Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-cfpbc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T00:30:45.287Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Excavations at Tell Brak 1998: Preliminary report

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Extract

The 22nd season of excavations at Tell Brak took place in April and May of 1998, with David Oates as Project Director and Geoff Emberling as Field Director. It is our pleasure to mention institutions and people who made the project such a success. This season was primarily funded by the Adelaide Milton de Groot Fund (in memory of the de Groot and Hawley families) of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Carsten Niebuhr Institute of the University of Copenhagen, Dell Computer Corporation and the Museum of Anthropology of the University of Michigan also generously provided funds and equipment. We would like to thank Dr Sultan Muhesen, Director-General of Antiquities and Museums in Syria, for his encouragement and interest, as well as Dr Adnan Bounni, Director of Excavations, and our representative, Abd el Messih Baghdo. The excavation team this season was exceptionally enthusiastic and dedicated. Jack Cheng was registrar, a position that included designing an excavation database as well as photography and drawing; Tim Skuldboel and Torben Larsen were surveyors; Lisa Cooper, Zenia Hoeserich, Stine Rossel, Suanna Selby and Laura Tedesco were site supervisors; Michael Charles and Mette Marie Hald supervised the notation program; Jill Weber worked on faunal material; Jean-François de Lapérouse of the Metropolitan Museum was objects conservator; Henry Wright analysed samples of chipped stone; and Donald Hansen and Joan Oates gave crucial help in architecture, excavation and ceramic analysis. David Oates provided helpful advice and support. We thank them all for their many contributions to work in the field and to this report.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1999

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

Algaze, G. 1993: The Uruk World System. Chicago.Google Scholar
Behm-Blancke, M. (ed.) 1992: Hassek Höyük: Naturwissenschaftliche Untersuchungen und lithische Industrie. Istanbuler Forschungen 38. Tübingen.Google Scholar
Boessneck, J. 1988: Tierknochenfunde vom Tell Chuera/Nordost-Syrien, in U. Moortgat-Correns, Tell Chuera in Nordost-Syrien: Vorläufige Berichte über die neunte und zehnte Grabungskampagne 1982 und 1983. Berlin.Google Scholar
Boessneck, J., von den Driesch, A. and Steger, U. 1984: Tierknochenfunde der Ausgrabungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Baghdad in Uruk-Warka, Iraq, Baghdader Mitteilungen 15, 149–89.Google Scholar
Bökönyi, S. 1977: Animal Remains from the Kermanshah Valley, Iran. BAR International Series 34. Oxford.Google Scholar
Bollweg, J., and Nagel, W. 1992: Equiden Vorderasiens in sumerisch-akkadischen Schriftquellen und aus Ausgrabungen, Acta praehistorica et archaeologica 24, 1763.Google Scholar
Brown, C., and Gustafson, C. 1979: A Key to Posteranial Skeletal Remains of Cattle/Bison, Elk and Horse. Reports of Investigations, Department of Anthropology, Washington State University 57. Pullman.Google Scholar
Buitenhuis, H. 1988: Archeozoologisch Onderzoek Langs de Midden Eufraat. Doctoral dissertation, Rijksuniversiteit. Groningen.Google Scholar
Clutton-Brock, J. 1989: A Dog and a Donkey from Tell Brak, Iraq 51, 217–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clutton-Brock, J., and Davies, S. 1993: More Donkeys from Tell Brak, Iraq 55, 209–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delougaz, P. 1940: The Temple Oval at Khafajah. OIP 53. Chicago.Google Scholar
Deniz, E., and Payne, S. 1982: Eruption and Wear in the Mandibular Dentition as a Guide to Ageing Turkish Angora Goats, in Wilson, B., Grigson, C. and Payne, S. (eds.), Ageing and Sexing Animal Bones from Archaeological Sites. BAR International Series 109. Oxford.Google Scholar
Donbaz, V., and Yoffee, N. 1986: Old Babylonian Texts from Kish Conserved in the Istanbul Archaeological Museums. Bibliotheca Mesopotamica 17. Malibu, CA.Google Scholar
