Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-21T14:41:04.310Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

KURD QABURSTAN ON THE ERBIL PLAIN: FIELD RESEARCH 2016–2017

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 November 2022

Glenn M. Schwartz ,
Andrew T. Creekmore III ,
Alexia Smith ,
Jill A. Weber  and
Lyndelle Webster
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A 2016 study season and 2017 excavation season at the 95-hectare walled site of Kurd Qaburstan on the Erbil plain have generated a variety of new results. Geophysical survey on the lower town revealed details of the Middle Bronze occupation in the southeast part of the site, including the city wall, a large open area, streets, houses, and a monumental temple comparable to examples from Tell al Rimah, Aššur, and Larsa. Excavations confirmed the Middle Bronze date of the temple and explored further Middle Bronze contexts elsewhere on the lower town. On the High Mound North Slope, Middle Bronze occupation included a fortification wall and large-scale architecture inside it. On the High Mound East, Late Bronze architecture of apparent elite character was documented. Archaeobotanical analyses complementing the excavations reveal the existence of naan-style bread in both Middle and Late Bronze contexts. Given radiocarbon and ceramic results, the Middle Bronze occupation at Kurd Qaburstan is datable to c. 1800 B.C., while the Late Bronze phases on the High Mound East belong to an early LB horizon in the 16–15th centuries B.C., perhaps predating the imposition of Mittani political authority in the region.

نتج عن موسم الدراسة لعام 2016 وموسم التنقيب لعام 2017 في الموقع المسور الذي تبلغ مساحته 95 هكتارًا في كورد قابرستان في سهل أربيل مجموعة متنوعة من النتائج الجديدة . كشف المسح الجيوفيزيائي للبلدة السفلية عن تفاصيل الإستيطان من العصر البرونزي الأوسط في الجزء الجنوبي الشرقي من الموقع ، بما في ذلك سور المدينة ، ومنطقة مفتوحة كبيرة ، وشوارع ، ومنازل ، ومعبد ضخم مماثل لأمثلة من تل الرماح ، وآشور ، و . لارسا . أكدت الحفريات التاريخ البرونزي الأوسط للمعبد واستكشفت سياقات إضافية من البرونز الأوسط في أماكن أخرى من المدينة السفلى . على المنحدر الشمالي من التل المرتفع ، اشتمل الاحتلال البرونزي الأوسط على جدار تحصين وعمارة واسعة النطاق بداخله . في التل المرتفع الشرقي High Mound East ، تم توثيق عمارة ذات شخصية فاخرة واضحة من العصر البرونزي المتأخر . تكشف التحليلات الأثرية النباتية المكملة للحفريات عن وجود أقراص من الخبز في السياقات البرونزية الوسطى والمتأخرة . بالنظر إلى نتائج الكربون المشع والسيراميك ، فإن الاحتلال البرونزي الأوسط في كورد قبرستان يعود الى حوالي عام 1800 قبل الميلاد ، بينما تنتمي المراحل البرونزية المتأخرة على التل المرتفع الشرقي إلى أفق برونزي متأخر في القرنين السادس عشر إلى الخامس عشر قبل الميلاد ، وربما تسبق تاريخ فرض سلطة ميتاني Mittani السياسية في المنطقة .

