The Iraq Museum has acquired by confiscation a number of Sumerian statues. Their provenance unfortunately is unknown, but their many similarities to statues from the Diyala sites suggest that this new group may have come from the same region. For dating these new pieces, therefore, I have relied on Frankfort's publications of the Diyala group.

The first statue (Plate XXIIa, b) portrays a youth. The head has been broken but repaired. The front of the body is damaged, presumably where it lay face to the ground. The eye inlays are missing and the nose is damaged. The hands are broken, so we cannot see clearly how they were folded. The hair is rendered in horizontal ridges and is divided into two symmetrical halves falling down over the shoulders and chest. The short kilt is in shape a truncated cone, with double overlapping tassels at the bottom. The legs are complete and are supported by a stone slab resting on a “T”-shaped base.

The back of the head is broken on the left-hand side, but the parting of the ridged hair is clear (Plate XXIIb). The tasselled girdle has been carefully worked and carved in relief. There are two statues from the Diyala region similar to this figure. One (no. 33) is poorly made and does not bear close comparison with the new piece; the other (no. 32) is roughly worked and has been damaged by salt, whereas that of Plate XXIIa, b is more carefully carved and can be ranked with the best works of the period.

During the 1967 season at Tell al-Rimah directed by Mr. David Oates, 282 tablets and fragments were discovered, all except one dating from the Old Babylonian period. They were cleaned on the site by Mr. David Hawkins and myself; after the season's excavations had finished, they were sent to the Iraq Museum. Owing to unavoidable circumstances, it was not possible to continue studying the tablets there; therefore this report is based on the catalogue made on the site, and on preliminary transliterations and copies. I am most grateful to Mr. Hawkins for his invaluable help in the cleaning, copying and transliterating, and in discussions on the texts; nevertheless, the onus of presenting a report from incomplete study rests on myself. All the readings and conclusions offered here are open to correction when the tablets have been studied fully; but they are of such interest that it seemed advisable to present an immediate, preliminary report. A publication of all the texts that will include copies, transliterations, translations and notes will be prepared.

Situé à l'extrémité sud-est des ruines de l'antique ville de Kish, le tell A reste célèbre dans l'histoire de l'archéologie. Les fouilles anglo-américaines dirigées par Stephen Langdon et Ernest Mackay y mirent au jour, lors des campagnes de 1923 et 1925, cent cinquante sépultures présargoniques creusées dans les ruines d'un palais sumérien. Ces deux découvertes, sans équivalent à l'époque, furent à l'origine de la publication immédiate des travaux sur le tell A. Actuellement, ces données s'intègrent mieux dans nos connaissances sur le troisième millénaire mais la masse d'informations sociologiques que représente le cimetière A n'avait fait l'objet que de rares études.

Or, il est acquis depuis les travaux de Lewis Binford et Arthur Alan Saxe que les pratiques funéraires véhiculent des renseignements “potentiels” sur la société qui les produit. En s'appuyant sur des exemples ethnographiques, ces chercheurs démontrèrent que l'hétérogénéité des rites funéraires d'un groupe précis était liée au degré de complexité de l'organisation sociale, et que chaque traitement contenait implicitement les caractéristiques sociales (âge, sexe, type de décès…) de l'individu défunt auquel il se rapportait. C'est dans cette optique que nous tenterons de réinterpréter le cimetière A de Kish.

Il convient toutefois de s'attarder sur la documentation disponible. Le rapport de fouille d'E. Mackay présente d'importantes lacunes. Les limites exactes de la fouille ne sont pas connues. On ignore la position et l'étendue du cimetière. Mackay notait à plusieurs reprises que des objets semblables à ceux des tombes jonchaient la surface du tell A. Ne disposant d'aucun plan, nous en sommes réduits à supposer que les 150 sépultures découvertes ne constituent qu'une partie représentative de la nécropole et que de nombreuses tombes ont subi l'action de l'érosion (ou du pillage) alors que d'autres n'ont pas encore été fouillées.

