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Prehistoric Investigations Near Mandali, Iraq

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Joan Oates
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Extract

In the spring of 1966 a survey of archaeological sites was begun in the qadha of Mandali, Diyala Liwa, east of Baghdad, and between Mandali and Badra, Kut Liwa, along the foothills bordering the Iranian frontier (Fig. 1). The survey was undertaken initially with financial support from the American Philosophical Society and continued in 1967 with the assistance of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. It is hoped that ultimately all archaeological sites in the area will be surveyed systematically, but the primary reason for the selection of this particular region was the possibility that it might provide clues towards the solution of a number of prehistoric problems. Three essentially geographic considerations led to this choice. The first was the fact that Mandali lies roughly equidistant from Tell es-Sawwan, the southernmost Hassuna-Samarra site, and Ras al ‘Amiya, the northern known limit of the southern pottery type known as Hajji Muhammad or Al ‘Ubaid 2. Thus it was hoped that information concerning the relationships, chronological and typological, between these two distinctive prehistoric groups might be found. The second factor was the actual physical situation of the area which, although consisting for the most part of alluvial plain, lies at a significantly higher elevation than the more central portion of the river basins. The plain slopes gradually downwards from the foothills so that Mandali itself has an elevation of 137 m. in contrast with 34 m. at Baghdad. There was, therefore, the possibility that here early prehistoric mounds might be visible above the level of the plain as in Assyria, not as in Sumer buried beneath the silt that has seriously hampered archaeological investigation.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , Spring 1968 , pp. 1 - 20
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1968

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References

1 I wish to express my gratitude to both these foundations, and also to take this opportunity to thank the Directorate-General of Antiquities, Baghdad, and in particular the Director-General, Dr. Faisal Al-Wailly and the Inspector-General, Sayid Fuad Safar, for the kind support and unfailing cooperation which have made this work possible. Several members of the staff of the Antiquities Department have assisted in the survey, including the Assistant Director-General, Sayid Abdul Qadir Al-Tikriti, Dr. Behnam Abu Al-Soof, Sayid Ghanim Wahida, and Sayid Saadi Ruaishdi.

2 The Directorate-General of Antiquities, Baghdad, has recently identified material of this date underlying a Sassanian mound, Tell Abyadh, near Jalaula, west of Khanaqin. Another site just to the south, on the eastern flank of Jebel Hamrin, Tell Imnethir (R. M. Adams, Land Behind Baghdad, site no. 12), has surface material of Hassuna date, together with ‘Ubaid and Parthian sherds.

3 Oates, J., Iraq 22 (1960) pp. 37–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ehrich, R. W., Relative Chronologies, p. 149–51.Google Scholar

4 See also the first preliminary report on the survey, Sumer 22 (1966), pp. 51–60.Google Scholar

5 Stone bowls: 23 fragments, including several very fine, thin-walled, straight-sided bowls similar to SAOC 31 pl. 21:12, also one like pl. 21:15. Obsidian: over 60 pieces including a number of chips and core fragments, suggesting that the raw material was worked on the site; a large number of micro-blades but no genuine geometric tools; one very fine obsidian scraper. Flint: 17 pyramidal micro-blade cores and three larger core fragments; large numbers of knife blades, sickle blades and micro-blades; a few finely worked points but in general relatively little retouch and few tool types other than borers, blades and scrapers.

6 Braidwood and Howe, , SAOC 31 pl. 15:3Google Scholar; no. 4 also occurs. Bases include several similar to pl. 15:18 (Ali Agha A), also pl. 15:2, 12.

7 Two light btown unburnished sherds also approach the Sarab plain ware. I must record my gratitude to Professor Braidwood for much useful information about the pottery from Tepe Sarab.

8 One plain rim sherd has an orange interior surface with traces of burnishing near the rim, while visible on the exterior are traces of dark plum-coloured paint, probably forming a “tadpole” pattern and again showing evidence of burnishing.

* Since this article was written, Professor Braidwood has examined both the surface material and the site itself and has generously contributed the following note:

“The Tamerkhan surface collection appears to fall well within the general spectrum of materials from Jarmo. I would not hazard a guess as to whether it might be slightly earlier or slightly later: on typological grounds it seems certainly earlier than the Sarab inventory.

