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The Baked Clay Figurines from Tell Es-Sawwan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Joan Oates
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Extract

The recent discoveries at the site of Tell es-Sawwan, south of Samarra, have completely revolutionized our ideas concerning early village communities in Mesopotamia. Earlier excavations at sites like Jarmo, Matarrah, and Hassuna had in no way led us to expect the elaborate and extraordinary ground stone industry or the early mud-brick architecture that was to emerge from this site. Moreover, the evidence for cereal cultivation reveals an agricultural situation hitherto unsuspected in the Tigris valley. Three seasons of excavations have been carried out at Tell es-Sawwan by the Iraqi Directorate-General of Antiquities, and the preliminary report of the first season by Dr. Faisal El-Wailly and Mr. Behnam Abu Al-Soof has now appeared in Sumer. The writer wishes to express her gratitude both to Dr. El-Wailly and Mr. Abu Al-Soof for their very generous permission to publish here the baked clay figurines from the first two seasons.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , Autumn 1966 , pp. 146 - 153
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1966

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References

1 Cf. the reports in Sumer by the Director-General of Antiquities, Dr. Faisal El-Wailly: XIX (1963), Arabic section (with plates); XX (1964), pp. 1–2 and figs. 1–2; also Arabic section and figs. 1–3.

2 Helbaek, H., “Early Hassunan Vegetable Food at Tell as-Sawwan Near Samarra”, Sumer XX (1964), pp. 45–48Google Scholar.

3 The excavations the first season (spring 1964) were under the direction of Mr. Behnam Abu Al-Soof and the first preliminary report by him and Dr. El-Wailly has now appeared in Sumer XXI (1965)Google Scholar. The excavations the second season (spring 1965) were directed by Mr. Khalid al-Adhami. A third season is now in progress, led by Mr. Ghanim Wahida.

4 Sumer XIX (1963), Arabic section, pl. 1Google Scholar.

5 The stone figure (S1–5) is illustrated in Al-Soof, Sumer XXI (1965), pl. XXVII, fig. 67, row 3:7Google Scholar.

6 El-Wailly, , Sumer XX (1964), p. 2Google Scholar.

7 Al-Soof, B. Abu, Sumer XXI (1965)Google Scholar; cf. Braidwood, R. J., Science 127 06 20, 1958, p. 1426CrossRefGoogle Scholar. In S.A.O.C. 31 Professor Braidwood suggests that “the Hassunan phase was under way by about 5750 B.C.” (p. 161). It should be noted that at Tell es-Sawwan Samarran painted pottery and one Halaf sherd were found at the bottom of the ditch from which the C14 date of 5349 ± 86 B.C. was obtained.

8 I.L.N. Sept. 11, 1948, figs. 1–2, from the Eridu cemetery; fragmentary male figurines come from Warka and Ur, e.g. U.E. IV, PL. 21: P.CBS 17199; see also Hall, , J.E.A, IX (1923), pl. XXXVII:2Google Scholar, also from Eridu, , and U.V.B. III, pl. 21:c (left)Google Scholar.

9 Mortensen, P., “On the Chronology of Early Village-Farming Communities in Northern Iraq”, Sumer XVIII (1962)Google Scholar; see also “Additional Remarks on the Chronology of Early Village-Farming Communities in the Zagros Area”, by the same author in Sumer XX (1964), pp. 28ffGoogle Scholar.

10 Tobler, A. J., Tepe Gawra II, cf. pl. LXXXIV:a, 7, 8Google Scholar; also pl. CLVI:52, 58; pl. LXXXIV:b and c. See also Perkins, A. L., S.A.O.C. 25 (1957), p. 62Google Scholar.

11 E.g., Bazar, Chagar, Iraq III (1936), fig. 3Google Scholar; Arpachiyah, , Iraq II (1935), fig. 45:7Google Scholar; Schmidt, H., Tell Halaf I (1943), pl. CVGoogle Scholar.

12 Lloyd, and Safar, , J.N.E.S. IV(1945), pl. XVIII:2Google Scholar. Al-Soof, B. Abu, Sumer XXI (1965), pl. XXVII, fig. 67, row 1:3Google Scholar perhaps illustrates the resemblance more strikingly. The left knee is bent upwards on the Hassuna example.

13 E.g. Iraq II (1935), fig. 47:2, 3Google Scholar. One Jarmo figurine appears to have both legs crossed, Braidwood, and Howe, , S.A.O.C. 31 (1960), pl. 16:9Google Scholar; several of the Tell es-Sawwan stone figures from the second season also appear to have their legs crossed, but a close examination shows that the right knee is in fact bent upwards, cf. El-Wailly, , Sumer XX (1964), fig. 2, stone statues nos. 1, 4, 7Google Scholar.

14 Lloyd, and Safar, , J.N.E.S. IV (1945), pl. XVII:2Google Scholar.

15 Braidwood, and Howe, , S.A.O.C. 31 (1960), pp. 47–8, 142–3Google Scholar; see also Dyson, R. H., American Anthropologist 55 (1953), pp. 661ff.Google Scholar, and Reed, C. A., Zeitschrift für Tierzüchtung und Züchtmgsbiologie 76 (1961), pp. 31–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

16 Lloyd and Safar, op. cit., p. 284.

17 Evidence from Banahilk and T. Aswad, possibly also T. Mefesh and Ras Shamra; see C. A. Reed, op. cit.

18 Mellaart, J., AS XI (1961), pp. 47ffGoogle Scholar.

19 At Hacilar the eyes are incised and sometimes painted, and even those which superficially resemble the Sawwan type (e.g., ibid., pl. X–XI) are apparently incised rather than appliqué (cf. ibid., figs. 19, 21). The Sarab figurines are unfortunately not yet published, but the heads are said to be mere stalks, usually without features (Hole, F., New Scientist 13, p. 579Google Scholar); in this they would appear to resemble some of the Halaf figurines, cf. inter alia, Mallowan, M. E. L., Iraq III (1936), fig. 5 :2, 3, 7 (Chagar Bazar)Google Scholar. The eyes on the Nea Nikomedeia figurines (Western Macedonia), bear a strong resemblance to those from Sawwan, and on at least one example they appear to have been applied in the same manner (Rodden, R. J. and Rodden, J. M., ILN, 04 18, 1964, p. 604 and fig. 2Google Scholar; see also Rodden, R. J., PPS XXVIII (1962), pl. XLIGoogle Scholar); these figurines are, of course, otherwise entirely unlike those from the Mesopotamian site. Professor J. G. D. Clark has made the interesting suggestion to me that the appliqué clay “coffee-bean” eye may represent the poor man's cowrie shell, by analogy with the Jericho skulls; certainly it is not an obvious method of depicting an eye in clay, and there is undoubtedly a resemblance to the cowrie.

20 El-Wailly, , Sumer XX (1964), fig. 2: inter alia, nos. 7–8Google Scholar.

21 Ibid., fig. 2: stone statues nos. 8, 18; beads from the graves are illustrated on this plate as well.