This article consists of a detailed account of the mashhad of Imām Yaḥyā ibn al-Qāsim. The square-plan building, constructed on the cliff edge above the southern bank of the Tigris in the citadel of Mosul in c. 637/1239, was destroyed in an act of cultural terrorism by ISIS on 23 July 2014. This is a study of the work of earlier scholars on the building, a reassessment of the structure and its regional context, and a number of hypotheses regarding the original appearance of the tomb. In addition, the wide-ranging sources of the formal and decorative elements of the building are examined. The mashhad was the most richly ornamented of the medieval tombs in Iraq which had survived into the modern era, yet it had not been comprehensively studied in over a century. The remaining untranslated inscriptions are given in full, adding useful new information to the discussion regarding the important distinction between the ʿAlids versus Shīʿī associations of the building and its patron. Drawing on the limited published and archival images of the building, the internal appearance is reconstructed, and a series of new architectural plans and elevations are provided in order to preserve the memory of this important structure.

Important developments in wheel construction can be observed in Iraq and other parts of the Near East during the later third and earlier second millennium B.C. One such innovation is the appearance of clamped-on tyres made in bronze or copper segments. Recent, spectacular finds from Turkmenistan in Central Asia extend the already wide distribution of tyres of this distinctive form. They also shed light on the kinds of wheel and vehicle on which such metal tyres were used.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Dickens' famous opening line of his A Tale of Two Cities is just one of many examples of the author's use of doubles in the book. Throughout the work the author pairs people, cities, and events. A characteristic of doubles is that they can replace one another even if they are opposites: At the end of the Tale, the idle drunk Carton dies in the place of the virtuous Darnay. Similarly Dickens ties the fates of the cities Paris and London essentially together, and one can easily think of other doubles in that respect: New York and Baghdad today or Nineveh and Babylon in the first millennium BC. In all three cases the connection is more imaginary or literary than real. It is important, however, for historians to ask why these connections were made, and how they influenced the record with which they work.

This paper will deal with Nineveh and Babylon, and how the fates of these two cities were fundamentally connected — not in reality, but in the ancient discourse regarding them. In her article “Nineveh, Babylon and the Hanging Gardens”, Stephanie Dalley pointed out in detail how classical and Biblical authors were confused with respect to these two cities and had difficulties keeping them apart (Dalley 1994). For example, Ktesias locates Nineveh on the Euphrates instead of the Tigris, and the Biblical Book of Chronicles states that Esarhaddon deported the Judean king Manasseh to Babylon, while he must have meant Nineveh. Other examples abound. We can look at these mistakes one by one and try to explain them. We can find an explanation in the fact that Nineveh at times was called “Old Babylon” in Assyrian sources, or excuse the Biblical authors for being obsessed with the great deportations to Babylonia under Nebuchadnezzar. Those are valid remarks, but do not explain why the confusion was so widespread. I will argue here that the misunderstanding was due to an actual objective in the late cuneiform tradition to tie the fates of Nineveh and Babylon together. At least with respect to their destructions, these cities were each other's mirror images, each other's doubles.

The coins here discussed are all surface finds from Tell Rifa‘at, one of the largest mounds in the ‘Azaz Casa, thirty-five kilometres north of Aleppo. They were collected together by the excavator of the site, Dr. M. V. Seton-Williams, during the course of three seasons' excavations at the site, 1956, 1960 and 1964. Although none of the coins is from stratified deposits, their range in time from the second century B.C. to the fourteenth century A.D. and their number afford an interesting sidelight on the later history of the site. They all fall within the range of the excavator's Level 1 : Roman to Hellenistic, first century A.D. to fourth century B.C., although the coin evidence now indicates occupation or interest in the area down to the fourteenth century A.D.

The recent introduction of irrigation around the site of Mashkan-shapir, together with the availability of high resolution satellite imagery, has resulted in the preservation of architectural traces which could not be recovered when the site was researched between 1987 and 1990. In spite of recent looting, these traces have allowed the identification of the location of the palace and the reconstruction of much of the street system of this city, including the connection points across the ancient canals. Moreover, the survey data recovered through past fieldwork can be related to these traces, allowing an understanding of the larger context for many of the activities at the site, especially burial and manufacturing. Together these data provide a detailed view of how an ancient Mesopotamian city was conceived—in this instance by Sin-iddinam, who transformed it from a small village to a large city by building the city wall.

