Excavations at Tall Arpachiyah, 1933

M. E. L. Mallowan; J. Cruikshank Rose

doi:10.2307/4241576

Excavations at Tall Arpachiyah, 1933

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2016

M. E. L. Mallowan and

J. Cruikshank Rose

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In 1932 the British School of Archaeology in Iraq made a grant of £600 towards an expedition to Arpachiyah, this being the first donation of the Gertrude Bell Memorial Fund to an archaeological expedition. The Trustees of the Percy Sladen Memorial (Linnean Society) also made a generous award of £400, and there were further munificent grants of £100 from Sir Charles Marston, £500 from an anonymous donor, and from many private subscribers. The Trustees of the British Museum undertook the scientific responsibility for the expedition.

Type: Research Article
Information: IRAQ , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , April 1935 , pp. 1 - 2

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/4241576 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1935

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References

^{page 3 note 1} Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology (University Press, Liverpool), xx Google Scholar: henceforth cited as A.A.A.

^{page 3 note 2} J.R.A.S. (Old Series, 1854).

^{page 5 note 1} Cf. Smith, Sidney, Early History of Assyria, 1–9 Google Scholar, for a general account of the prehistoric period in Assyria.

^{page 8 note 1} Oppenheim, Von, Der Tell Halaf (Leipzig, 1931)Google Scholar.

^{page 14 note 1} E. F. Schmidt, The Alishar Hüyük.

^{page 15 note 1} For a discussion on early cereals in the Middle East cf. Peake, and Fleure, , The Corridors of Time, Clarendon Press Google Scholar; and Childe, Gordon, New Light on the Most Ancient East, Kegan Paul, 1934 (2nd. ed.)Google Scholar.

^{page 16 note 1} Gordon Childe, op. cit. 56.

^{page 16 note 2} For a different theory as to the origin of planoconvex bricks cf. De Lougaz, Planoconvex Bricks (Oriental Institute Studies, No. 7). For the planoconvex brick at Nineveh cf. A.A.A. XX. 149 Google Scholar.

^{page 22 note 1} E. Herzfeld, Ausgrabungen von Samarra, Chapter viii.

^{page 23 note 1} Cf. Contenau, , Manuel d'Archéologie Oriental, III, 1616 Google Scholar, Tableau I, for a comparative table.

^{page 24 note 1} A.A.A. XX.

^{page 25 note 1} A.A.A. XX, pl. 73, for the prehistoric section, and 127-75.

^{page 25 note 2} Von Oppenheim, Der Tell Halaf.

^{page 25 note 3} Woolley, , Excavations at Ur 1929–1930 (A.J. X, No. 4)Google Scholar.

^{page 25 note 4} Jordan, , Dritter vorläufiger Bericht über die von der Notgemeinschaft der deutschen Wissenschaft in Uruk unternommenen Ausgrabungen (Abhandlungen der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1932)Google Scholar, hereafter cited as Jordan, , Uruk, 1932 Google Scholar.

^{page 25 note 5} D.P.M., tomes 12, 13, 15, 20.

^{page 25 note 6} Herzfeld, Iranische Denkmäler, Lieferung, 1, Reihe 1.

^{page 32 note 1} Cf. Woolley, , Ur Excavations, The Royal Cemetery, II, 106 Google Scholar.

^{page 33 note 1} Cf. Evans, Arthur, Knossos, II, 35–44 Google Scholar, and fig. 17, p. 38, for a useful summary of early tholoi, and Peet, , Rough Stone Monuments and their Builders, Harper, 1912 CrossRef Google Scholar.

^{page 33 note 2} Cf. also Zammit, , Prehistoric Malta, 31 Google Scholar, for evidence of a domed apse in the neolithic Tarxien temple.

^{page 36 note 1} Cf. SirMarshall, John, Mohenjo Daro and the Indus Civilisation, I, Ch. VIGoogle Scholar, for a summary of the evidence; also Frankfort, H., Archaeology and the Sumerian Problem, 27 Google Scholar.

