Karen Radner

New Investigations in the Environment, History, and Archaeology of the Iraqi Hilly Flanks: Shahrizor Survey Project 2009–2011

Recent palaeoenvironmental, historical, and archaeological investigations, primarily consisting of site reconnaissance, in the Shahrizor region within the province of Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan are bringing to light new information on the region’s social and socio-ecological development. This paper summarises two seasons of work by researchers from German, British, Dutch, and Iraqi-Kurdish institutions working in the survey region. Palaeoenvironmental data have determined that during the Pleistocene many terraces developed which came to be occupied by a number of the larger tell sites in the Holocene. In the sedimentary record, climatic and anthropogenic patterns are noticeable, and alluviation has affected the recovery of archaeological remains through site burial in places. Historical data show the Shahrizor shifting between periods of independence, either occupied by one regional state or several smaller entities, and periods that saw the plain’s incorporation within large empires, often in a border position. New archaeological investigations have provided insight into the importance of the region as a transit centre between Western Iran and northern and southern Mesopotamia, with clear material culture links recovered. Variations between periods’ settlement patterns and occupations are also beginning to emerge.

Unearthing the Dinka Settlement Complex: The 2016 Season at Gird-i Bazar and Qalat-i Dinka

This second volume of the series Peshdar Plain Project Publications presents the 2016 activities of the Peshdar Plain Project, with new data for the occupation of the Bora Plain on the upper reaches of the Lesser Zab near the modern district centre of Qaladze in the Neo-Assyrian and Sassanian periods. The book details the results of the first test excavations at the citadel of Qalat-i Dinka and of the on-going excavations at the settlement quarter of Gird-i Bazar. Here, a continuous excavated area of 625 m2 has been uncovered, occupied by several well-appointed multi-room houses with courtyards, wells and drainage systems and an open area around a pottery kiln, which was found complete with its last load. The book also presents the results of the geophysical exploration of the Bora Plain: on the one hand, the continuation of the magnetometer survey of the entire Neo-Assyrian settlement, now recognised to be a complex of at least 60 hectares, and on the other hand, the new electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) investigations of the ancient qanat irrigation system that seems to be connected to the Neo-Assyrian settlement. Three chapters on the pottery of Gird-i Bazar present a first overview of the attested chaines operatoires, the updated fabric classification on the basis of thin section petrography analysis and the first results of the residue analysis performed on a selection of vessels. Another chapter is devoted to the small finds of the Neo-Assyrian occupation. A chapter on the bioarchaeology of Gird-i Bazar presents preliminary results of the analysis of the animal bones and of the palaeobotanical remains from the Neo-Assyrian settlement and discusses the Sassanian-period graveyard, now dated by 14C analysis, on top of the ruins of the Neo-Assyrian occupation. The print edition of the book is available from PeWe-Verlag: www.pewe-verlag.de

A Neo-Assyrian legal document from Tell Sitak

This contribution offers the publication of a fragmentary Neo-Assyrian private legal docu- ment, most likely a conveyance of land and people, from the forti ed site of Tell Sitak in the province of Sulaymaniyah, Kurdish Autonomous Region of Iraq. The site is situated in the Assyrian province of Mazamua (or Zamua) and can perhaps be identi ed with the fortress of Larbusa. It offers further support for the identi cation of the ancient city of Arrakdi with Sulaymaniyah.

Sustaining the Assyrian army among friends and enemies in 714 BCE

This study aims to investigate how the Assyrian army functioned and survived while on a campaign in difficult, hostile, mountainous territory by studying the narrative of the campaign led in 714 BCE by Sargon II of Assyria (r. 721–705 BCE) into the northern Zagros mountain range, today the border region between Iraqi-Kurdistan and Iran and beyond. The main focus is on the manner in which the army procures food while cut off from Assyrian supply lines and on the composition of the army, which reflects the nature of this specific campaign.

Four 7th-Century BCE Neo-Assyrian Slave Sale Records from Marqasi (Kahramanmaraş) in the Erimtan Museum (Ankara) and Elsewhere

The city of Kahramanmaras, in southeastern Turkey (ancient Marqasi), was the capital of the Luwian kingdom of Gurgum, annexed by Sarru-ukīn (Sargon) II to the Assyrian empire in 711 BCE. Four tablets stemming from diggings at the city fortress and its environs are presented here: two of them were previously published in Gokcek 2005, the other two were previously unpublished. Three of them are kept at the newly established Erimtan Museum of Archaeology and Art (Ankara). The tablets record slave sales, and are dated to the reign of Assur-bāni-apli (Ashurbanipal) (r. 668–c. 630 BCE) and, perhaps, the reign of Assur-aḫḫe-iddina (Esarhaddon) (r. 681–669 BCE). The texts contain a number of previously unattested personal names, some of them of clear Luwian extraction. In addition, they attest to the existence of a sanctuary to the god Nergal (perhaps identified with the Luwian god Runtiya) in Marqasi.

Zagros Spice Mills: the Simurrean and the Hašimur grindstones

Gianni Lanfranchi’s research has often focused on the mountain regions encircling the Mesopotamian plain, their inhabitants and their lifestyles. In my contribution in honour of this pioneer in the study of Ancient Near Eastern highland‒lowland interactions, it is argued that the evidence for the hasimur grindstone in Babylonian sources of the first millennium BC should be linked with the Simurrean grindstone of the Old Babylonian period and that this type of equipment is to be identified as a specialised spice mill. Both Hasimur and Simurrum are located in the Zagros flanks and the connection of these toponyms with a tool used to add flavour to the Mesopotamian cuisine provides some insight into positive perceptions associated with the mountain regions.

The Assyrian king and his scholars

The article highlights the presence of scholars from Egypt and Syro-Anatolia in the service of the Neo-Assyrian kings.

Ein Bronzedolch des Simbar-Šipak von Babylon (1025–1008) Überlegungen zu Waffenweihungen im Vorderen Orient

Abstract Ein Bronzedolch, der derzeit in der Schausammlung des Archäologischen Museums von Tabriz (Iran) ausgestellt ist, gehört zu einer prominenten Gruppe innerhalb der sogenannten „Luristanbronzen“, nämlich der der beschrifteten Randgriffdolche. Diese Waffen sind mit Inschriften verschiedener Herrscher von Babylon der letzten beiden Jahrhunderte des II. Jahrtausend v.Chr. versehen, gelegentlich auch mit Inschriften von nicht-königlichen Personen, darunter ein Schreiber und ein ša rēš šarri.

Aššur-dūr-pānīya, Statthalter von Til-Barsip unter Sargon II. von Assyrien (Assur-dur-paniya)

Le reexamen de l’inscription d’une stele provenant de Til-Barsip (tell-Ahmar), publiee en 1936, livre de nouvelles informations sur les structures administratives et la division des provinces de l’empire neo-assyrien apres 876 av. J.-C.