The present paper is an account, necessarily condensed, owing to the cost of printing, of an archaeological survey which I was able to carry through a great portion of the Iranian Province of Fārs between November 1933 and May 1934. Its object was to continue the researches which had led me during two preceding cold weather seasons from the extreme south-western border of British Makrān through large parts of Persian Balūchistān and Kermān to the mouth of the Persian Gulf and thence along its coast as far as Bushire. In the concluding pages of my detailed record of these journeys, carried out under the auspices of Harvard University and the British Museum, I have explained how political conditions connected with tribal unrest had, in the early spring of 1933, prevented my intended move into Lāristān and neighbouring districts of Fārs, official orders from Tehrān having stopped all further explorations for the time being.

Sir E. Wallis Budge in his Guide to the Babylonian and Assyrian Antiquities in the British Museum (1922), notices on p. 236 an interesting group of coins and other objects formerly exhibited in a table-case in the Assyrian room which contained “miscellaneous antiquities chiefly from Quyunjik and Nimrûd.” The notice runs “The contents of the shop of a worker in metals, consisting of lead handle of jug, bronze ring, pieces of lead and silver and a group of Persian sigli and coins from Lycia, Samos, Tyre, Aspendus, Cyprus, Sidon, Athens, and Aegina.” The most important piece, the jug-handle (which is, of course, silver and not lead) has been already published by Filow and Paul Jacobsthal. The rest has escaped notice until now, and as it comprises some fragments, and a series of coins, interesting from more than one point of view, it seems worth while to record them more fully. I am indebted to the Keeper of the Department, Mr. C. J. Gadd, for his kind permission to do so here, and to Mr. R. D. Barnett, for help and advice on many points of detail. The coins have now been transferred to the Department of Coins and Medals.

The tablets are approximately 33·8 cms. in length and 15·6 cms. in width, including the margins which are raised 3 mm. to allow for some clearance of the waxed surface, which was thus protected from abrasion when the boards were closed. Both faces of the boards within the margins were hatched with criss-cross lines to make a gripping surface for the wax on which the inscription would be written. The bees-wax with which the boards were coated was mixed with sulphide of arsenic, or orpiment, which rendered it sufficiently fluid to spread easily over the surface and more plastic for writing.

Hammurapi's Code of Laws says that a woman who lived in the Old Babylonian period brought a dowry with her from her father's house when she married. The laws specify that if the marriage failed, and she was not to blame, she kept her dowry for any subsequent marriage. If she died, her sons or (if she had none) her father's family, not her husband, inherited it. Some texts that list dowries of the Old Babylonian period, and texts of related or similar content, are edited and discussed here.

The range of possessions that belonged to women in those times can now be illustrated from these texts, and they also indicate some activities and interests of the women, who generally came from well-to-do families. Some hints of their personalities too emerge from their possessions: Bēlessunu daughter of Ibni-Amurru, and Ṭāb-Esagila the nadītum-priestess daughter of Marduk-muballiṭ both had plans for some comfortable upholstery or mattresses, and took with them a box of palm fibre; Bēlessunu was also a business woman with her own seal and her own set of weights. Bēletum the nadītum daughter of Riš-Nabium liked to entertain in style, and so took fifteen eating-bowls with her. Narūbtum the daughter of Ikūn-pî-Sin had an enormous wardrobe, consisting of no less than 24 garments and 42 headdresses, all carefully looked after in individual clothes-chests; she also had burial shrouds ready for her death, to keep up appearances even in the grave. Not all of them were fortunate enough to possess their own slaves or slavegirls. A letter from Sippar in the time of Hammurapi tells that it was difficult even for a nadītum priestess to acquire slaves. Narūbtum daughter of Ikūn-pî-Sin was fortunate in having nine slavegirls; most of the dowries list two or one or none.

The purpose of this short note is two-fold. First, to present the very unexpected evidence for Hajji Muhammad pottery at Tell Brak, an occurrence of some considerable interest to Mesopotamian prehistorians. Second, to publish three vessels from the Mitanni palace and a unique example of transcaucasian type of sufficient interest in themselves to merit their preliminary publication, however brief. A final report on the Mitanni buildings and their contents is envisaged after the completion of the forthcoming season.