^{page 36 note 2} D.P.M. tome 8, 76.

^{page 36 note 3} Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, No. 35.

^{page 36 note 4} Ibid., No. 43.

^{page 36 note 5} Cf. A.A.A. XX, 163, footnote 2.

^{page 36 note 6} Woolley, , Ur Excavations, The Royal Cemetery, 11, 407–8Google Scholar.

^{page 37 note 1} Marshall, , Mohenjo Daro and the Indus Civilisation, I. 100 Google Scholar.

^{page 37 note 2} Cf. especially the funerary pottery on the sites of Periano Ghundai and Shahi Tump, Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, 37, 43.

^{page 37 note 3} A.J. X, 327, 328 Google Scholar.

^{page 43 note 1} Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, no. 35.

^{page 45 note 1} R.A. XXIX, Pl. 3, 2.

^{page 62 note 1} Hall, and Woolley, , Ur Excavations, I Google Scholar. Al‘Ubaid, pl. 49, T.O. 515.

^{page 63 note 1} Mackay, E., Report on Excavations at Jemdet Nasr, Iraq (Field Museum of Natural History, Anthropology Memoirs, Vol. I, No. 3), Pl. 77, No. 1 (Chicago, 1931)Google Scholar.

^{page 63 note 2} Herzfeld, , Iranische Denkmäler, Lieferung I, Reihe I, Taf. XV, 1 Google Scholar, for a closely similar design at Persepolis.

^{page 64 note 1} Myres, J. L., Handbook of the Cesnola Collection, 1915 Google Scholar.

^{page 66 note 1} Hall and Woolley, Ur Excavations, Al‘Ubaid.

^{page 70 note 1} A.A.A. XX.

^{page 71 note 1} Hall, and Woolley, , Ur Excavations, I CrossRef Google Scholar, Al‘Ubaid, pl. 60, type 94.

^{page 71 note 2} Woolley, , Ur Excavations, II Google Scholar, The Royal Cemetery, pl. 267, type 253.

^{page 72 note 1} Opinions differ, however, as to the technique employed. Cf. Lucas, , Annales du Service des Antiquités de l'Égypte, 1932 Google Scholar. Also Lucas, , Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries (2nd. ed.) pp. 329–332 Google Scholar.

^{page 72 note 2} Hall, and Woolley, , Ur Excavations, I Google Scholar, Al‘Ubaid, pl. LI.

^{page 75 note 1} von Oppenheim, Der Tell Halaf, taf. 51, Nos. 5, 7.

^{page 76 note 1} Jordan, , Uruk, 1932, taf. 20 Google Scholar.

^{page 76 note 2} We are indebted to Dr. H. H. Thomas of the Petrographical Department of the British Museum, South Kensington, for the identification of these materials.

^{page 76 note 3} Wainwright, G. A., Obsidian (Ancient Egypt, September, 1927, Part III)Google Scholar.

^{page 76 note 4} Illustrated London News, Oct. 28, 1933.

^{page 79 note 1} Cf. E. Douglas van Buren, Clay Figurines of Babylonia and Assyria, for a general discussion on the significance of the nude female figurines. There is some doubt as to whether the type represents the ‘mother-goddess’ or a devotee, or whether it is merely symbolic of the functions of womanhood in general. Cf. also De Genouillac, Les Premières Recherches Archéologiques à Kick, where the nude female figurine is described as the doll goddess.

^{page 79 note 2} Cf. W. S. Blackman, The Fellahin of Upper Egypt, Ch. 4, on birth and childhood.

^{page 79 note 3} Cf. Buist, R. C. M.A., M.D., Posture in Difficult Labour (The British Medical Journal, 08 9, 1924)Google Scholar. In this most interesting article the eminent gynaecologist recognized the significance of the posture of a figurine from Tall Ḫalaf in the British Museum.