The pottery recalls the coarseness of that of upper Jarmo. There is a modest amount of red surfaced examples and three possible painted examples of the ‘pollywog’ type. The lug handle (SAOC 31, Pl. 15: 5 –8) is not present in the small Tamerkhan sample. The fabric appears somewhat more heavily plant tempered than that of Jarmo.

The fine stone vessel fragments look very much in the general Jarmo tradition.

Obsidian tools may be found (upon excavation) to run to a somewhat smaller proportion relative to flint, than at Jarmo. They consist mainly of simple micro-bladelets in the surface collection. However one small but clear example of a “side-blow flake” (SAOC 31, Pl. 18: B, 19–24) occurs (overall length 9 mm.).

In flint the quality of the material available for micro-bladelet cores appears to have been a bit better than was the case at Jarmo, and I would guess that the number of these micro-cores may be more frequent at Tamerkhan than at Jarmo (in this sense the industry may resemble Sarab, Guran and Ali Kosh somewhat more than it does Jarmo). The micro-bladelets themselves are plain; there is certainly even less tendency towards geometric forms here than was the modest case at Jarmo. Small borers or drills seem more casually done in this surface collection at least. The quality of the flint used for normal-sized blades and scrapers is not so good as that used for the micro-bladelets, and the tools tend towards simple blades. There are two clear notched blades and two somewhat casual rod-like (“lames-de-degagement”?) examples. For some reason (perhaps chance alone), only three clear examples of blades with sickle sheen are available.”

9 Braidwood and Howe, op. cit. p. 49; Mortensen, P., “On the Chronology of Early Village Farming Communities in Northern Iraq”, Sumer 18 (1962) pp. 79–80.Google Scholar A Jarmo-type site with slender micro-blade cores has recently been identified at Tell Ghazal, in the Jezirah south-west of Tell-al-Rimah.

10 Oates, J., “The Baked Clay Figurines from Tell es-Sawwan”, Iraq 28 (1966) p. 148 and pls. XXXIX, XLIII: c, e, g.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11 Lloyd, S. and Safar, F., JNES 4 (1945) pl. XVII: 2.Google Scholar Note also the unpainted example from Matarrah, Braidwood, R. J.et al., JNES 11 (1952) pl. VI:1 and fig. 6:31.Google Scholar

12 This sherd had not been discovered when the article published in Sumer 22 (1966) was written.Google Scholar

13 Inter alia, Parrot, A., Sumer (1960) p. xv.Google Scholar An earlier but also dissimilar example from Iran can be found at Bakun, Langsdorff, A. and McCown, C., OIP 59 (1942) pl. 6:23.Google Scholar

14 Frankfort, H., “Sculpture of the Third Millennium B.C. from Tell Asmar and Khafajah”, OIP 44 (1939) pl. 83.Google Scholar The resemblance between the two hair styles can be seen in Oates, J., Sumer 22 (1966) pls. 2–3.Google Scholar

15 H. Frankfort, op. cit., pl. 15B, 16.

16 Oates, J., Sumer 22 (1966) pl. 4, 8, 9.Google Scholar

17 Mellaatt, J., Earliest Civilisations of the Near East (1965) Ill. 37.Google Scholar This figure together with several from another Palestinian site, Munhatta, are strikingly like an unusual late ‘Ubaid figurine found by the Directorate-General of Antiquities at Qarashina in the Dokan basin (IM 62027, Iraq Museum); none of these display protruding lips. See Perrot, J., Syria 43 (1966) pl. VI:13CrossRefGoogle Scholar; also Syria 41 (1964) pl. XXIII: 3.Google Scholar

18 Parrot, A., Sumer, p. 57.Google Scholar

19 Comparable with Lloyd, S. and Safar, F., JNES 4 (1945) 18: 14.Google Scholar

20 In general shape these bowls can be paralleled among early ‘Ubaid pottery at Eridu, and the asymmetric, interrupted patterns that are characteristic of the latter material are equally a feature of the Mandali type. A close parallel with Al ‘Ubaid 1 (Eridu) can be seen also in the use of a denticulated pattern, interrupting a series of parallel lines (pl. VI:1), a common feature of Level XVI at Eridu (Iraq 22 (1960) pl. V: 35–36Google Scholar).

