This paper studies mathematical aspects of earthwork projects in the Ur III city of Umma, c.2053–2032 b.c. The main purpose of this paper is to describe the practical procedures involved in moving earth for hydraulic works around Umma. It also shows how Old Babylonian pedagogical “mathematical texts” about earthworks, from the early second millennium b.c., are indebted to the practical procedures adopted by Ur III officials.

The statements of time-spans (Distanzangaben) were thoroughly investigated by scholars discussing the problem of Mesopotamian chronology in the second millennium B.C., and were recently the subject of a detailed article. Some of these statements are no more than approximate estimates (e.g. all the statements of time-spans in Nabonidus' inscriptions) and are of no help for the establishment of an exact chronological scheme. Other statements reflect the efforts of the scribes to base their calculations on available data, thus becoming an important source for the study of chronology.

The publication of the Assyrian King-Lists (henceforth AKL) accelerated the investigation and understanding of the statements of Distanzangaben of the Assyrian kings. Poebel, who believed that the AKL supplies all the necessary data for the establishment of an exact Assyrian chronology, tried to fit the statements of time-spans into his kinglists-based chronological scheme. Soon afterwards, Weidner took the same line of enquiry. Later on, Landsberger demonstrated that there is a major chronological gap in the tradition of the AKL following the reign of Išme-Dagan (son of Šamši-Addu I) and that it is impossible to establish an exact chronological scheme just by combining all the available numbers of regnal years. Landsberger proposed that in the time of the Middle Assyrian kingdom there had still existed an “ungekurzte Rezension der Königliste”, and that this recension had served as basis for the calculations of time-spans by Shalmaneser I and Tiglath-pileser I. By calculating these time-spans backwards he tried to overcome the gaps existing in the tradition of the AKL in its present form, and this approach was accepted by subsequent scholars.

In these pages, respectfully dedicated to Sir Leonard Woolley, I should like to give a catalogue of, and some random notes on, a group of texts from Ur and el-‘Obēd which may be called, with some qualification, ‘the early inscriptions.’ This label is meant to cover all the non-economic texts of the time between the Jemdet-Naṣr Period and the Guti Dynasty.

The three objects published in this article are the property of M. Jean Mariaud de Serres, to whom thanks are expressed for his willingness that they should be made available to scholarship. The one is an Old Babylonian private letter, measuring 61 × 45 mm, and is inscribed on both sides and three edges. It was sent by Ili-u-Šamaš, a man to judge from his name as known from other more explicit Old Babylonian contexts, to a lady, Šat-Emah. No other occurrences of this name have been noted by the present writer, though the type is a well known one. To judge from the mention of Sippar in lines 17–18 the sender seems to have lived there, or in the immediate vicinity. From the content of the letter it would seem that the addressee lived not too far from Sippar. She was certainly a land owner, and the sender was either the same or was involved in agricultural operations as a financier. After the address, the letter consists of a string of items continuing previous communications which cannot be elaborated from study of this letter alone. In view of the mention of Sippar one may wonder if the lady was a nadītum-priestess, since at this time they might own land. To judge from script and orthography, this letter is perhaps to be dated to the reign of Hammurabi or Samsu-iluna, but such an estimate can be only approximate. (For copy, see Fig. 1).

The purpose of this article is to present a hypothesis that the moon-god, Sumerian Nanna, Akkadian Su'en or Sin, and Amorite Erah or Yarah, called Sin-Amurru in AbB II, 82:10-11, may have been the patron god of a major group of Amorites in the early Old Babylonian period, and to consider possible implications particularly in Kish and Assur. The work was mainly done by Wu Yuhong as part of his thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Philosophy at Oxford University. It arose from his questioning the prevalent assumption that the moon-god invoked in oaths with a king was the patron god of a city with temporal power, suggesting instead that the patron god of a semi-nomadic Amorite tribe need not be linked to a single, specific city. Some information and assessment has since been added. The work was supervised by Dr. Stephanie Dalley, who composed the article and included the implications for the Assyrian King List and a number of details to support the hypothesis.

Bei unserem Besuch der Ruinen am I. Jan. 1927 haben wir trotz der Kürze der Zeit versucht, die bisherigen Pläne (bei Rassam, Asshur and the Land of Nimrod, S. 407, und Zehnpfund, A.O. XII. 3-4, Plan I, nach Scheil in Mémoires Instit. orient, du Caire, tome I) zu vervollständigen. Das nebenstehende Plänchen, Abb. I, ist das Ergebnis jenes Versuchs. Sie beruhen auf einer rasch ausgeführten Triangulation, deren Hauptpunkt auf dem Zikkurrat-Hügel lag, und einer Abschreitung des Tempel-Plateaus. Von der im N. und O. wohlerhaltenen Stadtmauer haben wir nur ein kurzes Stück, sowie ihre Entfernung vom Tempel-Plateau abgeschritten. Das übrige Stadtgebiet konnten wir nicht besuchen.

