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The Excavations at Tell al Rimah, 1968

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

David Oates
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Extract

The fifth season of excavations at Tell al Rimah lasted from March 9th to June 9th, 1968. The work was sponsored by the British School of Archaeology in Iraq and supported by contributions from the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge, the Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, Brussels, and the British Academy. The staff included Mrs. Joan Oates, who undertook part of the conservation work and shared the recording of the pottery with Miss Carolyn Prater (now Mrs. Postgate) who has subsequently been engaged in the preparation of a pottery corpus; Miss Barbara Parker, epigraphist and photographer; Miss Elizabeth Dowman, in her third season as conservator and registrar; Mr. Christopher Walker, epigraphist; Mr. Edward Blandy, photographer and assistant surveyor, and Mr. Roger Whitney, draughtsman, who also helped with the recording of the pottery. Dr. and Mrs. Richard Ellis assisted us during the first part of the season, and Mr. Julian Reade, who was principally engaged in a study of material from Tell Taya, gave valuable help at the end. The Representative of the Directorate General of Antiquities was Sayyid Manhl Jabr, whose energy and local knowledge were of the greatest value to us. I must acknowledge my debt to all my colleagues, and to the staff of the Directorate General of Antiquities, especially the Director General, Dr. Faisal al Wailly, and the Inspector General of Excavations, Professor Fuad Safar.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , Spring 1970 , pp. 1 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1970

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References

1 Iraq 30 (1968), 135 ff. and Plate XXXIVGoogle Scholar. A preliminary report on the tablets by Miss Stephanie Page (now Mrs. Dallcy) appeared in Iraq 30 (1968), 87 ff.Google Scholar, and they are fully discussed in Mrs. Dalley's Ph.D. dissertation.

2 Iraq 30 (1968), 122 ff. and Plates XXXII, a, XXXVI, a–eGoogle ScholarPubMed.

3 Iraq 30 (1968), 134Google ScholarPubMed.

4 e.g. Starr, R. F. S., Nuzi II, Plans 12 and 14Google Scholar. At Nuzi, which was a much smaller site than is commonly recognised and roughly comparable in status with Tell al Rimah at this period, the layout ot the ancillary rooms in the temple complex is irregular, but the actual shrines are formalised by the use ot structurally unnecessary buttresses on their external façades.

5 cf. Iraq 30 (1968), Plate XXXV, cGoogle Scholar, and Iraq 29 (1967), Plate XXXVII, eGoogle Scholar.

6 Reported at the Symposium on Science and Archaeology, jointly sponsored by the British Academy and the Royal Society in December, 1969; the proceedings will be published in due course. I am grateful to Dr. Brill for his interest in the glass from Tell al Rimah, and in particular for elucidating a number of technical points in the manufacture of these vessels.

7 cf. Iraq 9 (1947), Plate XLVII, especially no. 5Google ScholarPubMed.

8 Iraq 27 (1965), 73Google ScholarPubMed.

9 I am indebted to Mr. Christopher Walker for information about the content of this inscription. For his discussion, see below p. 27ff.

10 Oates, D., Studies in the Ancient History of Northern Iraq, 35, n. 59Google Scholar.

11 ARM II, 43Google Scholar.

12 Syria 20 (1939), 109Google ScholarPubMed.

13 For the plan of the area excavated in 1967 see Iraq 30 (1968), Plate XXXIVGoogle ScholarPubMed.

14 ARM XIII, 22Google Scholar.

15 Iraq 21 (1959), 103–4Google ScholarPubMed.

16 The seal impressions were drawn and studied by Mr. David Hawkins, and Mrs. Dalley's discussion of this point occurs in her unpublished dissertation, to which she has kindly given me access.

17 A. Parrot, Mission Archéologique de Mari, II, Le Palais: Architecture.

18 Antiquaries Journal 6 (1926), Plate LVIIGoogle Scholar.

19 Throughout this account I have retained the word ‘palace’ to describe this building, but I do not wish to imply that it was necessarily the principal administrative centre and royal residence. If the comparison with the ‘palace’ at Ur proves to be valid, there is such a marked difference in scale and multiplicity of functions between both structures and the palace of Mari that other possible interpretations must be considered. They might have been the mansions of high officials or members of the ruling family, like the Late Assyrian ‘Burnt Palace’ or ‘Governor's Palace’ at Nimrud (Mallowan, M. E. L., Nimrud and its Remains, I, 38 ff. and 200 ff.Google Scholar) or the house of Sin-aḫ-uṣur, brother and vizier of Sargon II, at Khorsabad (OIP XL, Loud, G. and Altman, C. B., Khorsabad II, 69 and Plate 70Google Scholar).

