Khirbet Karhasan was excavated by the British Archaeological Expedition to Iraq, as part of the Saddam Dam Salvage Project. The excavations brought to light a hoard of Middle Assyrian faience ornaments, which formed a coherent assemblage. Collections of similar ornaments are known from Assur and Nimrud where they have been variously interpreted as decorating the rich garments for a god, a divine image, and even the walls of temples. In the absence of any other persuasive view a hypothesis is advanced based on the evidence of archaeological context, iconographic associations and a viable reconstruction, that the ornaments are equally adaptable to the decoration of ceremonial horse-harness.

The tell of Khirbet Karhasan is situated on the right bank of the Tigris approximately 75 km north-west of Mosul. The site on the edge of a prominent terrace overlooks a broad floodplain. In 1986, prior to the flooding of the site, the Tigris channel was 3 km north of the tell. The tell was sheltered by low hills which formed the western slope of the valley some 500 m to the south of the site. The hills rose some 40 m above the tell to approximately 50 m above the floodplain.

“The complex sequence of burials, labelled Burial 14, involved inhumation of more than seven individuals. Initially, during excavation, the entire sequence was thought to comprise a single, multichambered tomb. But reconsideration of the stratigraphy and grave contents made it apparent that there were three separate burial phases.” With this honest admission McGuire Gibson and Augusta McMahon started their description of this strange burial complex. Their interpretation of the excavation led them to propose that one of the burial phases consisted of a two-lobed chamber containing the remains of three individuals (called Skeletons 2, 3, and 4). In this article I will suggest that this burial phase should be subdivided into at least two phases, an “Early Dynastic (ED)” burial containing Skeleton 3 and a “Late Akkadian” burial containing Skeleton 2. The dating of Skeleton 4 is uncertain but most probably it should also date to the Akkadian period.

There are three reasons for suggesting this: first, the finds associated with Skeleton 2 appear to be considerably later than those associated with Skeleton 3; second, the two-lobed shape of the burial can be more easily explained as the result of several graves dug into each other than as the result of a single burial; and third, burials of three individuals in one grave at the same time are very uncommon in southern Mesopotamia in the second half of the third millennium BC.

During the 1993 season of excavations at Tell Ahmar, three pieces of a life-size basalt statue were found in a pit dug into one of the large walls surrounding an Iron Age vaulted tomb (Fig. 1). The head, the tors o and the lower part fitted together perfectly. When correctly assembled, these three pieces formed the figure of a standing beardless man with clasped hands (Fig. 2a−b). Only the feet were missing. The maximum height of the reconstructed statue is 1.45m. It was clear from the damage to portions of its body that the statue had been deliberately broken in antiquity. Details, such as a large hole on the right side of the chest, a smaller one on the top of the head and, above all, the defacement of the head suggest that the statue may have actually been “killed”.

All three pieces of the statue, which was carved out of a blue greyish basalt of medium texture, were found lying on their backs (Fig. 4). The head lay next to the lower part of the statue, but was buried in a slightly deeper position. The relative placement of these fragments seems to be a clear indication that the statue was not knocked down at this particular spot, but was brought to this location in separate pieces, perhaps with the deliberate intention of burying them.

The head was cut off as if the statue had been decapitated. The torso was separated from the lower portion of the statue by an oblique cut that divided the figure just below the waist. The cut runs downwards from the back and continues underneath the clasped hands at the front, leaving the hands almost completely undamaged. The lower part of the statue seems to have been separated from the missing feet by a horizontal cut. This may indicate that the base of the statue was left in situ, probably because it was solidly set in the ground.

This article continues the publication of tablets from the library of the temple of Šamaš at Sippar begun in volume 52 of this journal. Presented here are the library's copies of two texts which have in common the fact that they are not what they purport to be: Maništūšu's cruciform monument, and a literary letter of Samsu-iluna. Both texts are clearly fictitious compositions which postdate their supposed royal authors by a long time. Their purpose was apparently to supply evidence of historical precedent. The invented evidence which these documents present as fact would be intended to substantiate or advance the claims of those who wrote them. While both tablets are duplicates of known texts, each adds to a greater or lesser degree to our knowledge of these texts, not least by filling lacunae and by confirming or rebutting the restorations of previous editors.

