A Companion to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East

D. T. Potts, Daniel T. Potts

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781405189880
• eBook ISBN: 9781444360776
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: Social Sciences

A COMPANION TO THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST

A Companion to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East is a comprehensive and authoritative overview of ancient material culture from the late Pleistocene to Late Antiquity. This expansive two-volume work includes 58 new essays from an international community of ancient Near East scholars.

With coverage extending from Asia Minor, the eastern Mediterranean, and Egypt to the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Indo-Iranian borderlands, the book highlights the enormous variation in cultural developments across roughly 11, 000 years of human endeavor. In addition to chapters devoted to specific regions and particular periods, many contributors concentrate on individual industries and major themes in ancient Near Eastern archaeology, ranging from metallurgy and agriculture to irrigation and fishing. Controversial issues, including the nature and significance of the antiquities market, ethical considerations in archaeological praxis, the history of the foundation of departments of antiquities, and ancient attitudes towards the past, make this a unique collection of studies that will be of interest to scholars, students, and interested readers alike.

This edition first published 2012

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A companion to the archaeology of the ancient Near East / edited by D.T. Potts.

p. cm. – (Blackwell companions to the ancient world)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4051-8988-0 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Archaeology–Middle East. 2. Middle East–Antiquities. 3. Middle East–Civilization–To 622. I. Potts, Daniel T.

DS56.C585 2012

939'.4–dc23

2011034988

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-1-4443-6076-9 (epdf)

ISBN 978-1-4443-6077-6 (epub)

ISBN 978-1-4443-6078-3 (mobi)

Illustrations

Map 1 Selection of sites and modern placenames mentioned in this volume (western region).

Map 2 Selection of sites and modern placenames mentioned in this volume (eastern region).

Map 3 Detail of sites located in the west.

Map 4 Detail of sites located in the east.

1.1 Map of the area discussed in the text.

1.2 Reconstruction of wetter and drier periods in the climate record of Lake Van (Turkey) and Qunf Cave (Oman).

1.3 Pollen diagrams from Birkat Ram (Golan Heights) and Lake Van (Turkey).

3.1 The excavations of Paul-Émile Botta at Khorsabad (after Flandin 1861: 77).

3.2 “Entrance passage, Kouyunjik” (after Layard 1853b: 340, opposite).

3.3 The brick pillars of Gudea at Telloh (after Sarzec 1884–1912: Pl. 52.2).

3.4 “Excavated section of the southeastern court of the Ziggurrat in Nippur” (after Hilprecht 1903: 377, opposite).

3.5 The northwest tower of the EB III city walls at Jericho, excavated (after Sellin and Watzinger 1913: Pl. 6a).

3.6 The Lion Gate of Bo

azköy during the excavations of 1907 (after Garstang, 1910: Pl. 60).

3.7 The Apadana and château at Susa (Archives du département des antiquités orientales, Louvre Museum, 2694).

8.1 Göbekli Tepe, main excavation area on the southern slope of the mound.

8.2 Pillar 43, one of the decorated pillars from enclosure D at Göbekli Tepe.

8.3 Enclosure D during the 2009 excavation of Göbekli Tepe.

8.4 Pillar 18, the eastern central pillar of enclosure D at Göbekli Tepe.

8.5a–c A totem pole-like sculpture of limestone from Göbekli Tepe.

9.1 Locations of the major sites mentioned in the text with altitude contours.

9.2 A room in the PPNA site of Jerf el-Ahmar (northern Syria) showing three quern bases in a line that were used to grind cereal grain on a large scale.

10.1 Map showing sites mentioned in the text.

10.2 Carbonized grape seeds of Bronze Age date from Ulug Depe (Turkmenistan).

10.3a Representations of grape vine on Neo-Assyrian stone slabs: the banquet scene, reign of Assurbanipal (669–631 BC), North Palace, Nineveh.

10.3b Lions in a garden, reign of Assurbanipal, North Palace, Nineveh.

10.3c The capture of Lachish, reign of Sennacherib (704–681 BC), Southwest Palace, Nineveh.

10.4 Crushed and carbonized olive endocarps, waste from oil production in the Bronze Age, from Tell Yarmut, Israel (photo A. Salavert).

10.5 Carbonized seeds and fruits from date palm, Iron Age, Muweilah, United Arab Emirates.

11.1 Frequencies of sheep and goats in Aceramic Neolithic period faunal assemblages in the northern Levant and Anatolia prior to and after 7500 BC.