The Hajji Muhammad sherds are without context. Two deep soundings in Area CH have reached levels with predominantly ‘Ubaid pottery, but these levels are to be dated at the very end of the ‘Ubaid sequence. Unfortunately the earlier ‘Ubaid levels lie at inaccessible depths within the tell. Some pottery from the latest ‘Ubaid deposits is illustrated here, in particular a number of sherds with “eye” motifs, which provide a tempting argument for the existence of an ‘Ubaid Eye Temple at Brak. It must be emphasized, however, that at present we have no other evidence to support such a suggestion, although the outer wall of a possibly Early Uruk religious building in CH was identified in 1986 (Plate XXXI, a).

Of the greatest interest are the three sherds illustrated below, together with a single example of the most common Hajji Muhammad type: a bowl with flaring sides and dense cross-hatching on the interior (Plate XLV, 5; cf. Oates and Oates 1976, 56). The Brak example comes from fill in the Eye Temple deposits, and is the only specimen of this very distinctive type found so far in Northern Mesopotamia.

Concentrations of substantial ruins, sometimes occurring as isolated but neighbouring structures, have been recorded at a number of locations in the foothill zone of the al-Ḥajar mountain range in south-eastern Arabia (Fig. 1), an area widely identified with the ancient copper-producing land of Magan. These assemblages are always distinguished by the presence of large, circular structures and may also include the remains of houses and other features, as well as cemeteries either in close proximity to the buildings or sited on nearby hills. They are attributed to the 3rd millennium B.C. by their related pottery, by carbon-14 dates where these are available and, when such criteria are lacking, by their architecture, masonry and brickwork which are notably different from those of adjacent 2nd and 1st millennium buildings. In view of their close environmental relationship with the al-Ḥajar range and in order to separate them from the late 3rd millennium buildings and tombs which were first discovered and excavated on the island of Umm an-Nar, Abu Dhabi, and which have since been located at many sites in the al-Ḥajar zone, I shall refer to these 3rd millennium assemblages as the al-Ḥajar settlements.

Between May 20th and June 8th, 1939, I visited the Sinjar district on behalf of the Department of Antiquities of the Government of Iraq, and, assisted by the Department's chief inspector, Hussein Awni, made soundings in three mounds which had attracted my attention during an archaeological survey of that area recently published in this Journal. The results of two of these soundings are described below. Our work at the third site, Gu' Kummet, will be published elsewhere, and consisted of clearing up certain doubtful points raised during the removal earlier in the year of a fine, sculptured mihrab which has now found a place in the Islamic Museum in Baghdad.

In the first hemistich of the Akkadian Gilgamesh epic, ša nagba īmuru, the term nagbu has been interpreted in two different ways: the totality or the abyss. Most of the translators have chosen the first meaning. Stephanie Dalley, for instance, proposes: “[Of him who] found out all things”. Among those who prefer the meaning “abyss” I would mention Leo Oppenheim, who translates: “[Let me make kn]own to the country him who has seen the abyss,” but gives no explanation for his choice. Though Tournay and Shaffer choose the first meaning — “Celui qui a tout vu” — they explain briefly in a note that the term may have been intended to imply a “jeu de mots”, a pun, so that it could also be understood in the sense of “abyss”. Finally, Anne Kilmer has written an article in which she proposes the rendering: “He who saw the depths”. It seems to me worthwhile discussing the problems involved in these two translations.

Let us begin with the nuances of each interpretation. Nagbu in the sense of “totality” (CAD s.v. nagbu B) may be taken in either a concrete or an abstract sense. In a concrete sense this totality can be understood as the whole of the lands and seas, and the narrative would thus portray a hero who says about himself: “I … went through all countries … and crossed to and fro all seas.” If so, the phrase “the one who saw everything” refers to Gilgamesh's wanderings, which led him to the extremities of the world. If we take the term nagbu as conveying instead an abstract concept, then it can be understood as the trials that Gilgamesh suffered, a proposition which gives a psychological edge to his travails.

The circumstances in which inscribed tablets were found during the first season's work at Nimrud (Kalḫu) in 1949 have already been described by the Director of the Expedition, Professor M. E. L. Mallowan. While excavating Rooms K and M of a large building located to the north of the “S.E. Palace” on the east side of the tall, seventy-six tablets were found scattered over or between the main floor level (III) formed by re-using the inscribed bricks of Shalmaneser III. Initially called “A palace of Shalmaneser III(?)”, this building is now, on the basis of the epigraphic evidence, referred to as “Governor's Palace”. Although considerable trouble was taken, the manner in which the unbaked tablets had been apparently thrown down, the damp nature of the ground in this area and the effect of exposure to adverse weather conditions in antiquity has resulted in most of the tablets being recovered in a poor condition, only ten of them being complete.

