This article reports three new radiocarbon dates from the Iraqi sites of Tell Fara (Shuruppak) and Tell Muqayyar (Ur), produced as a part of a larger dating project on the absolute chronology of Southern Mesopotamia from the Uruk period until the Akkadian era. The radiocarbon results presented here offer good absolute time estimates for the ED I/II period at Fara and the most reliable absolute age so far for the important archaeological find that is the earliest graves in the Royal Cemetery of Ur.

The Babylonian Flood Story contains a conundrum which has stimulated various solutions, none of them convincing. Recent advances in lexicography seem to dismiss them, but an entirely unrelated observation suggests a way to interpret the texts in keeping with Babylonian beliefs and practices.

After Ea had told Ut-napishtim how to prepare for his escape from the Flood, he gave him an explanation of his strange conduct for his fellow citizens. The gods had taken a dislike to Ut-napishtim, so he would go to dwell with his patron Ea in his home, the Apsu. Thereupon Ea would act, apparently to benefit the people, in fact, to indicate that the catastrophe was about to break. The manner and significance of Ea's action as described in the Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet XI, has long puzzled Assyriologists.

The choice of this subject originates from the fact that the area of research to which I have been devoting myself recently includes the figurative cultures of Mesopotamia and Syria in the Early Dynastic and the Early Syrian periods, specifically in the field of war. Some of the data resulting from this research focus on the representation of the “head of the enemy”, which appears repeatedly in the documentation of the second millennium BC in Syria but so far seems to be absent in contemporary Mesopotamia. Despite the evident difference between the forms of representation from these two areas, I perceived in the figurative cycles of the Neo-Assyrian reliefs not only the recurrence of this theme but also the intentional display of severed heads, which reaches its climax in the numerous examples from the South-West Palace in Nineveh. My first aim is, therefore, to suggest a plausible approach towards identifying the origin of the display of “severed heads”, previously absent from Mesopotamian scenes of warfare, in the visual communication of the Neo-Assyrian period. My second aim is to offer an interpretation which may help shed light on ideological, cultural and anthropological aspects essential to the Neo-Assyrian political programme and its visual representation.

Hittite political history consists of a continuous series of wars. The Hittite empire, situated amidst bellicose neighbours and lacking natural frontiers, called for rulers whose power relied on strong armed forces. Every king, when he ascended the throne, at first had to fight against aggressive enemies, in order to keep the inherited territory intact, whereas later on during his reign, he usually endeavoured to expand its borders.

The sources on the warfare of Hittite kings are rather numerous; they can be traced from the very beginning of the Old kingdom until its disappearance (ca. 1600–1200 B.C.).

In the Iraq Museum are displayed two large fragments of a floor mosaic found during a series of emergency surveys and excavations, carried out in 1957–58 by the Directorate General of Antiquities of Iraq. The works were conducted in the plain on the Lower Zab river, south of Rānya (Arbil Liwa), which was due to be flooded on the completion of the Dokan dam.

This work was necessary because in the plain—known locally as Dasht-i-Bitawīyn and some 80 square miles in area—there were at least forty tells which would be submerged on the completion of the artificial lake.

The mosaic was found about 10 miles south of Rānya, at Tell Khwāris which is situated at the confluence of the Lower Zab and its tributary Rubar-i-Basalam. Tell Khwāris is 100 m. long, 80 m. wide and 4 m. high.

Nearby dwellers in the course of their agricultural works had dug a deep trench on the summit of the mound and had brought to light several pieces of the floor mosaic which were subsequently destroyed. Members of the Directorate General of Antiquities when informed of the discovery, were able to trace all extant parts of the ancient floor and remove them to Baghdad.

In this article the name of the Sumerian god Isimu is analysed as “who brings the shoots forth” and explained by the chthonic character of his master Enki. Investigated is as well the ratio behind the complex writing of his name and the names of other servants of Enki. Beside this it is shown that Isimu must have been known at least since the time of the archaic texts from Ur. There was also another Janus like mythical being, the male and female Ara, at one point identified with Isimu.