11.2 Frequencies of the main domesticates from a sample of 88 Bronze Age sites across six regions within the Near East. Black = sheep and goats; grey = cattle; white = pigs.

11.3 Changing frequencies of prodomestic taxa (including sheep/goat, cattle, pigs) and wild taxa (gazelle, deer, wild equids, hare) in faunal assemblages from across the Near East in the PPNA, PPNB, Pottery Neolithic (PN), Chalcolithic (Chalc), Bronze Age (BA), and Iron Age.

13.1 General lithic waste products: 1. flake; 2. microburin; 3. burin spall; 4. bladelet core; 5. primary flake; 6. flake core; 7. core trimming elements (ridge blade); 8. blade core (navifom PPNB); 9. blade. Note different scales. All pieces from the Ben-Gurion University study collection.

13.2 General Neolithic types: 1. PPNB sickle blade; 2. denticulated Pottery Neolithic sickle segment; 3. PPNA Khiam point; 4. PPNA truncated notched piece; 5. PPNB Byblos point; 6. awl (non-diagnostic); 7. dihedral burin (non-diagnostic); 8. scraper (non-diagnostic); 9. PPNB axe. Scale approximate. Numbers 1 and 2 from Gilgal (Noy 1987). All other artifacts from Tel Teo (Gopher and Rosen 2001).

13.3 General post-Neolithic types. 1. Early Bronze Age Canaanean sickle segment; 2. Early Bronze Age Canaanean blade; 3, 5. Second millennium BC large geometric sickle segments; 4. awl (non-diagnostic); 6. Chalcolithic backed blade sickle segment; 7. microlithic lunate (desert Early Bronze Age); 8. microlithic drill (non-diagnostic); 9. Chalcolithic axe; 10. Early Bronze Age Canaanean blade core; 11. tabular scraper (Late Neolithic through Early Bronze Age). Note different scales. Upper scale is approximate (1, 2, 7, 8, and 10: Rosen 1997; 4: Levy and Rosen 1987; 6 and 9: Gopher and Rosen 2001; 3 and 11: Rosen 2004).

13.4 The evolution of arrowhead morphology in the Southern Levant as an example of general arrowhead evolution in the Near East.

14.1 Cylinder seal showing the use of the shaduf c.2200 BC (after Ward 1910: Fig. 397, Louvre A. 156).

14.2 Two-stage shaduf installation (7th century BC). Detail from a relief in Sennacherib’s Southwest Palace at Nineveh (BM 124820) (after Davies 1933: Fig. 10).

14.3 Irrigated park with aqueduct (7th century BC) at Nineveh, North Palace (BM 124039) (drawing by the author).

19.1 Ubaid-period boat models, cf. Table 19.1.

19.2 Painted ceramic disc from H3, As-Sabiyah (courtesy, British Archaeological Expedition to Kuwait).

19.3 Late Uruk and Jamdat Nasr glyptic. 1. Uruk IV (Lenzen 1961: Pl. 26a–b); 2. Uruk IV–III (Lenzen 1960: Pls. 26i, 31a–f); 3. Uqair (Lloyd and Safar 1943: 147–56, Pl. 30.115); 4. Uruk III (Amiet 1980 Pl. 46.655); 5. Tell Billa (Amiet 1980 Pl. 46.656); 6. Uruk (Amiet 1980: Pl. 13bis.G); 7. Unprovenanced (Amiet 1980: Pl. 46.657); 8. Unprovenanced (Amiet 1980: Pl. 40.609); 9. Susa, “Archaïque” (Amiet 1980: Pl. 15.260); 10. Susa, Proto-Elamite (Amiet 1980: Pl.38.589); 11. Susa, Proto-Elamite (Amiet 1980: Pl.38.588).]

19.4 Protoliterate signs relating to watercraft (Green and Nissen 1987: 241). Left: Sign 339, ma₂. Right: Sign 340, magur (ma₂ + sig₂, ur₅ or gug₂).

19.5 Early Dynastic and Akkadian glyptic. 1. Ur (Amiet 1980: Pl. 61.827); 2–3. Unprovenanced (Amiet 1980: Pls. 86.1134 and 1131); 4. Khafajah (Amiet 1980: Pl. 86.1135); 5. Hama (Amiet 1980: Pl. 91.1208); 6. Tell Asmar (Amiet 1980: Pl. 91.1204); 7–8. Fara (Amiet 1980: Pls. 86.1130 and 104.1374); 9. Kish (Amiet 1980: Pl. 107.1420); 10. Tell Asmar (Amiet 1980: Pl. 113.1505). 1 = ED I; 2–9 = ED I–III; 10 = Akkadian.

