In the spring of 1966 a survey of archaeological sites was begun in the qadha of Mandali, Diyala Liwa, east of Baghdad, and between Mandali and Badra, Kut Liwa, along the foothills bordering the Iranian frontier (Fig. 1). The survey was undertaken initially with financial support from the American Philosophical Society and continued in 1967 with the assistance of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. It is hoped that ultimately all archaeological sites in the area will be surveyed systematically, but the primary reason for the selection of this particular region was the possibility that it might provide clues towards the solution of a number of prehistoric problems. Three essentially geographic considerations led to this choice. The first was the fact that Mandali lies roughly equidistant from Tell es-Sawwan, the southernmost Hassuna-Samarra site, and Ras al ‘Amiya, the northern known limit of the southern pottery type known as Hajji Muhammad or Al ‘Ubaid 2. Thus it was hoped that information concerning the relationships, chronological and typological, between these two distinctive prehistoric groups might be found. The second factor was the actual physical situation of the area which, although consisting for the most part of alluvial plain, lies at a significantly higher elevation than the more central portion of the river basins. The plain slopes gradually downwards from the foothills so that Mandali itself has an elevation of 137 m. in contrast with 34 m. at Baghdad. There was, therefore, the possibility that here early prehistoric mounds might be visible above the level of the plain as in Assyria, not as in Sumer buried beneath the silt that has seriously hampered archaeological investigation.

The long standing importance of lapis lazuli in Mesopotamia is shown by the early date of its original importation during the Late Ubaid period. This was probably the first moment that man had sufficient wealth and leisure to begin the quest for luxuries. Hitherto his trade had been confined to the import of essential materials, such as flint and obsidian for blades. But during Gawra XIII he initiated a wide-ranging luxury trade, and for the first time we find beads of turquoise, amethyst, agate, jadeite, beryl and lapis lazuli. Most of these stones occur on the Iranian plateau, but there are only rumours of a source of lapis lazuli in Iran, which cannot be substantiated. The most likely source for this early Gawran lapis is, in fact, the mines at Badakhshan, some fifteen hundred miles to the east, across desert and mountain; and one of the principal reasons for investigating lapis lazuli was the tradition that it originated only from the Badakhshan mines. Although this exclusive claim cannot be regarded as proven, Badakhshan remains the only probable source, and it follows that as early as c. 3500 B.C. trade was established between ancient Iraq and distant Afghanistan—convincing proof of the widespread scope of early trade and communications.

There appears to be a striking resemblance between the use of lapis lazuli in Iraq and that in Egypt during the Predynastic period and the early dynasties.

Lapis lazuli, among other exotic materials, is well-known during the Gerzean period in Egypt. There is hardly a cemetery of the period that has not produced lazuli beads, from Gerzeh itself, in the north, to Bahan, just south of the first cataract. It was, however, not in common use; at Naqada itself, where some 2000 graves make up the largest predynastic cemetery known, lapis lazuli was found in only II graves. Its first appearance dates from early in the Gerzean period, in Petrie's S.D. 40. Its associations during this period are interesting. Lapis lazuli beads were strung together with an imported Mesopotamian cylinder seal found in grave T29 at Naqada. Lazuli fly-amulets form another link with Iraq. Lazuli beads were found in grave 836 at Naqada (dating from the end of this period) with a copper dagger blade quite unlike the other predynastic specimens known; similar daggers dating from about this period have been found outside Egypt. Finally, it is often found in association with gold, but so far not with silver. The general impression is that lapis lazuli is found in richer graves, in association with other foreign elements.

Arslan Tash, the site of the ancient town of Ḫadatu, lies about twenty miles to the east of Carchemish. After a series of preliminary excavations in the latter part of the nineteenth and the beginning of the present century, it was scientifically excavated in 1928 by a French expedition led by Thureau-Dangin. The town's fortifications were examined and four buildings discovered; a Hellenistic temple and an earlier shrine dedicated to Ishtar, a Late Assyrian palace and a smaller residential building, the ‘Bâtiment aux ivoires’. In the succeeding forty years much has been added to our knowledge of Late Assyrian architecture, principally by the excavations at Khorsabad by the Oriental Institute of Chicago and by those of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq at Nimrud. In the present article an attempt is made to utilize this new information in the further interpretation of the plans of the palace and Bâtiment aux ivoires at Arslan Tash and in the determination of their dates.

