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Nimrud 1957: The Hellenistic Settlement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

David  and
Joan Oates
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Extract

Previous reports on the current series of campaigns at Nimrud have from time to time referred to discoveries of post-Assyrian material, indicating an impoverished, and probably intermittent, occupation of the site during the last six centuries B.C. Analysis and identification of the finds has hitherto been impeded by two obstacles, the lack of dated comparative material from Northern Mesopotamia, and the difficulty of obtaining an undisturbed stratigraphic sequence on a mound so thoroughly ransacked by earlier excavators, who were interested only in the Assyrian levels. During the seasons 1949–53, when work was concentrated on the northern and central parts of the mound, occasional objects were found without an informative context, but it was not until we came to deal with the sites of the Burnt Palace and Nabu Temple in the southeast quarter, in 1955 and 1956, that we found the evidence better preserved, with isolated groups of material in situ. A reliable sequence was still lacking, and to fill this gap in 1957 we made a sounding on the high south-east corner, on a small plateau which showed little superficial sign of previous disturbance. Our aim was two-fold: to obtain a conspectus of the post-Assyrian levels, and to re-examine the Assyrian building beneath, the existence of which was briefly reported by Layard and Loftus. The quantity of debris, more than seven metres in depth, above the Assyrian level made it impossible to attempt any large-scale clearance, and we confined ourselves to three new trenches (O, P and R on the plan, Pl. XV) cut from north to south across the patch of virgin ground, and at the same time reopened Layard's large pit a short distance to the west. In trenches O and P we made a methodical, stratigraphic examination of six post-Assyrian levels before reaching a zone of barren debris, largely fallen mud brick, which overlay the Assyrian walls; our resources did not permit us to carry the excavation down to the Assyrian floors. In Trench R, begun late in the season, we confirmed the sequence of trenches O and P down to the fifth level. In Layard's excavation to the west, exposing the throne-room complex of the AB Palace, the post-Assyrian deposits had been extensively disturbed, but we were able to reconstruct them in part from the sides of his original cut and recovered some interesting groups of pottery and grave goods which can be related with fair certainly to the main sequence.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , Autumn 1958 , pp. 114 - 157
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1958

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References

page 114 note 1 This section of the excavations was carried out under the supervision of Mr. David Stronach, whose records have contributed largely to the results obtained. The plans of the Hellenistic levels were drawn by Mr. and Mrs. M. Friis.

page 114 note 2 Layard, , Nineveh and its Remains, Vol. II, pp. 37–39Google Scholar; Gadd, , Stones of Assyria, Plan 1, facing p. 252Google Scholar.

page 115 note 1 Iraq, XVIII, Pt. 1, pp. 33–34, 37Google Scholar.

page 116 note 1 We are indebted to Mr. G. K. Jenkins of the Department of Coins and Medals, British Museum, for information on the date of coins referred to in this article. The information is based in some cases on preliminary inspection only. The coins are fully discussed in Mr. Jenkins' own article on the Hellenistic coins from Nimrud on pp. 158–168. We should also like to thank Mr. Peter Corbett, of the Greek and Roman Department, British Museum, for advice on the pottery and figurines.

page 116 note 2 Probably prehistoric specimens found and preserved by the Hellenistic settlers, whose grave goods show that they had a taste for small antiquities, perhaps as amulets; cf. PG 5 and PG 21.

page 116 note 3 These objects are common at Alishar Hüyük, where they are called ‘bone awls’, in the 2nd half of the 2nd millennium B.C., O.I.P. 30, p. 101 and fig. 98. Macalister, , Gezer II, p. 274Google Scholar, explains them as styli for writing on clay or wax, and says that they were found in all levels from 1800 B.C. onwards. Neither explanation seems plausible, but we are unable to suggest an alternative.

page 118 note 1 Iraq, XIX, Pt. 1, p. 37Google Scholar; but see discussion on p. 123.

page 119 note 1 AS, IV, p. 105, fig. 4Google Scholar.

page 119 note 2 Ghirshman, R., Village Perse-Achéménide, Mém. de la Mission Archéologique en Iran, XXXVI, pl. LIIIGoogle Scholar.

page 120 note 1 MissGrace, V., Hesperia, III, p. 219 and referencesGoogle Scholar. A Thasian jar handle (Pl. XX, b) was also found in the fill of a rubbish pit, with no identifiable context, near the Burnt Palace well in 1955, Iraq, XVIII, Pt. 1, p. 16Google Scholar, but this series is unfortunately still undated.

page 121 note 1 Irag, XIX, Pt. 1, p. 11Google Scholar.

page 122 note 1 Ingen, Van, Figurines from Seleucia, University of Michigan Humanistic Studies, XLV, p. 7Google Scholar.

page 122 note 2 Iraq, XVIII, Pt. 1, pp. 28 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 123 note 1 Iraq, XIX, Pt. 1, pp. 36–38Google Scholar, and section, Pl. XII.