The object which bears the following inscription (Plates IX–X) measures 15·7 cms. by 7·6 cms. (middle). The cylinder is made up of three separate pieces found at Nimrud on different days (of April, 1952) in chamber 4 of the as yet unidentified building called provisionally Z(iggurrat) T(errace), near a doorway on the south side of the room, where it was evidently not in situ but loose among the filling, having been cast or ruined out from some other location. Into the same room had been tipped as rubbish a large number of Assyrian letters, found embedded in the earth along the north side, and blocking two doorways. How strangely far away it was from its true original site is revealed by the inscription, which proves that it was brought to Calah from distant Erech, not so much as a trophy of war, though in consequence of it, but rather for reasons of policy.

The discovery in 1979 of an anthropoid statue at Tell Fekherye (the site of Sikan, the sacred precinct of ancient Gozan) with an extensive bilingual inscription in Akkadian and Aramaic has renewed speculation about the extent of the Aramaic-Assyrian symbiosis in the earlier Neo-Assyrian period. First edited by A. Abou Assaf, it has recently been re-edited in a monograph by the latter together with Pierre Bordreuil and Alan R. Millard.

A date of around the 9th century for the statue is favoured by the Editors. This date seems reasonable on most grounds, though some adjustment up or down may prove necessary. Arguments based on Aramaic palaeography may be used to push the date higher. On the other hand, strong topical similarities with the Mati-ilu treaty (mid-8th century) may be sufficient grounds to lower the date (cf. comments to ll. 32, 34, 37). Abou Assaf first dated the statue to the 9th century mainly on art historical grounds. The Edition seeks to pinpoint this by identifying Sassu-nuri, the father of Adad-id'i, the statue's donor (l. 12), with the Assyrian eponym of 866.

In 1952 the British School of Archaeology in Iraq, in the course of its excavations at Nimrud, found, in the chamber known as ZT 4, a collection of over three hundred Assyrian clay tablets. Dr. C. J. Gadd at once recognized that the greater part of the collection consisted of letters from a royal archive, and that they were closely similar in nature to those in the British Museum collection published by Harper. The tablets as found were unbaked and heavily impregnated with salts from the soil, and in order to preserve them it was decided to bake them in a furnace made from local materials and designed for the purpose by J. H. Reid, A.R.I.B.A. At that time there existed at Nimrud no apparatus for measuring furnace temperatures (a lack which has since been rectified), so that almost inevitably a few tablets were baked rather more than the ideal demanded. Whilst these few have taken on a coarse bricklike texture, their legibility is not substantially impaired by this, whereas about a dozen tablets which, probably by being placed in the coolest part of the furnace during the shortest firing, received insufficient baking, are now, as a result of the crystallizing-out of salts, crumbling in their boxes and liable to fall to fragments at a touch. The contrast fully vindicates the employment of this emergency treatment in the field.

In the years which have passed since Sir Leonard Woolley published the two magnificent volumes devoted to the Royal tombs in 1934, much that has been found in Western Asia throws light, not only on Early Dynastic craftsmanship but also on its relationship to other centres of manufacture where inter alia fine jewellery was produced. At the time that Sir Leonard was writing little was known about Asiatic jewellery of this period. His superb material seemed a relatively isolated phenomenon, and, with the exception of the Troy treasure the succeeding periods down to the 8th century B.C. had yielded little evidence for a continuation or development of the extraordinary technical ability shown by the Sumerian smiths. The picture today is very different; and two points should be stressed when attempting to re-assess the importance of the Ur finds in their relation to later discoveries. First, the great conservatism of jewellery workers both in matters of design and technique. This can perhaps be explained by the fact that while there seem to have been very few technical methods unknown to Sumerian craftsmen, it is now possible to trace the development of these methods right through the succeeding Sargonid and Third Dynasty of Ur periods and into the Second and First millennia B.C. It is also possible to compare the goldwork of the Early Dynastic period with the products of later phases in Mesopotamia, and thus a continuity can be established which relates not only the different Asiatic centres together but also shows their influence all over the Eastern Mediterranean area, the Aegean, and as far west as Italy.

