The first two seasons of excavation by the Iraq Directorate-General of Antiquities at Eridu (Tell Abu Shahrein) lasted from December to March in 1946–47 and 1947–48. They were directed by Professor Fuad Safar, with myself as Technical Adviser. A third season was already in progress when I left Iraq early in 1949, to take up a new post as Director of the newly founded British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara. Preliminary reports on the excavations were published by Professor Safar and myself in the journal Sumer, as will be seen from the short bibliography below, and they were followed by various specialist articles and commentaries. The final publication has raised some more complicated problems, and, to judge by the many enquiries on the subject which Professor Safar and I myself have received, it seems probable that archaeological colleagues and others may be interested in the steps more recently taken to make this important material generally available.