The identification of a tablet from niche 8 B as a duplicate of the last column of a large Neo-Babylonian exercise tablet from Ur allows this text to be properly identified for the first time. It is one of several royal letters in Akkadian, some apparently genuine, others certainly bogus, which entered the scribal tradition and survive in late copies. This example purports to be from Samsu-iluna, the son and successor of Hammurapi of Babylon, to Enlil-nādin-šumi, a man whose several titles identify him as a very senior figure, and apparently a royal prince. As is the case with the Cruciform Inscription of Maništūšu, anachronisms in the text mark the composition out as later than it purports to be. Following the formulae which name the letter's addressee and sender the text itself opens with the phrase umma ana narê, an expression that also appears in a probably genuine letter of Nebuchadnezzar I.

The attention of Assyriologists has long been focused on persons bearing the title of merchant in the various periods of Mesopotamian history. But it has been difficult to reconstruct the activities of merchants for any one period. Recent efforts to collect silver balanced accounts have made it possible to analyse in some detail the activities of a small group of merchants in the city of Umma during the Ur III period (2112–2004 B.C.).

There are many aspects of their activities that we do not yet understand, but in broad outlines the Umma silver balanced account system in which some merchants worked is clear to us, and its functions and purposes can be surveyed. Although in the course of investigation several texts came to light which were previously neglected or unpublished, these texts did not markedly alter the general view of the system.

Die in Königsinschriften, Gebeten und einigen babylonischen Epen oft genannten Igigu-Götter stehen in jüngeren Texten gewöhnlich neben den Anunnaku-Göttern. Da in manchen von diesen den Anunnaku als Göttern der Unterwelt bzw. der Erde die Igigu als Götter des Himmels gegenübergestellt werden, hat man früher gemeint, man habe in der babylonischen Götterwelt seit jeher die beiden Gruppen der Igigu droben und der Anunnaku drunten unterschieden. Demgegenüber habe ich in einem 1962 in Leiden gehaltenen Vortrag, der in Compte Rendu de l'Onzième Rencontre Assyriologique internationale (Leiden 1964), S.102–111, veröffentlicht wurde, versucht aufzuzeigen, dass die mit beiden Bezeichnungen verbundenen Vorstellungen nicht immer die gleichen waren. Die Sumerer kannten nur die Anunna-Götter; die Belege für a-nun-na in der sumerischen Literatur hat seither A. Falkenstein in Studies in Honor of Benno Landsberger (A.S., 16 (Chicago), 1965, S. 127–140), erstmalig in sehr grosser Zahl gesammelt und geordnet. Das mit Igigu gleichgesetzte sumerische nun-gal-e-ne “grosse Fürsten” taucht, wie ich gezeigt habe, erst etwa gleichzeitig mit dem akkadischen Begriff in der Ḫammurabi-Zeit oder wenig früher auf und dürfte ein künstliches Übersetzungswort sein. Während ich mich bemüht habe, zwischen den Igigu und den Anunnaku in akkadischen Texten zu differenzieren, vertrat kürzlich B. Kienast in seinem Beitrag zur eben genannten Landsberger-Festschrift (S.141–158) “ Igigū und Anunnakkū nach den akkadischen Quellen” die Ansicht, dass beide Ausdrücke in den meisten Texten synonym seien (vgl. besonders § 45ff. seines Aufsatzes). Nur für die älteste Zeit (s. § 45) rechnet auch Kienast mit der Möglichkeit, dass der Begriff Igigu in einer anderen. Gottesvorstellung wurzeln könne als a-nun-na, weil die Götter der Akkader einen stärker kosmischen Charakter gehabt hätten als die der Sumerer, für die vor allem chthonische Vorstellungen bestimmend gewesen seien. Da ich mich Kienasts Auffassung in wesentlichen Punkten nicht anschliessen kann und einige wichtige neue Zeugnisse bekannt geworden sind, möchte ich hier kurz auf die Göttergruppenfrage zurückkommen, mich dabei aber im ganzen auf das altbabylonische Material beschränken.

During his excavations of the successive cities of Troy, Schliemann uncovered a few clay pots adorned in relief with a crudely moulded human face, presumably female, which might have been thought to be in the tradition of the vase decorated in relief and painting with a female face from Hassuna and the pots with moulded faces from Kish. Professor Frankfort, however, in his most interesting article Ishtar in Troy, proposes quite a different derivation for these pots, termed by him “face-urns”, which implies that they were used for funerary purposes, although they did not contain human remains and were not found in graves, but in dwellings, which suggests that they may have been domestic utensils. A piece bearing rudimentary indications of a human face was also discovered and, although not found in the same level as the pots, has been thought to be the cover which fitted over the mouth and neck of one of the vessels. From this fact Frankfort concludes that the derivation of this type of pot can be traced back to certain objects of stone and clay which consist of a bell-shaped base surmounted by double volutes with perforated centres which were not uncommon at various sites in strata of the Protoliterate d (= Uruk III, Jamdat Naṣr) period.