The flat axe or adze blade with side lugs is commonly referred to by the terms armchen beil, lugged axe or adze or trunnion celt and many differing opinions have been expressed concerning its use, method of hafting, distribution and origin. Each of these questions raises a series of interesting problems many of which still require more positive evidence before they can be adequately solved. None of the Near Eastern examples has been found with the handle intact and so opinions as to the method of hafting these blades have had to rely on the evidence of the hafting of similar examples as used until recently in the Caucasus or upon representations of the type on reliefs. The latter afford little information, and scholars do not agree on whether the relief at Inbazar (Fig. 1) in Anatolia portrays a special type of lugged axe or another kind of weapon. It is difficult to see any sign of the lugs at the juncture of socket and blade: yet if this relief belongs to the Phrygian period and the weapon portrayed is of iron, then there are several European analogies for this form with a similarly curved base and this fact would support Przeworski's view that this is a “lugged axe”. A broken mould from Gavur Kalesi may also have been used to cast similar blades.

The University of California Expedition to Nineveh excavated at the Halzi Gate in 1989 and 1990. The gate proved to be one of Nineveh's larger defensive gates and a scene of chaos and destruction. Tower 4 to the south of the gate was of irregular masonry, having been hastily rebuilt. The juxtaposition of a rough tower directly beside the fine ashlar masonry of the rest of the curtain wall of the gate appears to reflect a political instability that prevailed during the declining years of Assyrian rule. The late reconstruction of Tower 4 contrasts with the earlier attention to detail seen in building work of Sennacherib's reign (704–681 BC), when smoothly dressed orthostats lined the lower walls of the gate's large inner court and sophisticated waterproof membranes of bitumen-soaked reeds protected the mud-brick superstructures. Buried beneath the pavement in the corners of the court were apotropaic foundation figurines. Within the only partially excavated outer entrance passage at least twelve individuals died, perhaps while defending the city or trying to escape from it, as a stallion and a rider lay at the eastern limit of the gate passage. Within the reduced width of the gate passage were eight adult males, four adolescents and four children including one infant. Weaponry was found throughout the area and the scattered bodies lay where they had fallen. The associated small finds, which had not been looted, included silver jewelry, bronze personal items, stamp seals and a composite necklace.

The small group of tablets here published is the first collection of temple economic texts of the late Assyrian period to be discovered. Although therefore, the selection is limited, they are of particular interest. Except for two tablets recording gifts to the temple of land and slaves, they consist of heart-shaped dockets recording debts of grain owed to the temple. They are of the usual late Assyrian form for this kind of document, with holes for string by which they were suspended, or perhaps tied to sacks; remains of the string were still in the holes when they were excavated.

They were found together in a pit on top of a cut down wall between rooms N.T. 14 and 16, on the south side of the inner courtyard to the temple. They are dated between 668 and 652 B.C., except for an isolated tablet (ND. 5457) which is dated 699 B.C. Of the twenty-one dockets, eight are dated in the spring of 661 B.C., five of them on two succeeding days, 27th and 28th of Addaru (ND. 5447, 5452, 5454, 5459).

The god Nabu is named as creditor (lit. the amount of the debt “belongs to Nabu”), and the normal commercial rates of interest are charged, although there is a greater proportion of debts with low interest. There are some debts without interest, or so it appears; on others 20, 30, 40, and 50 per cent. is charged. The rate seems to depend on the security of the debtor in relation to the amount of the debt (we have no evidence from Calah of rates in bad years of scarcity), for of the debts with the highest interest, 5448 involves a large amount of grain, and a pledge is required as security, 5461 and 5465 are cases in which harvesting labour is required as a condition of credit and probably acts as security. In the five dockets of the 27th and 28th of Addaru, 661 B.C., the interest charged varies between 20 and 40 per cent., and in some cases there is no interest at all.

Survey operations at Sāmarrā' were resumed for a second field season between November 8th 1986 and January 25th 1987. The work was sponsored by the British School of Archaeology in Iraq, and funded by the School and the Wainwright Near Eastern Archaeological Fund. We are very grateful to Dr. Mu'ayyad Sa‘id, Director-General of Antiquities and Heritage, for permitting us to work. As always, the officials of the Directorate-General, particularly Dr. Baqir al-Hussaini, and Sd. Hafidh al-Hayani, head of the project in Sāmarrā', were of the utmost help to our work. A word of thanks is also due to Mile Axelle Rougeule and M. Patrick Anselm of the Délégation Archéologique Française en Irak, for loaning us surveying equipment, and to M. Pierre Ruland and M. Robert Blanc, of the Thompson C.S.F. project in al-Daur, for lending us a vehicle. We would also like to thank our team, Andrew Petersen, Louise Scott, David Drake and John MacGinnis.

