Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c47g7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T09:37:57.796Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Archaeological Investigations on the Uruk Mound, Abu Salabikh, Iraq

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Susan Pollock
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The 1987 field season was the first full season of work on the Uruk Mound at Abu Salabikh (see Postgate & Moon 1984 and Pollock 1987 for discussions of previous work). The interests and questions guiding this work center on the political economy of the Uruk period—the ways in which decisions of a political nature structure, and are structured by, economic activities. Our work thus far has provided preliminary insights into patterns of production, distribution, and consumption of both craft and subsistence goods. Because our samples are relatively small, the results of this season's work must be viewed as suggestive rather than definitive. The reader should also bear in mind that the analytical and interpretive study of the material is still underway. Fuller discussions of the work will be presented elsewhere (Pollock n.d. a, n.d. b).

In the 1987 season 2280 m2 of the mound was surface collected and 1805 m2 was scraped, mostly in 10 × 10 m units (Fig. 1). The scraping enabled us to further elucidate the plan of a large, well-constructed building in the 3D95 grid square that was first identified in 1985 (Pollock 1987). To the north of this building, we followed out an area of solid brick construction, revealing the remains of a mudbrick platform more than 55 × 32 m in extent. On the west edge of the mound, in grid squares 2C12–13, 23–24, we also found a massive brick construction, approximately 17 m wide. Its location near the mound's edge is suggestive of a town wall, but until we trace it further this idea remains highly speculative. Elsewhere, the scraping revealed either little in the way of coherent architecture or enigmatic areas of brick that do not at present yield any meaningful architectural plans.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 52 , 1990 , pp. 85 - 93
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, Robert McC., 1981. Heartland of Cities. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Desse, Jean, 1983. Les faunes du gisement obéidien final de Tell el ‘Oueili. In Larsa et Oueili Travaux de 1978–1981, Huot, J-L. (ed.), 193–197. Paris: Editions du CNRS.Google Scholar
Flannery, Kent & Wright, Henry, 1966. Faunal remains from the “Hut Sounding” at Eridu, Iraq. Sumer 22: 61–63.Google Scholar
Mudar, Karen, 1982. Early Dynastic III animal utilization in Lagash: A report on the fauna from Tell al-Hibba. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 41: 23–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearson, G. W., Pilcher, J. R., Baillie, M. G. L., Corbett, D. M., & Qua, F., 1986. High precision 14C measurement of Irish oaks to show the natural 14C variation from AD 1840 to 5210 BC. Radiocarbon 28(2b): 911–934.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollock, Susan, 1987. Abu Salabikh, the Uruk Mound 1985–86. Iraq 49: 121–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollock, Susan, n.d. a. Political economy as viewed from the garbage dump: Jemdet Nasr occupation at the Uruk Mound, Abu Salabikh. Paléorient, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Pollock, Susan, n.d. b. Archaeological investigations of the Uruk Mound, Abu Salabikh: The first seasons [tentative title]. Manuscript in preparation.Google Scholar
Postgate, J. Nicholas & Moon, Jane, 1982. Excavations at Abu Salabikh, 1981. Iraq 44: 103–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Postgate, J. Nicholas & Moon, Jane, 1984 Excavations at Abu Salabikh, a Sumerian city. National Geographic Society Research Reports (Year 1976) vol. 17: 721–743.Google Scholar
Wright, Henry, 1969. The administration of rural production in an early Mesopotamian town. University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology Anthropological Papers no. 38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, Henry, 1981 An early town on the Deh Luran plain: Excavations at Tepe Farukhabad. University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology Memoir no. 13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zeder, Melinda, 1985. Urbanism and animal exploitation in southwestern highland Iran (3400–1500 BC). PhD Dissertation, University of Michigan.Google Scholar