During the excavations at Abu Salabikh between 1975 and 1989 cuneiform tablets of Early Dynastic date were found in a variety of contexts. Those from 1975–76 were published in Biggs and Postgate 1978, and were added to the sequence of Inscriptions from Abu Salabikh as numbers 516–32. Here all the remaining pieces from later seasons are now published, extending the sequence from IAS 533 to 556. In the first part of the article the distribution of cuneiform tablets across the site as a whole is considered, along with the question of what this may imply for the function of the buildings in which they were found. The second part of the article is an edition of the newly published pieces, and this is followed by an index to the proper nouns and words attested in all the administrative texts from the site.

This article presents a fragment of an Old Babylonian clay tablet excavated in 2007 at Tell Taban, ancient Ṭābatum, near Hassake in Syria. The text is a common Babylonian scholarly composition known as the Weidner god-list. It is the oldest exemplar of this list so far recovered from north Mesopotamia and important for the history of the diffusion of Babylonian scholarship.

The text discussed here is one of only two identified fragments of Mesopotamian instructions for tuning a stringed instrument. Apart from its rarity, this text is important in several other respects. It confirms the reconstruction of the tuning cycle suggested by the other tuning fragment (UET VII 74), it appears to belong to a duplicate manuscript of the tuning cycle, it supports the argument for the presence of the verb nê'um (as opposed to enûm) in Akkadian terminology for tuning, and it offers a revised reading of the music-theoretical term nīš GABA.RI as nīš tuḫri(m).

The fragment A 7876 (Oriental Institute, Chicago) occupies a special position among the cuneiform sources of the ritual Maqlû. The six-column tablet, inscribed in the Neo-Assyrian script of the 8th and 7th centuries BC, originally contained the complete text of the series with its nine canonical tablets. Taking into account the relevant duplicate manuscripts the article offers an annotated edition of this fragment and compares its style and format to other “large tablets” (dubgallu) of Babylonian literary texts.

This article uses both textual and archaeological evidence to examine the role of unbuilt land in the Babylonian city. Detailed study of such land is vital not only for understanding urban living conditions but also for any attempt to estimate urban population based on density of occupation of residential areas. By classifying and investigating unbuilt land according to its physical properties, modes of use and conditions of ownership, it is possible to reassess its role in the lives of the city-dwellers.

In the course of excavations at Abu Salabikh in the 1970s and 1980s bird bones were recovered in small numbers from a range of contexts. These have been identified and are described here. In general, they give a picture of the contemporary rural environment round the city in the mid-third millennium BC, and shed light on contemporary diet. One unusual find in particular is discussed in more detail: that of an entire goshawk skeleton placed near a child in a grave with an adult (Grave 158). This is an interesting piece of evidence which might be taken to illustrate the practice of falconry in Early Dynastic Mesopotamia.

Recent excavations at Tell Brak, Syria, have explored the site's early urban expansion, including excavation of Late Chalcolithic mass graves in a small mound at the site's outer edge. This mound built up rapidly and is primarily composed of industrial rubbish, particularly ceramics and flint debitage. The rubbish layers also contained nearly one thousand clay container sealings bearing stamp-seal impressions. The most important images represented are human figures in combat with lions, and caged single lions. These images date to ca 3800 BC and are evidence for the early development of the iconography and ideology of power and leadership.

Can texts explain all iconography? When seeking to explain images, can we use texts that are not contemporary with them? Ethnoarchaeology makes use of data from more distant periods and countries, but we must bear in mind the conservatism of Mesopotamian representations. Can texts be used to explain both “popular” and “official” iconography? Some answers are provided by a mould-made clay model excavated at Isin that depicts a deity with a bovine face in a doorway. It fits into a series of representations of gates associated with deities, and is one of a limited number depicting a deity with a bovine head.

The metal vessels known as the “Nimrud bowls” were discovered in the North-West Palace at Nimrud. Despite their clear archaeological context, the style and the iconographic themes of their decoration clearly betray that they are not the work of Assyrian craftsmen. Traditionally, they have been connected to the so-called “Phoenician bowls”. Today, a more general Levantine origin for the Nimrud bowls is proposed, although it has hitherto not been possible to determine their exact provenance. A review of the Nimrud bowls focusing specifically on their shape and decoration techniques provides new hints, hopefully contributing to a better understanding of the manufacture and function of these vessels. Furthermore, some characteristics shared by these vessels highlight the unity and homogeneity of the cluster and help to identify the manufacturers.

A new look at five stamp-seal amulets prompts the author to consider a particular type of Pazuzu-head amulet that has so far gone unnoticed and to publish for the first time the intaglio design on the reverse of one of them.