Dans un article au titre très évocateur «Aššur avant l'Assyrie», J.-M. Durand et D. Charpin avaient montré comment Samsî-Addu (ca. 1813–1775), quoiqu'il ne fût pas roi d'Assyrie, avait eu, en conquérant des territoires en amont d'Ekallâtum et à l'est du Tigre «la prescience géniale d'une unité géo-politique fondamentale permettant d'organiser toute la région du Nord-Est du Proche-Orient». Dans ce territoire conquis par le roi d'Ekallâtum, les deux auteurs signalent que deux villes, Aššur et Ninive, «semblent avoir été de tout temps majeures». Pour l'époque médio-assyrienne plus précisément, l'étude des relations des deux villes est éclairante à deux titres. D'une part l'époque médio-assyrienne est le premier moment où justement l'Assyrie comme entité politique commence à exister sous le règne du roi Aššur-uballiṭ (ca. 1363–1328). Ce dernier prit le titre de roi du pays d'Aššur, donnant ainsi pour la première fois à sa charge une dimension territoriale. D'autre part, on peut s'interroger sur la place de Ninive dans l'empire médio-assyrien dont P. Garelli a montré dès 1967 la très forte centralisation, qui paraît confirmée par chaque nouvelle découverte archéologique ou épigraphique.

Anatolian prehistory has had great pioneers: Myres, Ormerod, Frankfort, Götze and others. Yet, in its present form, it is one of the youngest branches of archaeology. We might say that it was born when the Alişar excavations were in progress, round about 1930, on which reckoning it is less than twenty years old. Unfortunately for us in England, it grew with the rapidity of adolescence between 1939 and 1945 when our attention was otherwise engaged.

During the war Turkish scholars were extremely active, and made some very important discoveries. German scholars were active too, at first in the field, later in research. The fresh material, like the comments thereon, has been published mainly in Turkish or in German works, the former being accessible but not always translated, the latter for the most part not available in England. Therefore a person whose opportunities and obligations have led to the study of both Turkish and German periodicals should try to make the results available: hence this paper. It is not, of course, confined strictly to the chronological and linguistic limits just mentioned, nor is it purely objective. For not only is a summary of facts needed, but also indications of the manner in which they might modify preconceived notions. Those indications may prove to be wrong. And whether much modification is needed depends on the notions. On almost every question one should keep an open mind, since excavation and exploration are still being carried on intensively, and new factors are continually introduced.

The British Museum possesses parts of a small bottle of clear glass with the figures of two dancing-girls, birds, pomegranate-trees, shrubs, and the fragment of an Arabic inscription painted on it in gold. Admittedly it is one of the finest pieces of Saracenic glass and—as far as that type goes—an early specimen. Its attribution to the Mamluk Sultan Isma'īl, first suggested by Migeon, has been rightly rejected both by Gaston Wiet and C. J. Lamm. The purpose of this note is to submit a new date for this object (Fig. 1) and some reasons in its support.

One of the most popular subjects in the figurative art of Arabic-speaking countries is the dancing-girl. One cannot help feeling that it was just the society which revelled in the drinking of wine, dancing, the use of musical instruments, and other pleasures either forbidden or considered improper by religious law that enabled the artist to get over the unfriendly attitude towards painting the living form, and made him prefer depicting these scenes rather than the more serious aspects of life.

To speak about Nineveh from the perspective of the archives of Mari may seem rash: the Middle Euphrates is a long way from the banks of the Tigris. Yet the importance of Nineveh and its shrine was such that several texts found at Mari mention it as what must then have been a religious metropolis.

During the period when Mari was under the dominion of Samsî-Addu, his son, Yasmah-Addu, sat on its throne. He was primarily responsible for affairs in the west, but personally participated in the military campaign marked by the fall of Nineveh and received numerous letters informing him of military events related to this event. Even after the conquest of Mari, when Yasmah-Addu had left the area, news of Nineveh and its surroundings went on arriving at the capital of the Middle Euphrates and continued to do so more sporadically in the era of Zimrî-Lîm.

I would like first to present the data relevant to the geography and toponymy of the kingdom of Nurrugûm, to which Nineveh belonged at that time, and then to reconstruct the campaign that led to the fall of Nineveh and the complete annexation of the kingdom. I will end with some remarks on the famous commemorative inscription placed by Samsî-Addu in the temple Emenue at Nineveh.

