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Some Cylinder Seals from Tell Mohammed Arab*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Dominique Collon
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Extract

The site of Tell Mohammed Arab was excavated by the British Archaeological Expedition to Iraq, under the direction of Dr. Michael Roaf, as part of the Eski Mosul Saddam Dam rescue project (Roaf, 1983a, 1983b, 1984). Seven cylinder seals and two impressions on pottery were found in the Middle Assyrian levels and one Neo Assyrian seal came from a Hellenistic pit.

Two main areas of Middle Assyrian occupation were excavated. In the Central Area three separate building levels (b, d and f) were interspersed by periods when this part of the site was used for graves (a, the earliest, c and e). Artefacts from level d are comparable to material from Sheikh Hamad, on the Khabur in Syria, which can be securely dated to the 13th century B.C. thanks to a find of tablets. On the other hand there are few parallels with the 15th—14th century Mitannian site of Nuzi and this would indicate that the Mohammed Arab levels are generally later. However, they cannot be too far removed in time because seals 1 to 4, which are Mitannian in style, were found in buildings of phases i and ii in the Western Area (Fig. 1) which probably correspond to level b and part of c in the Central Area.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 50 , 1988 , pp. 59 - 77
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1968

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Footnotes

*

I have much pleasure in dedicating this article to Barbara Parker-Mallowan and Donald Wiseman. I was taught by both of them many years ago and although I have followed in the steps of the former rather than the latter, I am deeply grateful to both of them for stimulating my interest in a field of study which I have found immensely satisfying and rewarding.

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