While excavating at the side of the foundations of the Temple of Ishtar in some Parthian houses on Kouyunjik in 1930–1, we found a quantity of black-painted pottery, to all appearances of an early date, of the same kind as appeared in 1927 and 1929, when Mr. Hutchinson was in charge of the pottery. This painted ware, while reminiscent of the well-known ware from Susa and Babylonia, has a distinct type of its own, and we are still in doubt about its exact date, but it is presumably of the Third Millennium. Its presence in Parthian levels led us to assume that some Parthian archaeologist had collected it.