the island 
were recruited locally, partly in Palmyra. An 
officer from Palmyra commanded in 225 A.D. the 
place of ‘Ana and some outposts in the Western 
desert. It seems certain that this part of the 
Euphrates valley belonged to the territory of 
Palmyra, perhaps as far as the Wadi Horan, and 
with it to the Roman Empire.
M. Gawlikowski.
Originalveröffentlichung in: Archiv für Orientforschung. Internationale Zeitschrift für die Wissenschaft vom Vorderen Orient 
29/30, 1983/1984, S. 207


Bēğān Island

http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeumdok/4864/1/Gawlikowski_Hadita_Began_island_1983-1984.pdf

Bēğān Island

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