19.6 Clay model with S-shaped ends from Ur (U.19495), bottom of grave stratum, probably ED I (courtesy, British Museum).

19.7 Bitumen model from Ur (U.8848–9) (courtesy, British Museum).

19.8 Silver model from Ur (courtesy, Michael Roaf).

19.9 Boats from Dilmun Glyptic. 1. Saar, “early type” (al-Sindi), unknown if cemetery or settlement (Al-Sindi 1999: 50, no. 2); 2. Hamad Town (Al-Sindi 1999: 49, no. 1); 3. Failaka F3, redrawn since Potts 1995 (Kjærum 1983: cat. 263); 4. Failaka F6, redrawn since Potts 1995 (Kjærum 1983: cat. 266); 5. Failaka F3, double-sided seal (Kjærum 1983: cat. 343); 6. Failaka F6, double-sided (Kjærum 1983: cat. 351); 7. Failaka F6 (Kjærum 1983: cat. 264); 8. Failaka F6 (Kjærum 1983: cat. 265); 9. Saar settlement (Al-Sindi 1999: 54, no. 6); 10. Hamad Town (Al-Sindi 1999: 53, no. 5); 11. Failaka F3 (Kjærum 1983: cat. 262); 12. Hamad Town (Al-Sindi 1999: 51, no. 3); 13. Saar tomb S-267 (Type IV), double-sided (Ibrahim 1982: 81, Pl. 49.1); 14. Karranah (Al-Sindi 1999: 52, no. 4).

20.1 Archaeological sites mentioned in the text.

20.2 Sub-floor burials at the Late Neolithic site of Shir (photo T. Urban, German Archaeological Institute, Orient-Abteilung).

20.3 Storage buildings at the Late Neolithic site of Shir (photo T. Urban, German Archaeological Institute, Orient-Abteilung).

23.1 Pinarba

i, rock shelter and open site.

23.2 Epipaleolithic burial with skull removal at Pinarba

i.

23.3 Incised plaques and shaft-straighteners from Pinarba

i and Boncuklu.

23.4 Boncuklu sub-oval building.

23.5 Kaletepe obsidian workshop areas.

23.6 Settlement fluctuation in the Konya Plain survey area.

23.7 Çatal Höyük building.

23.8 Çatal Höyük settlement.

23.9 Çatal Höyük bucrania.

23.10 Boncuklu neonate burial in Building 3.

24.1 Alabaster statuette from Tell es-Sawwan cemetery, c.6000 BC (photo J. Oates).

24.2 Alabaster vessels from the Level 1 burials at Tell es-Sawwan (photo J. Oates).

24.3 Head of Samarran female clay figurine from Choga Mami, late 7th millennium BC. The hairstyle and earrings anticipate the style of the famous Warka head by some 3,000 years (photo J. Oates).

24.4 Architecture built with cigar-shaped bricks at Choga Mami (photo J. Oates).

27.1 Map showing the extent of greater Susiana.

28.1 Southern Mesopotamia, with major Bronze Age settlements and modern watercourses indicated. Land over 100 meters is hill-shaded.

28.2 Uruk, c.3100 BC. A. Area of 4th millennium settlement. B. Monumental tripartite buildings and other structures in the Eanna area (based on Finkbeiner 1991: Beilage 23; Forest 1996: Fig. 91).

28.3 Uruk period tripartite buildings from Habuba Kabira and Uruk, with earlier Ubaid tripartite buildings from Eridu and Tell Madhhur (based on Safar et al. 1981; Roaf 1989: Fig. 1; Kohlmeyer 1996: Fig. 3a; Forest 1996: Fig. 91).

28.4 Households of the later 3rd millennium BC: palaces from Uruk, Kish, and Eshnunna; domestic houses from Eshnunna Stratum V (Eichmann 2007: Beilage 157; Delougaz et al. 1967; Mackay 1929: Pls. 21–22).

28.5 Temples, palaces, and domestic houses in the urban fabric of Eshnunna, c.2200 BC (compiled from Delougaz et al. 1967).