Driesch, A. von den 1976: A Guide to the Measurement of Animal Bones from Archaeological Sites. Peabody Museum Bulletin 1. Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Driesch, A. von den 1993: “Hausesel contra Hausonager”: Eine kritische Bemerkung zu einer Untersuchung von J. Bollweg und W. Nagel über die Equiden Vorderasiens, ZA 83, 258–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eidem, J., and Warburton, D. 1996: In the Land of Nagar: A Survey around Tell Brak, Iraq 58, 5164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fielden, K. 19781979: Archäologische Geländebegehung im Gebiet des Unteren Ǧaġǧaġ. AfO 26, 172.Google Scholar
Groves, C., and Willoughby, D. 1981: Studies on the Taxonomy and Phylogeny of the Genus Equus, 1: Subgeneric Classification of the Recent Species, Mammalia 45, 321–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanbury-Tenison, J. 1983: The 1982 Flaked Stone Assemblage at Jebel Aruda, Akkadica 33, 2733.Google Scholar
Heimpel, W. 1995: Plow Animal Inspection Records from Ur III Girsu and Umma, Bulletin on Sumerian Agriculture 8, 71171.Google Scholar
Irving, B. 1992: The Pectoral Fin Spines of European Catfish Siluris glanis: Cultural Artifacts or Food Remains, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 2, 189–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mallowan, M. 1947: Excavations at Brak and Chagar Bazar, Iraq 9, 1266.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthews, R. 1996: Excavations at Tell Brak, 1996, Iraq 58, 6578.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthiae, P. 1987: Les dernières découvertes d'Ebla en 1983–1986, Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 135–61.Google Scholar
Moseley, M. 1975: Prehistoric Principles of Labor Organization in the Moche Valley, Peru, American Antiquity 40 (2), 191–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oates, D. 1982a: Excavations at Tell Brak, 1978–81, Iraq 44, 187204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oates, D. 1982b: Brak, Tell, in Curtis, J. (ed.), Fifty Years of Mesopotamian Discovery: The Work of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq 1932–1982. London, 6271.Google Scholar
Oates, D. 1987: Excavations at Tell Brak 1985–86, Iraq 49, 175–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oates, D. and Oates, J. 1990: Aspects of Hellenistic and Roman Settlement in the Khabur Basin, in Matthiae, P.et al. (eds.), Resurrecting the Past: A Joint Tribute to Adnan Bounni. Uitgaven van het Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologisch Instituut te Istanbul 67. Leiden, 227–48.Google Scholar
Oates, D. and J., 1991: Excavations at Tell Brak 1990–91, Iraq 53, 127–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oates, D. and J., 1993: Excavations at Tell Brak 1992–93, Iraq 55, 155–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oates, D. and Oates, J. 1994: Tell Brak: A Stratigraphic Summary, Iraq 56, 167–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oates, D., Oates, J. and McDonald, H. 1997: Excavations at Tell Brak 1: The Mitanni and Old Babylonian Periods. Cambridge and London.Google Scholar
Oates, J. 1982: Some Late Early Dynastic III Pottery from Tell Brak, Iraq 44, 205–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oates, J. 1993: Trade and Power in the Fifth and Fourth Millennia BC: New Evidence from Northern Mesopotamia, World Archaeology 24 (3), 403–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oates, J. and Oates, D. 1997: An Open Gate: Cities of the Fourth Millennium BC (Tell Brak 1997), Cambridge Archaeological Journal 7 (2), 287307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Payne, S. 1973: Kill-off Patterns in Sheep and Goats: The Mandibles from Aşvan Kale, Anatolian Studies 23, 281303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Payne, S. 1988: Animal Bones from Tell Rubeidheh, in Killick, R. (ed.), Tell Rubeidheh: An Uruk Village in the Jebel Hamrin. Warminster, 98135.Google Scholar
Pope, M., and Pollock, S. 1996: Trade, Tools, and Tasks: A Study of Uruk Chipped Stone Industries, Research in Economic Anthropology 16, 227–65.Google Scholar
