The reports given below cover excavation work in Iraq from June 1972 to May 1973. The information on each site has been kindly provided by the director of the excavations, unless otherwise specified, and the final version has been checked by him wherever possible. The sites are arranged in alphabetical order, according to their best known name.
The material for this report was assembled by Mr. J. N. Postgate, Assistant Director of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq. The Editors are glad to acknowledge his efforts, and wish to express 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 the compilation possible.
The third season of excavations of the joint expedition of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University to al-Hiba took place from October 1972 to January 1973.
Work was concentrated in Area B located in the high west-central portion of the mound where occupation continued into the Old Babylonian period. Beneath the surface are the remains of an enormous platform of mud-brick, undoubtedly an Old Babylonian temple platform. Only the core of the platform was preserved.