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 84 , December 2022 , pp. 189 - 230
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 2022

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

Al-Maqdissi, M. 2007. “Notes d'Archéologie Levantine VI bis: À propos d'une statuette en basalt trouvée à Mishrife-Qatna”. Al-Rafidan 27: 75–82.Google Scholar
Armstrong, J. and Gasche, H.. 2014. Mesopotamian Pottery: A Guide to the Babylonian Tradition in the Second Millennium B.C. Ghent: University of Ghent/Chicago: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Arranz-Otaegui, A., Carretero, L. Gonzalez, Ramsey, M. N., Fuller, D. Q. and Richter, T.. 2018. “Archaeobotanical Evidence Reveals the Origins of Bread 14,400 Years Ago in Northeastern Jordan”. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 115 (31): 7925–7930.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Instruments, Bartington. N.d. Operation Manual for Grad601 Single Axis Magnetic Field Gradiometer System. Available at <https://www.bartington.com/wpcontent/uploads/pdfs/operation_manuals/GRAD601_OM1800.pdf>. Accessed 13 June 2019..+Accessed+13+June+2019.>Google Scholar
Bor, N. L. 1968. Flora of Iraq, Vol. 9. Baghdad: Ministry of Agriculture, Republic of Iraq.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009. “A Bayesian Analysis of Radiocarbon Dates.” Radiocarbon 51: 337–360.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buck, C., Kenworthy, J., Litton, C. and Smith, A.. 1991. “Combining Archaeological and Radiocarbon Information: A Bayesian Approach to Calibration”. Antiquity 65: 808–821.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buck, C., Litton, C. and Smith, A.. 1992. “Calibration of Radiocarbon Results Pertaining to Related Archaeological Events”. Journal of Archaeological Science 19: 497–512.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carter, R., Wengrow, D., Saber, S. A., Hamarashi, S. J., Shepperson, M., Roberts, K., Lewis, M. P., Marsh, A., González Carretero, L., Sosnowska, H., D'Amico, A., Sagan, W. and Lockyear, K.. 2020. “The Later Prehistory of the Shahrizor Plain, Kurdistan Region of Iraq: Further Investigations at Gurga Chiya and Tepe Marani”. Iraq 82: 41–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carter, T. 1970. “The Stone Spirits”. Expedition 12: 22–40.Google Scholar
Charpin, D. 2015. “Le mariage d'une princesse de Qabra avec un prince de Qaṭna”, in Marti, L., Nicolle, C. and Shawaly, K., eds. Recherches en Haute Mésopotamie II: Mission archéologique de Bash Tapa (campagnes 2012-2013) et les enjeux de la recherche dans la région d'Erbil (Mémoires de N.A.B.U. 17). Paris: SEPOA, pp. 5–12.Google Scholar
Davis, P. H. 1965–1985. Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands, Vols. 1–9. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press.Google Scholar
de Voogt, A., Dunn-Vaturi, A. and Eerkens, J.. 2013. “Cultural Transmission in the Ancient Near East: Twenty Squares and Fifty-Eight Holes”. Journal of Archaeological Science 40: 1715–1730.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fitzgerald, M. 2010. “Temple Building in the OB Period”, in Boda, M. and Novotny, J., eds. From the Foundations to the Crenellations: Essays on Temple Building in the Ancient Near East and Hebrew Bible. Alter Orient und Altes Testament 366. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, pp. 35–48.Google Scholar
Frane, J. 1996. The Tell Leilan Period I Habur Ware Assemblage. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.Google Scholar
González Carretero, L., Wollstonecroft, M. and Fuller, D. Q.. 2017. “A Methodological Approach to the Study of Archaeological Cereal Meals: A Case Study at Çatalhöyük East (Turkey)”. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 26 (4): 415–432.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heiss, A. G., Pouget, N., Wiethold, J., Delor-Ahü, A. and Goff, I. Le. 2015. “Tissue-based Analysis of a Charred Flat Bread (Galette) from a Roman Cemetery at Saint-Memmie (Dép. Marne, Champagne-Ardenne, North-eastern France)”. Journal of Archaeological Science 55: 71–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Helbaek, H. 1966. “The Plant Remains from Nimrud”, in Mallowan, M., ed., Nimrud and its Remains Vol. II. New York: Dodd, Mead, and Co., pp. 613–620.Google Scholar