Tiglath-Pileser III's palace at Nimrud is the only building, among those discovered by Layard in the last century, so far to have received the thorough treatment by modern scholars which they all deserve. Barnett and Falkner's handsome publication brings together almost all the information now available, and the supplementary remarks which follow could hardly have been made without it.

It does not seem to be generally known that the legs of two figures from the vicinity of the palace are still visible in position at Nimrud. One set belonged to a bull facing west (Plate XVIIIa), and the other to a lion facing east (Plate XVIIIb); both are inscribed with the remains of Ashurnaṣirpal II's standard inscription. The figures were probably winged and human-headed; like the bulls and lions outside Ashurnaṣirpal's throneroom, they clearly stood back to back on a façade buttress, to one side of a central door. There is, however, a narrow space between them, and this must have been occupied, as in the palaces of Sargon and Sennacherib, by the figure of a genie: obviously the one found, in just such a position, by Rassam. As Rassam's genie faces left, towards the west, the other buttress of the façade, with a genie facing right, should also have been situated in that direction. This supposition would at least make sense of the way in which the three free-standing monuments in the area were arranged: Ashurnaṣirpal's fragmentary “obelisk” will have been placed directly in front of the central door of the façade, Shalmaneser's “Black Obelisk” will have been added outside the eastern side-door, and the statue of a courtier found to the east will have been in a less imposing position further along the wall.

This article is based mainly on archaeological surveys of the Iraqi Directorate General of Antiquities between the years 1938–1965. In preparing this study, the writer examined more than 7,000 files in the Directorate's archives. The reliability of the report on each site has been carefully assessed. The numbers following the site names indicate serial numbers of relevant files in the Directorate's archives. The name of the district (Qadha or Nahiya) in which a site is located usually follows the serial number.

Examination of the available surface material from all over Iraq, suggests that Uruk pottery is more popular in the north than the south. It is not possible at present to tell whether this fact is significant, as the existing southern surveys are far from complete. Moreover, in the south there is the added problem of silting and subsidence which would have tended to obliterate sites, in particular small ones, of Uruk and earlier dates. However, where extensive surface surveys have been carried out, as, for example, in the Diyala and Nasiriya Liwas, and now in the Eridu and Warka regions, a number of Uruk sites has been found. In spite of the smaller number of recorded sites, one is inclined to treat the south as the focal area at this time, owing to the social and urban development which is known to have taken place there, and for which we have no parallels as yet in the north. However, only further excavations in the north and further survevy in the south can satisfactorily resolve these problems.

During the 1967 season at Tell al-Rimah directed by Mr. David Oates, 282 tablets and fragments were discovered, all except one dating from the Old Babylonian period. They were cleaned on the site by Mr. David Hawkins and myself; after the season's excavations had finished, they were sent to the Iraq Museum. Owing to unavoidable circumstances, it was not possible to continue studying the tablets there; therefore this report is based on the catalogue made on the site, and on preliminary transliterations and copies. I am most grateful to Mr. Hawkins for his invaluable help in the cleaning, copying and transliterating, and in discussions on the texts; nevertheless, the onus of presenting a report from incomplete study rests on myself. All the readings and conclusions offered here are open to correction when the tablets have been studied fully; but they are of such interest that it seemed advisable to present an immediate, preliminary report. A publication of all the texts that will include copies, transliterations, translations and notes will be prepared.

Many important texts from the last series of British Museum excavations at Nineveh were made available in R. Campbell Thompson's paper ‘A Selection from the Cuneiform Historical Texts from Nineveh (1927–32)’, published in Iraq 7 (1940). Mention is made therein of other fragments, said to be mosdy ‘well-known duplicates’. However, among these unedited pieces have been found a number that are worthy of publication as they usefully augment the repertory of Assyrian historical sources. They have been identified during the compilation of a supplementary catalogue of texts from Nineveh on behalf of the Trustees of the British Museum. Thanks are due to the Trustees and to the Keeper of the Department of Western Asiatic Antiquities for permission to publish these manuscripts.

The majority of the pieces in the collection are from the reign of Ashurbanipal, so they are presented here as a homogeneous group. It is hoped to make the other texts known in due course. Although the Annals of Ashurbanipal are familiar, several Editions are so poorly preserved that any new material is welcome, and these texts, together with those from Nimrud studied by E. E. Knudsen, and the promised edition of the Chicago collection by H. Tadmor, will prepare the way for a complete reconstruction of some of them. In this situation, the present study attempts to introduce the new evidence in the context of the previously available texts.