page 123 note 2 See pp. 130–131.

page 124 note 1 Iraq, XIX, Pt. 1, p. 10Google Scholar.

page 124 note 2 but cf. Van Ingen, Figurines from Seleucia, Pl. V, no. 72c.

page 125 note 1 Tarsus I, p. 153Google Scholar.

page 125 note 2 ND. 5007 (B). Extant H. 4 cm. Black varnish, soft buff clay. Bowl (?) with slightly rolled rim, two grooves below. Swag decoration (loops 1 · 1 cm. wide); single tassel in relief between two rows of incised circles. In fill of robber trench, south end of Ezida (NT 16). c. level 4.

page 125 note 3 The third example is a small body sherd from O4 level 4 or 5.

page 125 note 4 See Pl. XXI, 13, and n. 4, p. 129; IM 25871 from Nineveh (NiHH6) and IM 25866 from Nebi Yunis (Nineveh).

page 126 note 1 Thompson, R. Campbell, ‘The Excavations on the Temple of Nabu at Nineveh’, Arcbaeologia LXXIX, p. 138Google Scholar; von Oppenheim, , Tell Halaf, trans. Wheeler, G., pp. 313–5Google Scholar; Lloyd, S., Sultantepe, , AS II, pp. 13–14, IV pp. 101–4Google Scholar.

page 126 note 2 O.I.P. 30, Alishar III, note by Waagé, p. 80.

page 127 note 1 A.S. IV p. 101, fig. I: 52, 53, 56Google Scholar.

page 127 note 2 Cf. Tarsus I 293–5Google Scholar.

page 127 note 3 Cf. Tarsus I fig. 129; Antioch IV fig. 9.

page 127 ntoe 4 Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Cambridge Fitzwilliam Museum II, Pl. 26, 4 and p. 47Google Scholar.

page 128 note 1 See Rawson, , ‘Palace Wares from Nimrud’, Iraq XVI, Pt. 2, p. 168 if.Google Scholar; also Iraq XVI, Pt. 2, p. 164 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 129 note 1 The Assyrian stamps were generally rosettes, but one elaborately decorated Assyrian jar with a row of stamped pomegranate buds and blossoms below which were rows of ‘castellations’ and then tiny rosettes was found in Ezida.

page 129 note 2 von Oppenheim, op. cit., p. 314.

page 129 note 3 At the Roman site Ain Sinu near Sinjar such decoration was dated A.D. 235; cf. Tarsus I p. 168Google Scholar.

page 129 note 4 Two bottles of similar shape, R. Campbell Thompson, op. cit., pl. LIV: 188, 189; one was ‘green-glazed’ and both were decorated with an elaborate rosette pattern. Also from Nineveh, and now in the Baghdad Museum, is a lentoid flask with handles attached at the neck rather like the Nimrud one and with a plain everted rim. The upper half of the flask was painted red and across the upper portion of the body was a band of concentric circle and dot decoration with a ‘V’ of dots above (IM 25871; NiHH6). A miniature amphora from Nebi Yunus (IM 25866) is decorated in the same manner; about the lower part of the amphora is vertical incising like that on Pl. XXIII, 18 the ‘feeding bottle’ from Nimrud.

page 130 note 1 See p. 123; also Iraq XIX, Pt. 1, p. 37 and Pl.XIIGoogle Scholar.

page 131 note 1 Reuther, , Die Innenstadt von Babylon, p. 28Google Scholar.

page 131 note 2 ND. 1282 (B). H. 22 cm., D. 22 cm. North-west Palace fill.

page 132 note 1 IM 25426 (painted), IM 25427; see also Sultan-tepe A.S. IV nos. 49, 50; Tarsus I pl. 135.

page 132 note 2 Pl. XXVIII, 21 is identical with the Assyrian type; it is probably late Achaemenian. See also Nineveh, R. Campbell Thompson, op. cit., Pl. LV; and Debevoise, N. C., Parthian Pottery from Seleucia, 403–6Google Scholar. A Hellenistic example from Nimrud, ND. 6611 (B), H. 6 cm., D. 6·7 cm., rolled lip, dark buff clay, AB3 level 2; was almost identical with Pl. XXVIII, 21 but with a slightly less defined lip.

page 132 note 3 Samaria pp. 319–20 and fig. 191: Ha.

page 132 note 4 Monuments of Nineveh, Pl. 95a: 16.

page 132 note 5 R. Campbell Thompson, op. cit. Pl. LV: 209–10.

page 132 note 6 See Antiocb III fig. 74, 75; Samaria fig. 192.

page 134 note 1 From an inscription published by Campbell Thompson, op. cit., p. 140 if. The date is broken, but the middle of the first century A.D. is suggested.

page 134 note 2 For the bibliography of these finds see above, p. 126, n. 1.

page 136 note 1 Xenophon, , Anabasis, III, 4Google Scholar.