Huot, J.-L. 2014. L'E.babbar de Larsa aux IIeet Ier millénaires (Fouilles de 1974 à 1985). Beirut: Presses de l'IFPO.Google Scholar
Koliński, R. 2000. Tell Rijim, Iraq: the Middle Bronze Age Layers. Oxford: Archaeopress. British Archaeological Reports International Series 837.Google Scholar
Kopanias, K., Beuger, C., MacGinnis, J., and Ur, J.. 2016. “The Tell Baqrta Project in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq” in MacGinnis, J., Wicke, D., and Greenfield, T., eds. The Provincial Archaeology of the Assyrian Empire. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, pp. 117–28.Google Scholar
Larssen, A., Frahm, E. and Wagensonner, K., eds. 2019. Ancient Mesopotamia Speaks: Highlights of the Yale Babylonian Collection. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Lebeau, M. 1983. “Mari 1979: Rapport préliminaire sur la céramique du Chantier A”. M.A.R.I. 2: 165–93.Google Scholar
Llop, J. 2011. “The Creation of the Middle Assyrian Provinces”. Journal of the American Oriental Society 131: 591–603.Google Scholar
MacGinnis, J. 2018. “The Ancient History of the City of Erbil ab urbe condita until the Coming of Alexander”. Études Mésopotamiennes-Mesopotamian Studies 1: 63–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marti, L. and Nicolle, C.. 2015. “Premiers éclairages sur l'urbanisation du ‘triangle assyrien’” in Marti, L., Nicolle, C., and Shawaly, K., eds. Recherches en Haute Mésopotamie II: Mission archéologique de Bash Tapa (campagnes 2012–2013) et les enjeux de la recherche dans la région d'Erbil (Mémoires de N.A.B.U. 17). Paris: SEPOA, pp. 113–34.Google Scholar
Masetti-Rouault, M. 2020. “Late Bronze and Iron Age Levels from Qasr Shemamok: A First Evaluation of the Impact of the Assyrian Presence in the Region East of Calah”, in Otto, A., Roaf, M., and Kaniuth, K., eds., Proceedings of the 11th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Vol. 2: Field Reports. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, pp. 253–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McMahon, A. and Frane, J.. 2009. “Ceramic Assemblage and Social Inference”, in McMahon, A., Once There was a Place: Settlement Archaeology at Chagar Bazar, 1999–2002. London: British Institute for the Study of Iraq, pp. 161–92.Google Scholar
Miglus, P. 2013. “Tempel. B. Archäologisch.” Reallexikon der Assyriologie 14: 530–76.Google Scholar
Morandi Bonacossi, D., Qasim, H., Coppini, C., Gavagnin, K., Girotto, E., Iamoni, M., and Tonghini, C.. 2018. “The Italian-Kurdish Excavations at Gir-e Gomel in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Preliminary Report on the 2017 and 2018 Field Seasons.” Mesopotamia 53: 67–162.Google Scholar
Nesbitt, M. 2006. Identification Guide for Near Eastern Grass Seeds. London: University College London, Institute of Archaeology.Google Scholar
Novák, M. 2007. “Mittani Empire and the Question of Absolute Chronology: Some Archaeological Considerations” in Bietak, M. and Czerny, E., eds. The Synchronisation of Civilisations in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Second Millennium B.C. III. Vienna: Verlag der Österreischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, pp. 389–401.Google Scholar
Oates, D. 1982. “Tell al Rimah”, in Curtis, J., ed. Fifty Years of Mesopotamian Discovery: The Work of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq 1932–1982. London: British School of Archaeology in Iraq, pp. 86–98.Google Scholar
Oguchi, H. 2014. “The Distribution of Nuzi Ware and its Implication”, in Özfırat, A., ed. Arkeolojiyle Geçen Bir Yaşam Için Yazılar: Veli Sevin'e Armağan - SCRIPTA - Essays in Honor of Veli Sevin: A Life Immersed in Archaeology. Istanbul: Ege Yayınları, pp. 215–232.Google Scholar
