Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-03T16:59:12.335Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Khanijdal East: a small Ubaid site in northern Iraq

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

T. J. Wilkinson ,
B. H. Monahan  and
D. J. Tucker
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

A recent review of the state of Ubaid archaeology has urged that more Ubaid sites be excavated and published, and that patterns of Ubaid settlement should be analyzed at a regional scale (Henrickson and Thuesen 1989: pp. 457-8). The primary objective of this paper is therefore rather straightforward: to provide some basic data on artifacts in context from a small excavated Ubaid 3-4 site located within the zone of rain-fed cultivation, and to place these within a regional frame of analysis. The information described, being from both excavation and survey, provides a valuable opportunity to place excavated data within a regional context and to compare this with equivalent data from southern Mesopotamia. It may also provide some insights into the spread of the Ubaid from the south into Upper Mesopotamia.

The site of Khanijdal East was recorded as part of the North Jazira Survey conducted between 1986 and 1990 in the north-west of Iraq immediately north of the Jebel Sinjar. This report amplifies, and in places updates, a summary statement previously made, and rather than repeating already published statements (Wilkinson and Tucker 1995; Ball, Tucker and Wilkinson 1989), we will limit the regional discussion to the addition of supplementary data derived from the primary survey record of the north Jazira project. This additional information should add some fuel to debate on the existence (or otherwise) of regional site hierarchies for the period. Although the data provided from this low-order settlement are, like the settlement itself, rather modest, we feel that publication is justified because, at present, students of this period in Upper Mesopotamia are restricted to a rather small range of sites, such as Gawra, Leilan, Telul al-Thalathat, Tell Hammam et-Turkman, Arpachiyah, Tell Kashkashok and Yarim Tepe, together with a few more that are not yet fully published.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 58 , 1996 , pp. 17 - 50
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1996 