Despite the vast amount of both ancient material remains and ancient written sources from the Mesopotamian world, it is often frustratingly difficult to fuse together the various sources of evidence. Especially the correlation of stones and other naturally occurring materials used in crafts and industries with the names for them in the ancient languages is fraught with notorious difficulties. Contemporary scholars have a “cautious, even pessimistic approach to the possibility of reaching one-to-one equivalence translations”, since popular etymology may deform names, comparative etymology may be unreliable, and ancient principles of nomenclature may be at variance with modern classifications. However, occasionally it is possible to propose a new identification which, notwithstanding the necessary cautions outlined above, seems plausible on a number of grounds.

Amethyst is “a transparent quartz, coloured deep purple or violet by some compound of manganese or iron”, and it is documented in Mesopotamia from Old Babylonian times on (and even before that, although rarely). It may possibly have been imported from Egypt, but Anatolia or Iran are more likely to have been the source. But hitherto its Mesopotamian names have not been identified.

Now the meaning of the Akkadian word ḫašmānu(m) has not been precisely established thus far. It is known to refer both to a coloured stone and to a colouring of wool and leather. Campbell Thompson was unable to make any progress in explaining the word, which he read as tarmānu on the (at that time perfectly reasonable) basis of the possible reading of the first sign as /tar/ or /ḫaš/. But subsequent publication of other texts giving alternative spellings with /ḫa-aš-/ clarified the word as ḫašmānu beyond doubt.

The site of Tell Mohammed Arab was excavated by the British Archaeological Expedition to Iraq, under the direction of Dr. Michael Roaf, as part of the Eski Mosul Saddam Dam rescue project (Roaf, 1983a, 1983b, 1984). Seven cylinder seals and two impressions on pottery were found in the Middle Assyrian levels and one Neo Assyrian seal came from a Hellenistic pit.

Two main areas of Middle Assyrian occupation were excavated. In the Central Area three separate building levels (b, d and f) were interspersed by periods when this part of the site was used for graves (a, the earliest, c and e). Artefacts from level d are comparable to material from Sheikh Hamad, on the Khabur in Syria, which can be securely dated to the 13th century B.C. thanks to a find of tablets. On the other hand there are few parallels with the 15th—14th century Mitannian site of Nuzi and this would indicate that the Mohammed Arab levels are generally later. However, they cannot be too far removed in time because seals 1 to 4, which are Mitannian in style, were found in buildings of phases i and ii in the Western Area (Fig. 1) which probably correspond to level b and part of c in the Central Area.

One of the most uncertain points of historical geography of ancient Syria concerns the site of Thapsacus, even if the uncertainty has sometimes been disguised by assertive pronouncements. This city had enjoyed considerable importance during the Persian period, and possibly earlier, as a major crossing of the Euphrates and the main link between Syria and Mesopotamia. It appears for the first time in our record in the Bible, as the place on the Euphrates where the country “beyond the river” begins. Even if referring to the purported extent of the realm of Solomon “from Thapsacus to Gaza”, this mention clearly applies to the Persian satrapy of Abar-Nahara, meaning the whole of Syria and Palestine, and provides evidence for the conditions in the Achaemenid period. The crossing at Thapsacus itself might of course have been used much earlier, whatever the name.

To the Massoretic vocalisation Tiphsah, generally accepted in modern translations, the form of Tapsah should be preferred, as found in the Syriac Bible provided with vowel signs centuries before the Hebrew original. This reading is moreover paralleled by the still earlier Septuagint version Θαψά. The Greek rendering confirms not only the vowels but also, if indirectly and by omission, the final pharyngeal of the name, in contrast to the usual ΘάΨακος found in Classical authors. This form is indeed unexpected, but transcriptions of foreign names do not always obey strict rules.

