Excavations at Tell Brak 2006–2007

Abstract

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.

Bati Azerbeycan'da Neoli̇ti̇k Ve Kalkoli̇ti̇k Döneme Ai̇t Yeni̇ Bulgular

“…The sceptre, the beads, and also the ritual can well be compared to what O. Muscarella found in the Se Girdan kurgans near Lake Urmia (Muscarella 1969(Muscarella , 1971, and which he has recently re-dated (Muscarella 2003). A ritual of exposure has also been pointed out recently, close to Brak and at a similar period (McMahon et al 2007). …”

Landscape and Settlement in the Eastern Upper Iraqi Tigris and Navkur Plains: The Land of Nineveh Archaeological Project, Seasons 2012–2013

“…Tepe Gawra (Speiser 1935;Tobler 1950;Rothman 2002), Arpachiyah (Mallowan and Cruikshank 1935), Nineveh (Campbell Thompson and Mallowan 1933;Gut 1995), or on artefact seriations from adjacent areas, e.g. Tell Brak (McMahon and Oates 2007;McMahon 2013) and Tell Hamoukar (Al-Quntar et al 2011) for the Late Chalcolithic periods. This has inevitable consequences for the identification of the ceramic diagnostics, especially for periods characterised by strong regional traditions (Gavagnin, Iamoni, and Palermo in press).…”

The growth of early social networks: New geochemical results of obsidian from the Ubaid to Chalcolithic Period in Syria, Iraq and the Gulf

“…The Late Chalcolithic period (LC1-5 or 4200-3100 BC, northern Mesopotamian regional chronology) that followed also comprises a number of developmental trajectories that vary depending on region and specific site. The LC1-3 periods witness developing forms of social complexity in the form of large public buildings (McMahon et al 2007), organized administrative systems and specialized production of utilitarian and prestige goods (Al Kuntar and Abu Jayyab 2014;Khalidi 2014;Stein 2012) as well as unprecedented settlement growth at proto-urban scales and formalized site hierarchy (Adams 1981;Algaze 2008;Al-Quntar et al 2011;McMahon and Stone 2013;Ur et al 2007;Wilkinson and Tucker 1995;Wright 2001) and what has been interpreted as the beginnings of organized warfare (McMahon et al 2011).…”