Postgate, J. N. 1986: The Equids of Sumer, Again, in Meadow, R. and Uerpmann, H.-P. (eds.), Equids in the Ancient World 1. Tübinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients A19/1. Wiesbaden, 194206.Google Scholar
Schwartz, G. 1994: Before Ebla: Models of Pre-State Political Organization in Syria and Northern Mesopotamia, in Stein, G. J. and Rothman, M. S. (eds.), Chiefdoms and Early States in the Near East: The Organizational Dynamics of Complexity. Monographs in World Archaeology 18. Madison, WI, 153–74.Google Scholar
Schwartz, G., and Curvers, H. 1992: Tell al-Raqa'i 1989 and 1990: Further Investigations at a Small Rural Site of Early Urban Northern Mesopotamia, AJA 96, 397419.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silver, I. 1969: The Ageing of Domestic Animals, in Brothwell, D. and Higgs, E. (eds.), Science in Archaeology. London, 283302.Google Scholar
Stein, G., Bernbeck, R., Coursey, C., McMahon, A., Miller, N., Misir, A., Nicola, J., Pittman, H., Pollock, S. and Wright, H. 1996a: Uruk Colonies and Anatolian Communities: An Interim Report on the 1992–1993 Excavations at Hacinebi, Turkey, AJA 100, 205–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stein, G., Boden, K., Edens, C., Edens, J. P., Keith, K., McMahon, A. and Ozbal, H. 1997: Excavations at Hacinebi, Turkey — 1996: Preliminary Report, Anatolica 23, 111–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stein, G., Edens, C., Miller, N., Özbal, H., Pearce, J. and Pittman, H. 1996b: Hacinebi, Turkey: Preliminary Report on the 1995 Excavations, Anatolica 22, 85128.Google Scholar
Strommenger, E., and Bollweg, J. 1996: Onager und Esel im alten Zentralvorderasien, in Gasche, J. and Hrouda, B. (eds.), Collectanea Orientalia: Histoire, arts de l'espace et industrie de la terre: Études offertes en hommage à Agnès Spycket. Neuchâtel, 349–66.Google Scholar
Van Lerberghe, K. 1996: The Beydar Tablets and the History of the Northern Jazirah, in Ismail, F.et al. (eds.), Administrative Documents from Tell Beydar (Seasons 1993–1995). Subartu 2. Turnhout, 119–22.Google Scholar
van Loon, M. 1979: 1974 and 1975 Preliminary Results of the Excavations at Selenkahiye near Meskene, Syria, AASOR 44, 97112.Google Scholar
Weber, J. forthcoming: Akkadian Period Faunal Remains from Tell Brak, in Oates, D., Oates, J. and McDonald, H., Excavations at Tell Brak 2. Cambridge and London.Google Scholar
Weiss, H., Courty, M.-A., Wetterstrom, W., Guichard, F., Senior, L., Meadow, R. and Curnow, A. 1993: The Genesis and Collapse of Third Millennium North Mesopotamian Civilization, Science 261, 9951004.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wright, H. (ed.) 1981: An Early Town on the Deh Luran Plain: Excavations at Tepe Farukhabad. University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology Memoir 13, Ann Arbor.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, H., Miller, N. and Redding, R. 1980: Time and Process in an Uruk Rural Center, in Barrelet, M.-T. (ed.), L'archeólogie de l'lraq du début de l'époque néolithique à 333 avant notre ère. Perspectives et limites de l'interpretation anthropologique des documents. Colloques Internationaux du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 580, Paris, 265–84.Google Scholar
Wright, H., Redding, R. and Pollock, S. 1989: Monitoring Interannual Variability: an Example from the Period of Early State Development in Southwestern Iran, in Halstead, P. and O'Shea, J. (eds.), Bad Year Economics: Cultural Responses to Risk and Uncertainty, Cambridge, 106–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zeder, M. 1988: Understanding Urban Process through the Study of Specialized Subsistence Economy in the Near East, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 7, 155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zeder, M. 1990: Animal Exploitation at Tell Halif, BASOR Supplement 26, 2430.Google Scholar
Zeder, M. 1994: After the Revolution: Post-Neolithic Subsistence in Northern Mesopotamia, American Anthropologist 96, 97126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zeder, M. 1995: The Archaeobiology of the Khabur Basin, BCSMS 29, 2132.Google Scholar