The drawings discussed below, which show a number of sculptures, now mostly lost, from Ashurbanipal's palace at Niniveh, have for over a century been preserved in the collection of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Though until recently they were themselves also believed lost, their whereabouts was in fact recorded by Loftus in a footnote to page 180 of his Travels and Researches in Chaldæa and Susiana, and with the help of Miss Nielsen, the Society's assistant librarian, I had no difficulty in locating them. I am greatly indebted to the President and Council of the Royal Asiatic Society for permission to publish them here. I am also grateful to Dr. R. D. Barnett and the Trustees of the British Museum for allowing their photographs of the drawings to be used for the Plates, and to Mr. David Oates for some considerable assistance. It should be added that this article could not have been written without continual reference to The Stones of Assyria by Professor C. J. Gadd.

The second season of excavation at the Ubaid-related site of H3 took place in October 1999 and lasted for four weeks. The site lies on a low peninsula, the Jazirat Dubaij, at the north end of Kuwait bay. The work was carried out jointly by the British Archaeological Expedition to Kuwait and a team from the National Museum of Kuwait under the direction of Dr Fahad al Wohaibi. The work of the Expedition was made possible by the generosity of many people and it is a pleasure to be able to acknowledge the help of Dr al Rumayhi, Secretary General of the National Council for Culture, Arts, and Letters; vital sponsorship from Shell Kuwait Ltd initiated by its general manager, Dr Ken Taylor, who has been an invaluable friend to the Expedition; financial support from the British School of Archaeology in Iraq; the assistance of the National Museum of Kuwait in providing accommodation and food and in paying for workmen; academic sponsorship from the Institute of Archaeology UCL, and friendly support from the British Embassy and the British Council in Kuwait. Our special thanks are due to the Ambassador, to Col. the Hon. Alastair Campbell, the Defence Attaché, and to the members of the RAF squadron who took aerial photographs of the site for us.

The main objectives for the second season of excavation were as follows: to define the large stone structure identified last season on the highest part of the mound (Carter et al. 1999) and to begin its excavation (Area A); to continue work in the other two areas sampled in 1998 (Area B) to the west of the mound, and Area F around the Iraqi dug-out or “foxhole” to the south (Fig. 1) and to collect a representative sample of the environmental data. In addition, it was hoped to determine the position of the ancient coastline south of the site and to complete the survey of the Jazirat Dubaij.

The 1986 season of excavations at Tell Brak produced inscribed material on a modest scale. Twelve tablets, complete or broken, were recovered, together with a number of trivial fragments, and one bulla bearing the impression of an inscribed seal. The material was found in two separate archaeological contexts. Two tablets lay in a large room (Room 1) on the north side of the Mitanni fortress or palace on site HH. These pieces, one of which is inscribed with the name of the Mitanni king Tušratta, are of some historical interest. Of particular importance is the mention of a town named Nawar, in view of the discussion, continued over many years, of the possible location of the towns of Urkiš and Nawar, ruled over by the early Human ruler, Atal-šen. The remaining material, comprising ten tablets, some trivial scraps, and a seal impression, were recovered from a context of debris on site FS. The latter group of finds, dating from the Old Akkadian period, consisted mainly of economic and administrative documents. The seal impression is of special interest, as it bears the name of an ensi of Gasur (later Nuzi), the first such officer whose name has been discovered. The material is presented in chronological order, the Old Akkadian tablets (Nos. 12 to 21) and seal impression (No. 22) preceding the tablets of the Mitanni period (Nos. 23 and 24). The numbers assigned to these pieces continue the sequence begun in previous articles by Dr. I. L. Finkel, in which details have been provided of inscriptions found prior to 1986 during the current series of excavations at Tell Brak. I am much indebted to Dr. Finkel, and to Professor W. G. Lambert, for reading through a draft of the present article, and for the many valuable criticisms and suggestions which have resulted. I should also like to thank the Directors of the excavations at Tell Brak, Professor David Oates and Dr. Joan Oates, but for whose efforts the opportunity to work on the material presented here would not have arisen.