^{page 79 note 4} Cf. Albright, W. F., The Archaeology of Palestine and the Bible, 109 Google Scholar, for a remarkable Palestinian parallel to the Arpachiyah figurines, at Tell Beit Mirsim, in Stratum B (early Israelite occupation). There was a group of five figurines, ‘all representing a naked woman in the process of accouchement. … There is an exaggerated protrusion of the vulvar region, which cannot denote a pathological condition, but must be an attempt to suggest the descent of the child's head, and the imminence of delivery.’ Albright thinks it improbable that these figures represent the Dea Syria in any of her aspects, and takes what appears to be the most reasonable view in suggesting ‘that these figures were merely intended to hasten parturition by sympathetic magic … that they also served as charms to bring fruitfulness to barren women’.

^{page 80 note 1} Evans, , Knossos, I, Fig. 12Google Scholar.

^{page 81 note 1} Cf. A.J. X, pl. 48, for painted clay figurines of the Al‘Ubaid period, with tattoo (?) marks on the body.

^{page 87 note 1} Burkitt, , The Old Stone Age (1933)Google Scholar.

^{page 87 note 1} E. F. Schmidt, The Alishar Hüyük, part I, fig. 62.

^{page 88 note 1} Cf. Frankfort, H., Studies in Early Pottery of the Near East, 1924, pl. 8Google Scholar, and Glanville, , Egyptian Theriomorphic Vessels in the British Museum (J.E.A. XII)Google Scholar, also Evans, , Knossos, I, fig. 107Google Scholar.

^{page 90 note 1} A mound 2 miles east of Arpachiyah: on the surface I observed sherds of Tall Ḫalaf ware.

^{page 90 note 2} Cf. Herzfeld, E., Archaeologische Mitteilungen aus Iran, Band V, Heft 2Google Scholar, and particularly Abb. 13-18, where many seals are illustrated analogous to types 1-4 at Arpachiyah. Cf. also Pl. I at the end of that volume. The date of many of these Iranian seals is still a matter of doubt, but it is probable that many of them come from the earliest strata, and that the old types persisted in Iran.

^{page 91 note 1} W. S. Blackman, The Fellahin of Upper Egypt, Ch. IV, fig. 29.

^{page 91 note 2} Harrison, J. E., Mystica Vannus Iacchi (J.H.S. XXIII, XXIV)Google Scholar.

^{page 95 note 1} I am indebted to Mr. C. J. Gadd for this identification.

^{page 95 note 2} Smith, Sidney, Early History of Assyria, 7 Google Scholar, for references to sickles.

^{page 95 note 3} J.H.S. XXIII, xxiv.

^{page 96 note 1} Herzfeld, , Archaeologische Mitteilungen aus Iran, Band V, Heft IIGoogle Scholar.

^{page 97 note 1} Wace, , The Chamber Tombs at Mycenae (Archaeologia or Miscellaneous Tracts relative to Antiquity, LXXXII), pl. 38, 1932 Google Scholar.

^{page 98 note 1} Hall, and Woolley, , Ur Excavations, Al‘Ubaid, I, pl. XXXVII, T.O. 415 Google Scholar.

^{page 98 note 2} A.A.A. xx. 141 Google Scholar.

^{page 100 note 1} White, W. C., Tombs of Old Lo-Yang, 32, and pl. XLIGoogle Scholar.

^{page 102 note 1} Mackay, E., A Sumerian Palace and the A. Cemetery at Kish, Mesopotamia (Field Museum of Natural History, Anthropology Memoirs, vol. I), pl. XXXVGoogle Scholar.

^{page 102 note 2} I am indebted to Mr. Sidney Smith for information on this point.

^{page 102 note 3} G. A. Wainwright, Obsidian (Ancient Egypt, September, 1927, Part III).

^{page 103 note 1} Woolley, , Ur Excavations, The Royal Cemetery, II, pl. 229Google Scholar.

^{page 104 note 1} Childe, Gordon, Eurasian Shaft-Hole Axes (Eurasia Septentrionalis Antigua, IX)Google Scholar.