20 Iraq 27 (1965), 76Google ScholarPubMed.

21 Iraq 29 (1967), 86Google ScholarPubMed.

22 Iraq 30 (1968), 120 ff. and Plate XXXIGoogle ScholarPubMed.

23 Iraq 29 (1967), 95–6Google ScholarPubMed.

24 Iraq 30 (1968), 88 and 121Google ScholarPubMed.

25 Lloyd, Seton, Iraq 5 (1938), 137CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

26 Associated with the skeleton were a copper or bronze toggle-pin (TR. 5310), a smaller example of a type found in a ‘Sargonid’ house at Brak, Tell (Iraq 9 (1947), Plate XXI, 3)Google Scholar, and a lapis lazuli bead (TR. 5230, a).

27 Iraq 29 (1967), 86Google ScholarPubMed.

28 Cf. Speiser, , “The Pottery of Tell Bilk”, MJ XXIII, 1933, Plates LIX, 3, and LVI, 2Google Scholar. The comparisons are not precise but they are worth noting as there are so few published parallels for the Rimah pottery. The Rimah bowl fragment is of thin light orange ware, with fine ribbing above the carination. Small triangles, in very thick soft red paint, occur on the rim interior above the painted band also found on the Billa example.

29 Speiser, op. cit., Plate LVIII, 7. Both at Billa and at Nuzi the type occurs in a grave. Unfortunately neither is well-dated, though the Billa tomb is clearly earlier than the other Level 4 tombs in which ‘Khabur’ pottery is found (ibid., Plate LIX). The closest Diyala parallel is an ED III type (OIP LXIII, Plate 158); similar types are found in Agade, Gutium, Ur III and Larsa levels (for example, ibid., Plates 111, 164, 188), while at Nippur the closest parallel is late Ur III (OIP LXXVIII, Plate 83: 16). The type is known from Aššur F, Gawra 5–6, and the houses dated to the Agade period at Brak. See also Iraq 9 (1947), 224Google ScholarPubMed.

30 For example, Plate X, d, 1, 2, from contemporary fill in AS 10, cf. Nippur, OIP LXXVIII, Plates 84, 87. One Ur III example from Nippur (ibid. Plate 84, 21) combines ribbing at the rim with combed ornament very like Plate X, d, 4.

31 Plate IX, 14, cf. OIP LXIII, Plate 147:B.043.200a; there were two Gutium-Ur III examples of this Diyala type and one attributed to ED I. Plate IX, 15, cf. OIP LXXVIII, Plate 82, 11, Late Ur III.

32 The sole exception is a single sherd from the upper part of this deposit, a fragment of a jar shoulder ornamented with an ill-defined wide band of red-brown paint below which are chevron-like splodges and four horizontal grooves.

33 Cf. Nippur, OIP LXXVIII, Plate 80, 18.

34 Cf. Brak, , Iraq 9 (1947), Plate LXX and pp. 183, 229–30Google Scholar. One example from fill below the Rimah temple is almost identical with a type from Taya VI (Iraq 30 (1968), Plate LXXXVIGoogle Scholar) and a similarly ornamented snake came from the level above the vaulted building. For a possibly earlier date for vessels of this type, see Lloyd, Seton, Iraq 7 (1945), Plate III and p. 21Google Scholar; note also the use of slashed rib ornament at Tell Khoshi (Huwaish) identical with examples from the vaulted building at Rimah.

35 Of a type very like Iraq 31 (1969), Plate XXXIII, 1Google ScholarPubMed.

36 Perkins, J. B. Ward, in The Great Palace of the Byzantine Emperors, II, ed. Rice, D. Talbot, especially 91 ffGoogle Scholar.

37 Op. cit., n. 36, Ch. II, and especially Folder C.