Oselini, V. 2020. “Defining the MB-LB Transition in Northern Mesopotamia: Some Archaeological Considerations on the New Data from the Erbil Plain and Neighboring Regions”, in Coppini, C. and Simi, F., eds. Interactions and New Directions in Near Eastern Archaeology, West and East 4. Trieste: Edizioni Università di Trieste, pp. 205–220.Google Scholar
Otto, A. 2019. “Marketplaces in Syro-Mesopotamia in the Second Millennium BC in the Light of New Archaeological Research”, in Rahmstorf, L. and Stratford, E., eds. Weights and Marketplaces from the Bronze Age to the Early Modern Period. Kiel: Wachholtz Verlag: pp. 203–217.Google Scholar
Peltenburg, E., ed. 2015. Tell Jerablus Tahtani, Syria, I: Mortuary Practices at an Early Bronze Age Fort on the Euphrates River. Levant Supplementary Series 17. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Peyronel, L., Minniti, C., Moscone, D., Naime, Y., Oselini, V., Perego, R., and Vacca, A.. 2019. “The Italian Archaeological Expedition in the Erbil Plain, Kurdistan Region of Iraq: Preliminary Report on the 2016–2018 Excavations at Helawa”. Mesopotamia 54: 1–104.Google Scholar
Pfälzner, P. 2007. “The Late Bronze Age Ceramic Traditions of the Syrian Jazirah,” in al-Maqdissi, M., Matoïan, V., and Nicolle, C. (eds.), Céramique de l’âge du bronze en Syria II: L'Euphrate et la region de Jézireh, pp. 239–299. Beirut: Institut français du Proche-Orient.Google Scholar
Pfälzner, P. and Qasim, H.. 2020. “From Akkadian Maridaban to Middle Assyrian Mardama. Excavations at Bassetki in 2018 and 2019.” Zeitschrift für Orient-Archäologie 13: 12–89.Google Scholar
Pons, N. 1999. “Les principales formes de poterie mariote de l’époque des Šakkanaku à la chute de la ville sous Zimrilim: rapports avec Babylonie”. Akkadica 114-115: 1–58.Google Scholar
Popova, T. 2016. “Bread Remains in Archaeological Contexts”, in Bacvarov, K. and Gleser, R., (eds.), Southeast Europe and Anatolia in Prehistory: Essays in Honor of Vassil Nikolov on His 65th Anniversary. Bonn: Habelt , pp. 519–26.Google Scholar
Postgate, C., Oates, D. and Oates, J.. 1997. The Excavations at Tell al Rimah: The Pottery. Warminster: Aris and Phillips/ British School of Archaeology in Iraq.Google Scholar
Proctor, L. 2021. “Fueling Socioeconomic Complexity: Fuel Use and Fuel Economies During the Chalcolithic and Iron Ages of Northern Mesopotamia”. PhD Dissertation, University of Connecticut.Google Scholar
Puljiz, I., and Qasim, H.. 2019. “A New Mittani Centre on the Middle Tigris (Kurdistan Region). Report on the 2018 Excavations at Kemune.” Zeitschrift für Orient-Archäologie 12: 10–43.Google Scholar
Rahmstorf, L. 2018. “Of Middens and Markets: Detecting Marketplaces in the Bronze Age and Beyond”, in Hahn, H. and Schmitz, G., eds. Market as Place and Space of Economic Exchange: Perspectives from Archaeology and Anthropology. Oxford: Oxbow, pp. 20–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reade, J. 1968. “Tell Taya (1967), Summary Report”. Iraq 30: 234–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reimer, P., Austin, W., Bard, E., Bayliss, A., Blackwell, P., Bronk Ramsey, C., Butzin, M., et al. 2020. “The IntCal20 Northern Hemisphere Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curve (0-55 cal kBP)”. Radiocarbon 62 (4): 725–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ristvet, L. 2014. Ritual, Performance, and Politics in the Ancient Near East. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rouault, O. 2016. “Qasr Shemamok (ancient Kilizu), a Provincial Capital East of the Tigris: Recent Excavations and New Perspectives”, in MacGinnis, J., Wicke, D., and Greenfield, T., eds. The Provincial Archaeology of the Assyrian Empire. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, pp. 151–62.Google Scholar