Among the pre-Sargonid finds from several Mesopotamian sites as well ox as from Susa and Mari there are several complete or nearly complete stone vases carved with peculiar and intriguing decoration and numerous fragments of such vases. The material is nearly always a rather soft stone, varying in colour from pale bluish grey to dark brownish green, and is usually identified as steatite. Two shapes are prevalent, a cylindrical cup or vase with a flat base, the height of which is somewhat less than the diameter, and a relatively taller more graceful vase, also with a flat bottom, which is narrower at the mouth than at the base and has slightly incurving walls. We were fortunate in finding a specimen of each type in one room of Sin Temple IX at Khafajah. They are shown in Plates VIa and VII respectively.

One motif, perhaps the most common in the decoration of such vases, is obviously a representation of some sort of structure consisting chiefly of wicker-work. Sometimes it occupies the entire surface of the vessel (as in Plate VIa); occasionally it occurs in combination with other designs (as in Plate VII). It is with this motif that we are chiefly concerned here. A ubiquitous element in such representations is a panel formed by triple vertical bands on either side and a triple downcurving band at the top. Inside, at the bottom of each panel, there is what seems to be a screen consisting of a horizontal member with a crosshatched rectangle under it. Above the screen are fairly wide vertical bands which apparently are meant to be represented as being behind the screen. (In the vase shown in Plate VII they actually are carved on a somewhat deeper surface than either the frame or the screen.)

In 1935 M. E. L. Mallowan was rightly considered to be one of the outstanding British archaeologists of his generation. Having served his apprenticeship under Sir Leonard Woolley at Ur and supervised the prehistoric sounding at Nineveh under R. Campbell Thompson, he had then directed a successful excavation of his own at Arpachiyah (McCall 2001: 41–4), followed by the immediate publication of the final report (Mallowan/Cruikshank 1935).

As a result of a change in the Iraq Antiquities Law, the division of antiquities found during excavations ceased. Mallowan, like many other archaeologists whose fieldwork had been sponsored by museums, was obliged to abandon Iraq and look for new opportunities of research in neighbouring eastern Syria, which was virtually terra incognita at this time (Oates/Oates 2001: 121). No doubt, Mallowan's interest in this area has been stimulated by the discoveries of Max von Oppenheim at Tell Halaf, where pottery has been found similar to that excavated by Mallowan at Arpachiyah. Furthermore, in 1934 Poidebard's aerial survey was published, and it included photographs of numerous archaeological sites along the Khabur and its tributaries (Mallowan 1947: 1). In the fall of 1934 Mallowan, accompanied by his wife, Agatha Christie, and an architect, Mr R. H. Macartney, arrived in Syria to inspect a number of sites located along the Khabur and Jaghjagh rivers, as well as in the Khabur plain. After a winter spent in Egypt, Mallowan returned to the Khabur area in the Spring of 1935, not only to continue his survey, but first to excavate Tell Chagar Bazar. Sherds of the same so-called Halaf pottery had been found at the base of the mound, pointing to the possibility of obtaining at this site a long stratigraphical sequence, which would, in turn, serve as a chronological framework for research on other sites (Mallowan 1936: 7–11, Fig. 2). The season's work, however, was not limited to Tell Chagar Bazar. Small teams were detached from the main force for a few days to make trial soundings on some other principal sites, such as Tell Ailun and Tell Mozan (Oates/Oates 2001: 129).

In the summer of 1971, a most interesting and important over life-size statue of Hercules was uncovered at the North Gate, one of the four main gates of Hatra. The work, which was conducted by a staff from the Directorate General of Antiquities, started at the beginning of July 1971 and continued until the end of March 1972. The excavations which were concentrated on the gate, revealed several important historical and architectural aspects of Hatra.

During the excavations, numerous statues were found. They represent kings, nobles and divinities of Hatra, and among them is the statue of Hercules. It was found in a rectangular arched niche-cella set against the mud-brick wall that extends from the right tower-like structure of the gate and turns at a right angle to face the only entrance of the gate. The niche-cella, made of regular local limestone, is constructed so that it faces the entrance. A person leaving Hatr a through the North Gate would have to face the niche-cella which contained the standing statue of Hercules.