This article presents three rock reliefs of the Parthian era in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, documented in Amadiya/Amedi by Columbia University's Mapping Mesopotamian Monuments survey project in 2013. The paper discusses the iconography, style and date of the reliefs and the methods that the Columbia team used to document them, including photogrammetry, perspectival corrected and perspective controlled stills, and 360° immersive, processed panoramas. At the same time as presenting a reading of the relief imagery, the article offers a preliminary self-reflective consideration of the documentation methods we have been utilizing for the study of rock reliefs in the past seven years. These technological advances, enormously useful for digital image capture, are nevertheless a form of imaging and must be understood as such methodologically. The final results of these kinds of technically advanced images of rock reliefs must rely on modes of visual interpretation that remain subjective and dependent on visual analytical skills based in historical knowledge, stylistic and iconographic analyses, as well as on-site, close up material-tactile studies of surfaces, of carving styles and methods. Finally, taking architectural context and landscape into account, the paper makes the case that the location of the reliefs dating to the Parthian era, at the citadel's entry, guided and inspired the Seljuk era monumental portals of Amadiya/Amedi that were subsequently erected and sculpted in dialogue with the ancient remains.

Paolo Emilio Botta, who was sent to Mosul as the French Consul in 1842, explored at Kuyunjik and Nebi Yunus and then began investigating ancient stone foundations at Nebi Yunus. Muhammed/Mehmed Pasha and local religious leaders, who were worried that the tomb of prophet Yunus (Jonah) and a local mosque would be destroyed by the excavations, opposed these investigations and the work stopped as a result. After Nebi Yunus, Botta started to work at Kuyunjik in December 1842. While his workers were busy at Kuyunjik, someone from the village of Khorsabad talked about stones with inscriptions and reliefs on them on top of a hill. After three months of exhaustive work at Kuyunjik, on March 20th, 1843 Botta sent a group of workers to Khorsabad for excavation. However, problems arose about Botta's work in Mosul. The Pasha of the province in particular created obstructions. We have done research in the Ottoman Archives of the Prime Ministry of Turkey on Botta's excavation permits and documents, the obstructions created by the Pasha of Mosul, the details of the story of Botta's experiences at Khorsabad and the relevant correspondence. In these archives we have found documents about the problems Botta experienced at Khorsabad, the conditions for excavation permits and the construction of an excavation house, the plan of the excavation house mentioned by Botta, which was drafted like a fortress next to the village houses and sent to Istanbul, as well as petitions of the villagers opposing Botta's work and his excavation house. Here, we attempt to re-read Botta's excavation seasons, permits and the problems he encountered through the documents in the Ottoman Archives in order to understand how this period is to be understood. Through these documents and correspondence, we were able to study the problems that arose between the Ottoman State and France as a result of Botta's excavations at Khorsabad.

At some point early on during his reign, Sar-kali-sarrē, made a journey to Sumer. The occasion was so momentous that an entire year was named in commemoration of the excursion. This paper investigates the evidence for that royal visitation, with special attention given to the administrative documents that record the king's sojourn at Girsu. The investigation also considers the rationale for the king's decision to make an expedition to Sumer and asserts that Sar-kali-sarrē may have undertaken the journey in order to begin his building works at the Ekur in Nippur. In addition, the paper identifies some of the highest officials of the Akkadian court who traveled with the king. These individuals are significant because they are usually conspicuous in administrative documents, and as such their presence can establish prosopographic synchronisms between Sargonic archives.

A study of the excavated structures at Ur which Woolley identified as domestic and possibly Kassite (or later) in date. Through an examination of the objects excavated in the structures and associated graves (principally pottery, glass and faience vessels, scaraboids and tablets) the housing in area EM is dated to roughly the 13th century b.c. while the remains in areas XNCF, AH, YC and KPS are dated to the 8th/7th centuries b.c. The review also presents a summary history of Ur from the mid third millennium b.c. to the neo-Babylonian period highlighting the periods of royal patronage at the city.