The ancient city of Nigin in the State of Lagash is largely attested in the epigraphic sources of the rulers of the First Dynasty of Lagash. Conversely, the archaeological evidence of the Early Dynastic Period is so far very scanty and limited. This paper presents a small group of documents to be dated to the Early Dynastic Period IIIb that were found out of context, but that nevertheless point to a phase of occupation of Nigin in the third millennium BC and are coherent with the information we already know about history of the city and the State of Lagash.

Excavations continued on a wide range of projects in Iraq during 1989 and the earlier part of 1990. Particular emphasis was laid upon research excavations, although some rescue projects continued. We are extremely grateful to the Iraqi Department of Antiquities and Heritage and its Director-General, Dr. Mu'ayyad Sa'id Damerji, for assistance throughout the period of excavations. The reports have been compiled by Roger Matthews and Tony Wilkinson from information supplied directly by the excavators to whom, as always, we are especially indebted and whose indulgence we seek for any mistakes contained herein.

As usual, the sites are arranged alphabetically, ignoring non-specific initial words such as al-, Tell, Khirbet, etc.

A recent review of the state of Ubaid archaeology has urged that more Ubaid sites be excavated and published, and that patterns of Ubaid settlement should be analyzed at a regional scale (Henrickson and Thuesen 1989: pp. 457-8). The primary objective of this paper is therefore rather straightforward: to provide some basic data on artifacts in context from a small excavated Ubaid 3-4 site located within the zone of rain-fed cultivation, and to place these within a regional frame of analysis. The information described, being from both excavation and survey, provides a valuable opportunity to place excavated data within a regional context and to compare this with equivalent data from southern Mesopotamia. It may also provide some insights into the spread of the Ubaid from the south into Upper Mesopotamia.

The site of Khanijdal East was recorded as part of the North Jazira Survey conducted between 1986 and 1990 in the north-west of Iraq immediately north of the Jebel Sinjar. This report amplifies, and in places updates, a summary statement previously made, and rather than repeating already published statements (Wilkinson and Tucker 1995; Ball, Tucker and Wilkinson 1989), we will limit the regional discussion to the addition of supplementary data derived from the primary survey record of the north Jazira project. This additional information should add some fuel to debate on the existence (or otherwise) of regional site hierarchies for the period. Although the data provided from this low-order settlement are, like the settlement itself, rather modest, we feel that publication is justified because, at present, students of this period in Upper Mesopotamia are restricted to a rather small range of sites, such as Gawra, Leilan, Telul al-Thalathat, Tell Hammam et-Turkman, Arpachiyah, Tell Kashkashok and Yarim Tepe, together with a few more that are not yet fully published.

Les fouilles d'Y. Calvet, membre de la mission française à Larsa dirigée par J.-L. Huot, ont mis en évidence entre 1987 et 1989 trois grandes maisons d'un quartier situé dans la partie nord-est du tell, occupé au début du 2e millénaire avant J.-C. Bien que seule la poursuite des fouilles puisse le vérifier, il s'agit d'un quartier qui se différencie des quartiers contemporains d'Ur, de Nippur, de Sippar, de Tell Halawa et de Tell Harmal. L'une des trois maisons fouillées confirme le caractère exceptionnel de ce quartier, en offrant des aspects qui la distinguent de toutes les autres demeures fouillées, non seulement sur ce site, mais également ailleurs. Ces particularités partent du plan et de l'organisation de la maison; l'analyse volumétrique a déjà fait l'objet d'une étude détaillée.

Middle Assyrian texts have a phrase ṭuppa ṣab¯atu, which is usually understood to mean “to take (possession of) a tablet”. There is a corresponding type of tablet called a ṭuppu ṣabittu (plural (ṭuppatu ṣabbutātu). This article contends that ṭuppa ṣabātu is a technical term for drawing up a formal document, and that ṭuppu ṣabittu is a “formally drawn-up tablet”, normally if not invariably involving at least one seal impression, used both in private commercial contexts and in public administration. It is further maintained that this usage survives into Neo-Assyrian times, when its most frequent (but not exclusive) usage is at the end of a legal document where a witness (often identified as a scribe) is described as ṣābit ṭuppi: this has been understood to mean that this scribe retained possession of the document, or that a third party “kept” the document. In the light of the fresh Middle Assyrian evidence, it is preferable to see it as referring to the scribe “who drew up the document”.

Recent excavations at Tell Sitak in Iraqi Kurdistan contribute new information on the Neo-Assyrian and Sasanian occupation of this region. The site was most likely occupied between the eighth and sixth centuries b.c., in other words during the Neo-Assyrian period and perhaps for some time after. Architectural remains suggest that during this phase its primary function may have been as a fortress; smaller finds include ceramics and one Neo-Assyrian cuneiform tablet. The site was occupied again in the later Sasanian period, perhaps between the fourth and seventh centuries a.d. Remains from this period include ceramics carrying a variety of stamp seal impressions and substantial evidence for ironworking at the site.