The statue of Hercules was found standing in situ in the arched niche-cella (Plate XXXa). His forearm was found behind the right feet on the floor of the niche-cella. His club was discovered in two pieces on the floor level of the area before the nichecella. The upper part of the club with the attached right hand were found immediately in front of the niche-cella (Plate XXXb) and the lower part lay not far from it (Plate XXXc). Pieces of the fingers of his right hand were found scattered on the pavement of the niche-cella.

BM 32482 + is a Late Babylonian tablet with descriptions of rites and ceremonies held in the Eturkalamma temple of Bēlet-Bābili (Ištar of Babylon). The text refers to prayers and recitations to appease the goddess. Cult personnel from her temple (išippu priest) are also mentioned, as is music, a nigûtu performed by a nadītu priestess, a ritual involving a sakkikuddītu, a cultic commentary, omens involving birds, and astrological observations. Despite the fragmentary condition of the tablet, it seems that the performance of the nigûtu was in one way or another related to the preservation of the temple rituals, which would otherwise have been forgotten.

The dagger (Plate X, 1; Fig. 1), now in private possession, was purchased in Teheran in 1960, and like most objects from dealers at that time was reported to have come from Resht on the Caspian Sea. Since the hilt had broken in antiquity and the recently soldered joint (Fig. 1) could be taken apart easily, the writers decided to submit the dagger to an extensive metallurgical examination by cutting from it small unobtrusive specimens. The compositions of the metallic parts were determined by spectrographic and chemical analyses and these results can be compared to other analyses of Luristan bronzes published recently elsewhere. In addition, the non-metallic core material within the hilt (Fig. 2) was also analysed.

Three cuneiform inscriptions, two on clay and one on stone, were discovered during the 1985 season of excavations at Tell Brak, and each is published in the present note.

No. 9 (TB 7037); see Fig. 1

No. 1 is a fragment of an unbaked Old Akkadian administrative document, a thin flake from near the right edge of what is probably the reverse. It measures 2·7 × 2·4 × 0·4 cm (at maximum), and is evidently a ration list or something similar. Each entry is separated from the following one by two deep rulings, the upper sweeping up to the right. Numerals are clear in lines 1′ and 3′, while line 2′ is probably the end of a personal name. The traces after the numeral in line 1′ are apparently an erasure.

The object once known as the Burney Relief, and now renamed The Queen of the Night (hereinafter referred to as the Queen) is a mould-made plaque of straw-tempered clay (Fig. 1). Integral with the rectangular background (49.5 × 37 cm) is a nude figure who wears the horned headdress of a Mesopotamian goddess, has lowered wings, dewclaws and bird's talons, holds the divine rod-and-ring symbol in each hand, stands on the backs of two addorsed lions, and is flanked by large owls. Traces of black, red and white paint survive. Since it was first published in the Illustrated London News on 13 June 1936, the plaque has been hailed as a masterpiece of ancient Mesopotamian art generally dated to the Old Babylonian period and, more specifically, to the age of Hammurabi (reigned 1792–1750 BC according to the Middle Chronology). After more than seven decades in private ownership, the plaque finally came into the public domain when, in 2003, the British Museum celebrated its 250th anniversary with the acquisition of this iconic work.

One would expect such a unique piece to have its detractors, and in 1936–7 Dietrich Opitz published an article in which he raised doubts about its authenticity, although Van Buren, in her article appended to his (1936–7), came out in favour of the plaque. Then “a seminal article by Henri Frankfort (1937–9)… caused Opitz (1937–9) to change his mind” (Curtis and Collon 1996: 91–2), and other major scholars have agreed with Frankfort, including Thorkild Jacobsen (1987).

In 1970, Pauline Albenda published a short article that focused on two features of the plaque's iconography, namely the “ring and rod” (normally referred to as rod-and-ring) symbols held by the goddess, and the overlapping lions on which she stood. These led her to “conclude that the Burney relief is not genuine”. In 2005, she revived the debate in an article in the Journal of the American Oriental Society. I shall consider in turn the various points she raises (giving the relevant page numbers in brackets) and seek to demonstrate why I think her arguments to be flawed and why I am convinced that the Queen of the Night is a genuine work of the age of Hammurabi of Babylon.