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

Akkermans, Peter M. M. G., 1988: An updated chronology for the northern Ubaid and late Chalcolithic periods in Syria: New evidence from Tell Hammam et-Turkman. Iraq 50: 109–46.Google Scholar
Akkermans, Peter M. M. G., 1989: Tradition and social change in northern Mesopotamia during the late 5th and 4th millennium BC. In Henrickson, and Thuesen, (eds.) 1989: 339–67.Google Scholar
Ali, Hassan Mohammed, 1955: Land Reclamation and Settlement in Iraq. Baghdad Printing Press, Iraq.Google Scholar
Ball, W., 1990: The Tell al-Hawa Project. The second and third seasons of excavations at Tell al-Hawa, 1987—88. Mediterranean Archaeology 3: 75–92.Google Scholar
Ball, W., Tucker, D., and Wilkinson, T. J., 1989: The Tell al-Hawa Project: Archaeological investigations in the north Jazira, 1986–1987. Iraq 51: 1–66.Google Scholar
Berman, J., 1994: The ceramic evidence for sociopolitical organization in 'Ubaid south-western Iran. In Stein, and Rofhman, (eds.) 1994: 23–33.Google Scholar
Cocks, P. S., Thompson, E. F., Somel, K., and El-Moneim, A. Abd, 1988: Degradation and Rehabilitation of Agricultural Land in North Syria. Aleppo: ICARDA publications.Google Scholar
Dunham, Sally, 1983: Notes on the relative chronology of early northern Mesopotamia. Journal of the Ancient Near East Society 15: 13–38.Google Scholar
Egami, Namio, 1958: Telul eth Thalathat: the Excavation of Tell II 1956–1957. Tokyo: University of Tokyo, Institute for Oriental Culture.Google Scholar
Fukai, Shinji, Kiyoharu, Horiuchi, Toshio, Matsutani, 1970: Telul eth-Thalathat: the Excavation of Tell II. The Third Season 1964. Tokyo: Yamakawa Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Henrickson, Elizabeth F., and Thuesen, Ingolf (eds.), 1989: Upon this Foundation. The 'Ubaid Reconsidered. CNI Publications 10. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.Google Scholar
Henrickson, Elizabeth F., and Thuesen, Ingolf, 1989: Editors' Concluding Summary. In Henrickson, and Thuesen, (eds.) 1989: 457–9.Google Scholar
Jasim, Sabbah Abboud, 1985: The 'Ubaid Period in Iraq. Recent Excavations in the Hamrin Region. BAR International Series 267. Oxford.Google Scholar
Johnson, Gregory A., 1987: The changing organization of Uruk administration on the Susiana plain. In Hole, F. (ed.), The Archaeology of Western Iran (Washington DC: Smithsonian Institute Press): 107–39.Google Scholar
Koizumi, Tatsundo, 1993: Ubaid pottery from Kashkashok II: typology and chronology. Al-Rafidan (Journal of Western Asiatic Studies) 14: 19–68.Google Scholar
Mallowan, M. E. L., and Rose, J. Cruikshank, 1935: Excavations at Tall Arpachiyah. Iraq 2: 1–178.Google Scholar
McCorriston, J., 1992: The Halaf environment and human activities in the Khabur drainage, Syria. Journal of Field Archaeology 19: 315–33.Google Scholar
Merpert, N. Y., and Munchaev, R. M., 1982 (1993): Yarim Tepe III: the Ubaid levels. In Yoffee, N., and Clark, J. J. (eds.), Early Stages in the Evolution of Mesopotamian Civilization. Soviet Excavations in Northern Iraq (Tucson: University of Arizona Press): 225–40.Google Scholar
Oates, Joan, 1983: 'Ubaid Mesopotamia reconsidered. In Young, T. Cuyler Jr., Smith, P. E. L., and Mortensen, Peder (eds.), The Hilly Flanks and Beyond. Essays presented to Robert J. Braidwood. SAOC 36 (Chicago: Oriental Institute Press): 251–81.Google Scholar
Oates, Joan, 1987a: A note on 'Ubaid and Mitanni pottery from Tell Brak. Iraq 49: 193–8.Google Scholar
Oates, Joan, 1987b: 'Ubaid chronology. In Aurenche, O., Evin, J. and Hours, F. (eds.), Chronologies in the Near East. Relative Chronologies and Absolute Chronology, 16,000-4,000 BP. BAR International Series 379 (Oxford): 472–82.Google Scholar
Porada, E., Hansen, D. P., Dunham, S., and Babcock, S. H., 1992: The chronology of Mesopotamia ca. 7000–1600 BC. In Ehrich, R. W. (ed.), Chronologies in Old World Archaeology (Chicago: University of Chicago Press): 77–121.Google Scholar
Postgate, Nicholas, 1994: How many Sumerians per hectare? Probing the anatomy of an early city. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 4/1: 47–65.Google Scholar
Roaf, Michael, 1984: Tell Madhhur. A summary report on the excavations. Sumer 43/1–2: 108–67.Google Scholar
Roaf, Michael, 1989: Social organization and social activities at Tell Madhhur. In Henrickson, and Thuesen, (eds.): 91–146.Google Scholar
Roaf, Michael, 1990: Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East. New York and London: Facts on File.Google Scholar
Schmandt-Besserat, Denise, 1992: Before Writing I. From Counting to Cuneiform. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Schwartz, Glenn M., 1988: A Ceramic Chronology from Tell Leilan: Operation 1. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Stein, Gil, and Rothman, Mitchell (eds.), 1994: Chiefdoms and Early States in the Near East. Monographs in World Archaeology. Madison, Wisconsin: Prehistory Press.Google Scholar
Sumner, W., 1994: The evolution of tribal society in the southern Zagros mountains, Iran. In Stein, and Rothman, (eds.): 47–65.Google Scholar
Thuesen, Ingolf, 1989: Diffusion of 'Ubaid pottery into western Syria. In Henrickson, and Thuesen, (eds.) 1989: 419–37.Google Scholar
Tobler, Arthur J., 1950: Excavations at Tepe Gawra: Joint Expedition of the Baghdad School and the University Museum to Mesopotamia II. Levels IX-XX. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, T. J., 1994: The structure and dynamics of dry-farming states in Upper Mesopotamia. Current Anthropology 35/1: 483–520.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, T. J., and Tucker, D. J., 1995: Settlement Development in the North Jazira, Iraq. A Study of the Archaeological Landscape. Iraq Archaeological Reports. London: British School of Archaeology in Iraq, Warminster: Aris and Phillips.Google Scholar