28.6 A Middle Bronze Age neighborhood at Ur (based on Woolley and Mallowan 1976: Pl. 24). Gray areas are public space; buildings identified as neighborhood chapels are marked “C.”

28.7 Shaduppum, a Middle Bronze Age town (based on Baqir 1946: Fig. 1).

28.8 Nippur in the Kassite period, based on an ancient cuneiform map (black lines) and modern topography (gray lines). Italic labels are translated from the cuneiform inscriptions; all others are modern designations (based on Zettler 1993: Pls. 6–7).

30.1 A few key Middle Bronze Age and Late Bronze Age sites on the Anatolian plateau.

30.2 Plan of LBA Bo

azköy-Hattuša (after Seeher 2005; with permission from J. Seeher).

32.1 Map showing the location of Early and Middle Bronze Age sites in the Northern Levant mentioned in the text.

32.2 Early Bronze Age cylinder seal impression on a storage jar from Tell Fadous-Kfarabida.

32.3 Scale-beam made of bone from Tell Fadous-Kfarabida.

32.4 Reconstruction of the monumental tomb 302 at Jerablus-Tahtani (courtesy E.J. Peltenburg, Jerablus Tahtani Project).

32.5 Plan of the Middle Bronze Age building at Tell el-Burak (courtesy J. Kamlah and H. Sader, Tell el-Burak Project).

Tables

8.1 Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene periods in southwest Asia (simplified) with important Anatolian sites and approximate dates

9.1 The nine founder plants which were the basis of early farming in the Near East

9.2 Approximate dates in BP (before present) calibrated calendar years (minus 2000 years for BC cal dates)

9.3 Relative volume of cereals compared to grasses in the PPNA

9.4 Sites where pre-domestic cultivation has been proposed

19.1 Ubaid-period boat models

19.2 Materials for boats of different sizes

20.1 Main chronological periods in the Northern Levant, c.14,000–3300 BC

21.1 A schematic of the culture history of the southern Levant during the Neolithic and Chalcolithic

23.1 Chronological schema used in this chapter

27.1 Relative chronology of greater Susiana

28.1 Mesopotamian chronology, 3100–1000 BC (calendar dates are approximate)

Notes on Contributors

Javier Álvarez-Mon is a Senior Lecturer in Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of Sydney (Australia). He is the author of The Arjan Tomb: At the crossroads of the Elamite and Persian Empires (2010) and co-editor, with Mark B. Garrison, of Elam and Persia (2011).

Benjamin S. Arbuckle is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology, Baylor University (USA). He is an anthropological archaeologist whose research focuses on the origins and spread of animal economies in the ancient world, especially Anatolia.

Alina Ayvazian is a Visiting Professor in the Department of History and Cultures at the University of California, Merced (USA).

Christoph Bachhuber received his PhD from Oxford in 2008 and is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World at Brown University. He is currently completing a monograph entitled Material and Landscape in Early Bronze Age Anatolia: Citadels, cemeteries and their interpretation (forthcoming with Equinox, London). He was co-editor, with R.G. Roberts, of Forces of Transformation: The end of the Bronze Age in the Mediterranean (2009).

Ariel M. Bagg is a Privatdozent in the Assyriological Institute of the University of Leipzig (Germany). He is both an Assyriologist and a civil engineer and is the author of Assyrische Wasserbauten (2000) and Die Orts- und Gewässernamen der neuassyrischen Zeit. Teil 1: Die Levante (2007).

Douglas Baird is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Archaeology, Classics, and Egyptology at the University of Liverpool (UK). His particular interests are in the origins of agriculture and sedentism, urbanism and complex societies, landscape approaches in archaeology, and lithic analysis. He has conducted fieldwork extensively, most importantly at Pinarba

i, Boncuklu and the Konya plain (Turkey) and Tell esh-Shuna North (Jordan).

Heather D. Baker is a senior researcher at the University of Vienna (Austria). She has participated in numerous excavations in the Near East and specializes in the social, economic and political history and archaeology of Babylonia and Assyria in the 1st millennium BC, with a particular interest in urbanism and the built environment. She is currently leading a research project on the royal household in 1st millennium BC Mesopotamia.

E.B. Banning is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Toronto (Canada). He is the author of Archaeological Survey (2002) and The Archaeologist’s La...

Table of contents

• Cover
• BLACKWELL COMPANIONS TO THE ANCIENT WORLD
• Volume I
• Volume II
• Abbreviations
• References
• Index