The most interesting epigraphical discovery made in the course of the 1968 season of excavations at Tell al Rimah under the direction of Mr. David Oates was a circular plaque of baked clay, TR.5708, maximum diameter 12·5 cms., found in the Palace area, site C. The plaque was buried in a repaired section of a wall in a building of level 5, the level above that in which Old Babylonian archives had appeared in 1967. The level is tentatively dated by Mr. Oates to about the 16th century B.C., but it was perfectly clear that the plaque was not in its original position. The brick-work at the base of the wall had apparently been eroded by water-action, and the gap had been filled up with a packing of earth, in which was the plaque, and faced by a single row of bricks placed slanting against the wall. The back of the plaque is quite smooth, but two small lumps of libn adhere to it, suggesting that it was originally plastered on to the face of a wall.

The slightly convex face of the plaque is inscribed with a six-line inscription written in a clear Old Babylonian script, of which a copy appears as Fig. 1.

Anyone reading the Gilgameš Epic cannot help being puzzled by the words pukku and mekkû which have been very much discussed by specialists and are still so enigmatic that some translators no longer attempt to render them.

The state of the question is as follows.

The von Soden dictionary translates pukku by “Trommel” (drum). Such was also Landsberger's first interpretation, but he later changed his mind: since the pukku occurs once with some playthings such as a skipping rope, he suggested a hoop, but finally, one year later, owing to a passage, “Ich lasse die Schädel rollen wie pukku”, which seems to imply “eine massivere Struktur”, he plumped for “eine Art Polo oder Croquet mit Holzkugeln”, i.e. wooden balls.

As for mekkū, von Soden gives several meanings: first, a pestle used with a sieve; second, “Trommelstock” (drumstick). This we must stop to consider for a while, since this implement, the drumstick, is not attested in ancient Mesopotamia. Drums are very often represented in Mesopotamian reliefs. There are several kinds of them, either shallow and small, like our timbrel or tambourine; or barrel-shaped or conical and hanging from the belt; or again larger ones set on the ground; none of these is ever played with a stick. Even the gigantic Gudea drum is played with bare hands.

As a student of Seton Lloyd's, I learnt at first hand about the Diyala excavations in which he had taken part, and this was a memorable experience. Among the many remarkable finds he made at Tell Asmar was a metal hoard of Early Dynastic III date. In the south-east corner of Room E 16:35 of the earlier Northern Palace, plastered into a hole in the wall and hidden behind a later cross-wall, was a pot and within it there were between 60 and 80 copper or bronze objects. “There were drinking cups, lamps, daggers, flat strainers with thin handles, a long drinking-tube with a perforated end. A number of finely wrought bowls both circular and boat-shaped, were nested together in groups, and the collection was completed by various small cooking-pots with bucket handles and vessels whose purpose was not apparent from their shape.” Among these objects were “a hollow knife or dagger handle which … proved to be of bronze and to contain the remnants of an iron blade”, a fluted bowl which recalls those of silver found in the later Tod Treasure and another bowl of bronze which bore a dedication to the god Abu which enabled the nearby temple to be identified since the hoard had presumably originated from it. It is, however, the aim of this paper to examine the two buckets from the hoard and to relate them to other buckets which show similar peculiarities of manufacture.

The small collection of ancient Near Eastern seals in the school museum at Charterhouse was called to our attention by the kindness of Mr. Ian Blake. It was assembled in the nineteenth century through two gifts, that of D. G. Prinsep in 1876 (eight cylinders) and that of Leonard Marshall in 1896 (sixteen cylinders and five Sassanian stamp seals). No information has survived about the exact source of these seals, though, as will be seen, they might well all come from sites in southern Iraq. We are most grateful to the Governors and Headmaster of Charterhouse for allowing these seals to be taken to Oxford for study and photography. The School authorities also subsidized the cost of photography, which was done by Mr. R. L. Wilkins of the Institute of Archaeology in Oxford. In the following concise catalogue Professor O. R. Gurney is responsible for the seal inscriptions (save for a single Sassanian one kindly read by Dr. A. D. H. Bivar), and Dr. P. R. S. Moorey for the classification, description and discussion of the designs. We gratefully acknowledge advice on various points from Mr. Briggs Buchanan and Professor W. Lambert, who bear no responsibility for any persisting errors. For the abbreviations used in the catalogue see pp. 80–1. Measurements given are in millimetres (height × width); figures such as 1–1956–2 are the Charterhouse registry numbers.

