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Samarran Irrigation Agriculture at Choga Mami in Iraq

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Hans Helbaek
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Extract

Not having seen the Mandali region for himself, the present writer is not able to give a proper ecological-topographical description of the Choga Mami area. Therefore this introduction must needs be superficial, based upon details published by Joan Oates, supplemented by information kindly supplied by her in personal communication.

Mandali lies roughly 125 km. E.N.E. of Baghdad as the crow flies, not far from the Iranian frontier. It is a staging post on the ancient caravan route to Persia and beyond. The excavation area is fairly near to the town in a north-westerly direction, a flat plain on the borderline of the alluvium in the marginal rainfall zone. The terrain is backed towards the N.E. by two low mountain ranges a few kilometres away, locally known as Jebel Kunah and Jebel Kaum a Sang. Phyto-geographically it is in the middle of what is described as the Persian Foothills Region.

The main source of water is and has always been the small river Gangir that from the N.E. cuts through a gap between the two mountain ranges, supplemented by other, less reliable, seasonal watercourses. Although, geographically speaking, this area is an extension of the Diyala plain, neither the Gangir nor any of the other watercourses of the region reach the Diyala drainage system, but are swallowed up in seasonal mudflats in the intervening desert S.W. of Choga Mami. Even now irrigation agriculture in the district is fed mainly by the Gangir, but on its way into the desert the water gets increasingly brackish and becomes useless for agriculture.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , Spring 1972 , pp. 35 - 48
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1972

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References

1 Climatological Atlas for Iraq (Publication no. 13); also Monthly Climatological Data, Meteorological Department, Directorate-General of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Communication, Republic of Iraq (Baghdad).

2 Oates, J., Survey in the Region of Mandali and Badra, Sumer 22 (1966), 51 ff.Google Scholar; Oates, J., Prehistoric Investigations near Mandali, Iraq, Iraq 30 (1968), 1 ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Oates, J., Choga Mami 1967–68: a preliminary report, Iraq 31 (1969), 115 ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Cf. Technical Postscript, p. 48, below.

5 Helbaek, H., “Plant Collecting, Dry-Farming and Irrigation Agriculture in Ancient Deh Luran”, Memoires of the Museum of Anthropology, no. 1, University of Michigan (1969), 383 ffGoogle Scholar. (hereafter abbreviated as Helbaek, 1969).

6 Cf. Helbaek, 1969, Pl. 41b.

7 Helbaek, 1969, p. 410.

8 Helbaek, H., “The Plant Husbandry of Hacılar” in Mellaart, J., Excavations at Hacılar, IP3 (1969), 189 ffGoogle Scholar.

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10 Helbaek, H., “Pre-Pottery Neolithic Farming at Beidha”, PEQ (1966), 61 ffGoogle Scholar.

11 Helbaek, H., “The Plant Remains from Nimrud” in Mallowan, M. E. L., Nimrud and its Remains, II (1966), 613 ffGoogle Scholar.

12 Helbaek, H., “Early Hassunan Vegetable Food at Tell es-Sawwan near Samarra”, Sumer 20 (1966), 45 ffGoogle Scholar.

13 Helbaek, H., “Notes on the Evolution and History of Linum”, Kaml (1959), 103 ffGoogle Scholar.

14 Helbaek, H., “Isin-Larsan and Horian Food Remains at Tell Bazmosian in the Dokan Valley”, Sumer 19 (1963), 27 ffGoogle Scholar.