The occasion of the seventy-fifth birthday of Professor Emeritus C. J. Gadd provides a welcome opportunity to add a humble footnote to one of the pages of his life's work.

In 1958 Professor Gadd published his model edition of the Harran inscriptions of Nabonidus, discovered in 1956 by the late Professor D. S. Rice whilst examining the ruined Great Mosque at Harran. Professor Gadd agreed with Rice and others that the find-place of the three stelae H 1 B, H 2 A and H 2 B disposed of any doubt which might ever have arisen, on the basis of Pognon's discovery of the related stela H 1 A at Eski Harran, as to the correctness of the traditional identification of Islamic Harran with the ancient city of that name.

Whilst the site of the ancient city of Harran is not seriously questioned, the position is otherwise with the site of the main temple associated with it, É.ḪÚL.ḪÚL. Although there is a tradition that the Great Mosque at Harran was built on the site of a pagan temple, it does not necessarily follow that it was built above É.ḪÚL.ḪÚL or its Sabian successor, since classical and Islamic reports indicate that there was more than one moon temple in the neighbourhood of Harran, in addition to other sacred buildings. Equally, there is more than one site in the neighbourhood of Harran for which there is archaeological evidence that the worship of the Moon-God was practised there in antiquity. Whilst Eski Harran may now be disregarded, Aşagi Yarimca and Sultan Tepe both have good claims to the possession of an Assyrian temple.

In May 1942 the Directorate-General of Antiquities decided to make soundings in the ancient site called ‘Aqar Qüf, whose ruined ziggurat is a familiar landmark in the plain about 20 miles to the west of Baghdad. There proved to be very little difficulty in tracing the four buttressed sides of the ziggurat itself, and on the south-east side the remains were found of a triple staircase of kiln-baked brick which had evidently led up to the summit, and corresponded closely to that of the Kassite ziggurat at Ur. Stamped bricks in the fabric of this staircase confirmed the identification of the site with the Kassite city called Dûr Kurigalzu.

Early in the following year the Excavations Committee of the Department, headed by Mr. Seton Lloyd, F.S.A., Technical Adviser, decided on further large-scale excavations at ‘Aqar Qūf. One reason for the selection of the site was an economic one. Owing to war-time transport difficulties it was essential that any excavating work should be in the vicinity of Baghdad. Secondly the work provided an opportunity both for visitors to Baghdad and Iraqis themselves to see an archaeological excavation in progress. Many hundreds of Allied troops visited the site while the work was in progress, and parties of school-teachers and students were frequently escorted round the ruins. Finally, the archaeological importance of the site has long been evident. It represents a period in the history of Iraq concerning which there are few sources of information, and whose chronology is still controversial. Furthermore, it is a period during which the international relations of the various Middle East States are extremely interesting, as witnessed, for example, by the Amarnah Letters'.

It has recently been suggested that the Early Dynastic buildings at Tello were so inadequately recorded that they should be excluded from any study of the architecture of the period (Tunca 1984: p. xxi). A re-examination of the published material suggests that this is an unnecessarily defeatist conclusion. A number of possibilities deserve serious consideration, at least insofar as they concern the buildings on Tell K known as the Construction Inférieure and the Maison des Fruits. The evidence presented here is drawn from the summary of the excavations published by Parrot in 1948, and from the earlier work by de Sarzec and Heuzey. The sections and plans are taken from Parrot's plans 13 and 15 and his identifying numbers and letters have been retained for ease of reference (Fig. 1).

The first construction which concerns us here (Fig. 1 (ii)–(iv)), is a pavement of Mosul marble lying 8·48 m above plain level and marked ‘a’ on Parrot's plan 13. This is the first in a series of building operations (de Sarzec 1884–1912: p. 412) of which the second seems to have been the erection of a single room on the platform, marked on the plan as room 1. The section in the centre of plan 13 marked “Deuxième état” (Fig. 1 (iii) ) indicates clearly that room 2, which Parrot thought was contemporary with room 1, was in fact a later addition as its exterior wall rests on the later brick packing ‘f’ and not on pavement ‘a’. It should be noted that the section marked “Premier état” on plan 13 does not appear in the earlier excavation reports and seems to be Parrot's secondary interpretation of the evidence, rather than that of the excavators. It should also be noted that the direction of the North arrow appears to have been reversed on Parrot's plan when compared with the earlier ones. The direction shown on de Sarzec's plans will be used here.