The latter half of 1962 has witnessed a remarkably varied number of events including not only two rewarding excavations by the Directorate General of Antiquities and the continuation of its restoration programme at various ancient sites, but also the official opening of the new Iraq Museum, the return of two distinguished foreign expeditions to the field and a festival. If, then, we select the opening of the new Museum to begin this article, it is in the belief that the completion of that admirable enterprise marks a great and important step not simply towards the general advancement of Mesopotamian studies in Iraq and abroad, but equally towards the fuller realization by the Iraqi people of the outstanding material and intellectual achievements of their ancient forbears. To those, therefore, who have worked for the creation of the new building, and to those who have followed its progress it must be a source of great satisfaction that within the course of the next two years we may hope to see a great national collection installed in its new home.

The reports given below cover excavation work in Iraq during 1975, together with a few which could not be included in the last collection of reports for 1973–4 in Iraq 37 (1975), 57–67. The information on each site has been kindly provided by the director of the excavations, unless otherwise specified, and the final version checked by him wherever possible. The sites are arranged in alphabetical order, according to their best known name.

The material for this report has been assembled by Mr. J. N. Postgate, Director of the British Archaeological Expedition to Iraq, and the Editors are glad to acknowledge his efforts. They join with him in expressing their gratitude to all those colleagues who have so willingly contributed information on their work, and especially to Dr. Isa Salman, the Director-General of Antiquities in Iraq, for his generous co-operation which alone has made this compilation possible.

Excavations were restarted at this Early Dynastic site to the north-west of Nippur by the British Archaeological Expedition to Iraq under the direction of J. N. Postgate, and lasted from September to December, 1975. Work was confined to the main north-eastern mound, in Areas A and E investigated by the Oriental Institute expedition in 1963 and 1965.

Excavations at Chagar Bazar by the British School of Archaeology in Iraq team continued in 2001 and 2002 in Areas A and G (Fig. 1). In both areas, the final occupation of the site, datable to ca 1800–1650 BC, was investigated. Cuneiform tablets from Max Mallowan's 1930s excavations testify to the key position held by Chagar Bazar at the beginning of this period. His work had exposed large areas of domestic and administrative structures, but stratigraphic and relational uncertainties remained which merited further investigation. The archaeological situation at the fringes of Shamshi-Addu's Kingdom of Upper Mesopotamia are still somewhat enigmatic, and the aftermath of its collapse has not been intensively explored.

This article seeks to demonstrate that the correct arrangement of the bronze bands on the Shalmaneser III gates from Balawat can be established by comparing the position of the nail holes on the ends of the bands with those on the edging strips that were fixed to the edges of the doors and partly overlap the ends of the bands. This new approach confirms the order previously proposed by Curtis and Tallis for the bands on the left-hand gate, but a new arrangement is suggested for the four lower bands on the right-hand gate.

The princesses in the royal family of the Ur III state had a role in developing and revitalizing the economy. In ancient Iraqi society women operated in all fields of work. Cuneiform texts recorded their activities in the processes of receiving, delivery, distribution and mediating between people. Living in the community, Iraqi women played an important and positive role in ancient Iraq's society. Šāt-Eštar first became known as a princess in the texts treated in the author's MA Thesis in 2010. The study of the texts which mention princess Šat-Eštar shows that this character played an important role in processes of receiving, delivering, distributing and mediating between people. She was specialized in trading several materials, primarily barley and flour and then dates, as well as textiles and clothing types. The people she dealt with were Agatia, Šulgi-mudah, Abituni, Šāt-Su'en, Šāt-Nūnu, Šeškala, and Lugal-nisaĝ-e.

This paper studies a group of documents produced in the course of investigation into the activities of a gang that operated in Uruk in the latter part of Nabonidus’ rule. It examines the composition of this criminal group and the offences committed by its members. Above all, however, it seeks to reconstruct the procedures implemented by the temple officials in response to a hitherto unpublished royal writ BM 114574, a document that throws new light on the involvement of the king in the administration of justice in the Neo-Babylonian period.