Schwartz, G. 2016. “Kurd Qaburstan, A Second Millennium BC Urban Site: First Results of the Johns Hopkins Project”, in Kopanias, K. and MacGinnis, J., eds., The Archaeology of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and Adjacent Regions. Oxford: Archaeopress, pp. 385–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwartz, G., Brinker, C., Creekmore III, A., Feldman, M., Smith, A., and Weber, J.. 2017. “Excavations at Kurd Qaburstan, A Second Millennium BC Urban Site on the Erbil Plain”. Iraq 79: 213–255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwartz, G., Curvers, H., Dunham, S. and Stuart, B.. 2003. “A Third-Millennium BC Elite Tomb and Other New Evidence from Tell Umm el-Marra, Syria”. American Journal of Archaeology 107: 325–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Starr, R. 1937. Nuzi. Report on the Excavations at Yorgan Tepa Near Kirkuk 1927-1936. Vol. 2: Plates and Plans. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Stein, D. 1984. Khabur Ware and Nuzi Ware: Their Origin, Relationship, and Significance. Assur 4/1. Malibu: Undena.Google Scholar
Steinkeller, P. 1998. “The Historical Background of Urkesh and the Hurrians Beginnings in Northern Mesopotamia”, in Buccelati, G. and Kelly-Buccelati, M., eds. Urkesh and the Hurrians: Studies in Honor of Lloyd Cotsen. Malibu: Undena, pp. 75–98.Google Scholar
Stone, E., Lindsley, D., Pigott, V., Harbottle, G., and Ford, M.. 1998. “From Shifting Silt to Solid Stone: The Manufacture of Synthetic Basalt in Ancient Mesopotamia”, Science 280: 2091–93.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Townsend, C. and Guest, E. (eds.). 1974. Flora of Iraq. Vol. 3: Leguminales. Baghdad: Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform.Google Scholar
Ur, J., de Jong, L., Giraud, J., Osborne, J., and MacGinnis, J.. 2013. “Ancient Cities and Landscapes in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq: The Erbil Plain Archaeological Survey 2012 Season”. Iraq 75: 89–117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ur, J., de Jong, L., Giraud, J., Osborne, J., and MacGinnis, J.., Babakr, N., Palermo, R., Creamer, P., Ramand, S., Soroush, Mehrnoush, and Nováček, K.. 2021. “The Erbil Plain Archaeological Survey: Preliminary Results, 2012-2019”, Iraq 83: 1–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Zeist, W. and Bakker-Heeres, J. A. H.. 1984 (1986). “Archaeobotanical Studies in the Levant 2. Neolithic and Halaf Levels at Ras Shamra”. Palaeohistoria 26: 151–70.Google Scholar
van Zeist, W. and Bakker-Heeres, J. A. H.. 1985 (1986). “Archaeobotanical Studies in the Levant 4. Bronze Age Sites on the North Syrian Euphrates”. Palaeohistoria 27: 247–316.Google Scholar
Webster, L., Smith, A., Dee, M., Hajdas, I., and Schwartz, G.. Forthcoming. “Towards a Radiocarbon-based Chronology of Urban Northern Mesopotamia in the Early to Mid- Second Millennium BC: Initial Results from Kurd Qaburstan.”Google Scholar
Weiss, H., Akkermans, P., Stein, G., Parayre, D., and Whiting, R.. 1990. “1985 Excavations at Tell Leilan, Syria.” American Journal of Archaeology 94: 529–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wengrow, D., Carter, R., Brereton, G., Shepperson, M., Hamarashi, S. J., Saber, S. A., Bevan, A., Fuller, D., Himmelman, H., Sosnowska, H., and Carretero, L. González. 2016. “Gurga Chiya and Tepe Marani: New Excavations in the Shahrizor Plain, Iraqi Kurdistan”. Iraq 78: 253–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkinson, T. and Tucker, D.. 1995. Settlement Development in the North Jazira, Iraq: A Study of the Archaeological Landscape. Warminster: Aris and Phillips.Google Scholar
Woolley, L. 1955. Alalakh: An Account of the Excavations at Tell Atchana in the Hatay, 1937 1949. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ziegler, N. 2015. “Kakmum et le Gutium”, in Marti, L., Nicolle, C., and Shawaly, K., eds. Recherches en Haute Mésopotamie II: Mission archéologique de Bash Tapa (campagnes 2012-2013) et les enjeux de la recherche dans la région d'Erbil (Mémoires de N.A.B.U. 17). Paris: SEPOA, pp. 23–36.Google Scholar