21 I am very much indebted to Dt. Frank Hole for much useful information concerning his important excavations at Deh Luran. See Hole, F. and Flannery, K. V., Iranica Antiqua 2 (1962) pp. 97–148Google Scholar; also Breton, L. Le, Iraq 19 (1957) pp. 79–94CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Oates, J., Iraq 22 (1960) pp. 43–44.Google Scholar

22 Egami, N. and Sono, T., Marv Dasht II (1962) fig. 26.Google Scholar

23 El-Wailly, F., Sumer 20 (1964) fig. 2Google Scholar, front right. The majority of the alabaster objects of this general type at Tell es-Sawwan are like those illustrated on fig. 66, El-Wailly, F. and Al-Soof, Abu, Sumer 21 (1965).Google Scholar These clearly have some phallic significance.

24 Pl. VI: 4–5 and Pl. IX: 12, 15 cf. Stronach, D., Iraq 23 (1961) pls. XLVIII–XLIXCrossRefGoogle Scholar (note that no. 12 is identical with ibid. pl. XLVIII:2); see also Ziegler, C., Die Keramik von der Qal‘a des Hağği Mohammed (1953) Taf. 10:p, 16:a.Google Scholar Also found at Eridu, Levels XVI, XIV.

Pl. IX: 11 cf. Stronach, op. cit., pl. LIX: 15; Ziegler, op. cit., Taf. 1.

20 cf. Stronach, op. cit., pl. LIX: 33.

22 Eridu Level XIV and later; in general the earlier examples are vertically rather than obliquely hatched.

24 cf. Ziegler, op. cit., Taf. 10: r; Eridu level XII.

25 cf. Stronach, op. cit., pl. LIX:25; XLVII:5; Ziegler, op. cit., Taf. 3; 29: e.

26 a thin-walled bowl similar to Stronach, op. cit., pl. XLVI: 1–2; see also the pattern, ibid., pl. LIV: 2.

27 exactly paralleled at Eridu, Level XIV.

Among the unpublished sherds from Choga Mami is one ornamented in a manner similar to Stronach, op.cit., pl. XLIV:1.

25 Ibid., pl. XLVIII:2; Ziegler, op. cit., Taf. 15. One bowl from Choga Mami is identical with one from Ras al ‘Amiya, Pl. XLIX: 3.

26 See p. 1, n. 2.

27 See p. 1, n. 2.

28 I am indebted to Dr. Frank Hole for this information. He describes the area as “arid and nearly empty of permanent settlement today … much of the land is highly dissected bad lands and there are few permanent sources of surface water.” Ten prehistoric mounds were found, three with ‘Ubaid sherds, four with flints only.

29 Samarra and Hassuna surface sherds have been found as far north as Tell al Hawa, north of Jebel Sinjar, and on several sites in the immediate vicinity of Tell-al-Rimah. The greatest quantity and concentration, however, is in the region of Tell Abu Maria, east of Tell Afar, towards Mosul. A Hassuna-Samarra site of particular interest, identified by the Directorate-General of Antiquities, is Umm edh-Dhiab, about 15 km. west of Hatra. A Jarmo or earlier site has been found in the Jezirah southwest of Rimah (see p. 4; no. 9). A general comment on the British School survey may be of interest: of 138 sites so far surveyed in the Tell Afar region, at least 5 6 have produced prehistoric materials. On 23 sites pottery that can be attributed to the Hassuna or Samarra phases has been found, but unquestionably Samarra sherds occur at only eleven of these. All but 4 or 5 of the prehistoric sites yielded Al ‘Ubaid painted pottery, while there are about 35 Halaf sites. Eight only have produced the complete prehistoric sequence; Hassuna sherds have been found on 70% of the Halaf sites. There are, of course, many hundreds of sites still to be examined, but the varied interests of those conducting the survey ensures that this is a reasonably representative sample.

30 Mortensen, P., Sumer 18 (1962) pp. 77–78.Google Scholar See also the useful discussion in Sumer 20 (1964)Google Scholar by the same author.

31 Braidwood, R. J.et al., JNES 3 (1944)Google Scholar and JNES 11 (1952)Google Scholar; Leslie, Charles in JNES 11 (1952) pp. 57–66Google Scholar; Kleindienst, M. R., Anthropology Tomorrow 6, 4 (12 1960).Google Scholar

32 Braidwood, , JNES 11 (1952) p. 68.Google Scholar

33 El-Wailly, F. and Al-Soof, Abu, Sumer 21 (1965) p. 21.Google Scholar