^{page 105 note 1} Von Oppenheim, Der Tell Halaf.

^{page 107 note 1} Woolley, C. L., Ur Excavations, The Royal Cemetery, II. 302, and type 32, pl. 234Google Scholar.

^{page 108 note 1} Matz, , Die frühkretischen Siegel, 84 Google Scholar.

^{page 112 note 1} Gordon Childe, Notes on some Indian and East Iranian Pottery (Ancient Egypt and the East, March, June 1933, Parts I, II). The term ‘Maltese square’ is used to describe a square with triangles at the four corners. This very convenient term deserves notice, as it serves to describe a complicated design constantly used on Chalcolithic pottery.

^{page 112 note 2} Herzfeld, E., Die Ausgrabungen von Samarra, 52, taf. XXIIIGoogle Scholar.

^{page 114 note 1} D.P.M., tome 13, pls. XVI-XVIII.

^{page 114 note 2} Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, No. 43, pl. XV.

^{page 118 note 1} Woolley, , Ur Excavations, The Royal Cemetery, II, pls. 95, 96Google Scholar.

^{page 127 note 1} A.A.A. XX, pl. XLII, No. 3.

^{page 128 note 1} Mackay, , Jemdet Nasr, I, pl. 78, and passim Google Scholar.

^{page 129 note 1} Stein, Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, No. 37, pl. XX, S.J. II, 4.

^{page 131 note 1} A.A.A. XX, pl. XLII, No. 19.

^{page 131 note 2} Cf. Chapter 8, pp. 103-104.

^{page 136 note 1} A fragment of a cup with dotted circles in black paint on a buff clay, and another with a red quatrefoil design on a dark ground, from TT 6. Also fragments of pedestals from sq. Fb V. 2, at 1·5 m. below the surface. Period: TT 6-7.

^{page 136 noet 2} Isa. XXX. 14, ‘and he shall break it as the breaking of the potters’ vessel that is broken in pieces’. Cf. also Jer. xix. 11 and Ps. ii. 9. Cf. J.R.A.S., 1926, 708, note 1.

^{page 144 note 1} Von Oppenheim, Der Tell Halaf, taf. 51.

^{page 150 note 1} Herzfeld, Die Ausgrabungen von Samarra, taf. XIX.

^{page 151 note 1} A.A.A. XX, pl. XXXIX, No. 15.

^{page 156 note 1} Woolley, , Ur Excavations, The Royal Cemetery, II, pl. 231Google Scholar.

^{page 163 note 1} Contenau, G., Manuel d'archéologie orientale, I. 411, and figs. 213-23Google Scholar.

^{page 165 note 1} Herzfeld, , Die Ausgrabungen von Samarra, 24, Abb. 31, Nr. 31Google Scholar.

^{page 167 note 1} von Oppenheim, , Der Tell Halaf, 251 Google Scholar.

^{page 167 note 2} D.P.M. XIII, pl. XVI, and Von Oppenheim, Der Tell Halaf, taf. 53, No. 1.

^{page 169 note 1} A.A.A. XX.

^{page 170 note 1} A.A.A. XX.

^{page 170 note 2} Von Oppenheim, Der Tell Halaf, taf. 53, No. 17.

^{page 174 note 1} A.A.A. XX, pl. XXXV, No. 1.

^{page 174 note 2} Ibid, I (1908).

^{page 174 note 3} Ibid, XX, pl. XXXVI, Nos. 18-22, for illustrations of the type, and p. 150 for a general discussion

^{page 175 note 1} Oppenheim, von, Der Tell Halaf, 253 Google Scholar.

^{page 176 note 1} The best clays must also have been washed and refined.

^{page 177 note 1} Herzfeld, Die Ausgrabungen von Samarra, pl. XLIV.

^{page 178 note 1} D.P.M., XIII, pl. XXI, No. 2.

^{page 178 note 2} Stein, Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, No. 37.

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