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Tell Shemshara

Summary

Tell Shemshara (ancient Shusharra) (also Tell Shimshara) is an archaeological site located along the Little Zab in Sulaymaniyah Governorate, northeastern Iraq. The site was inundated by Lake Dukan until recently.

Tell Shemshara
Shusharra
coordinates very approximate
coordinates very approximate
Shown within Iraq
Alternative nameTell Shimshara
LocationIraq
RegionSulaymaniyah Governorate
Coordinates36°12′03″N 44°56′18″E / 36.20083°N 44.93833°E / 36.20083; 44.93833
Typetell
Length270 m (890 ft) (lower mound)
Width60 m (200 ft) (main mound)
Height19 m (62 ft) (main mound), 6 m (20 ft) (lower mound)
History
PeriodsHassuna, Middle Bronze Age, Islamic
Site notes
Excavation dates1957–1959, 2012
ArchaeologistsJ. Eidem, H. Ingholt, J. Læssøe, A. al-Qadir at-Tekrîti
Conditionperiodically flooded by Lake Dukan

The site was occupied, although not continuously, from the Hassuna period (early sixth millennium BCE) until the 14th century CE. A small archive recovered from the Middle Bronze Age layers (early second millennium BCE) revealed that, at least in that period, the site was called Shusharra and was the capital of a small, semi-independent Turukkean polity called māt Utêm or "land of the gatekeeper" ruled by a man called Kuwari acting as governor under a larger Hurrian state.[1]

Archaeology edit

The site was first recorded in 1955 during an archaeological survey of the Ranya Plain, which was to be flooded by the reservoir of the planned Dukan Dam.[2] In 1957, a Danish team of archaeologists started a rescue excavation because the site would be flooded by Lake Dukan once the Dukan Dam would be finished.[3] The Danish excavation was directed by Professors Harold Ingholt, who also excavated the citadel mound of Hama, and Jørgen Læssøe.[4] It was funded by the Carlsberg Foundation and the Danish Government Foundation for the Promotion of Research.[5] About 146 cuneiform tablets were found, mostly letters and most in one location, believed to have been stored in a pot on excavation level V.[6] The excavations were continued in 1958 and 1959 by Iraqi archaeologists of the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH) under the direction of Abd al-Qadir at-Tekrîti.[4] The work was never published but about 103 cuneiform tablets (45 well preserved and the rest in poor condition) tablets were found during the 1958 excavations in rooms near the findspot of the earlier tablets but in loose soil above excavation level V. They are all administrative texts.[7] The excavations have revealed that the site was occupied at least from the Hassuna period onward and the latest occupation phase dates to the 12th–14th centuries CE. The objects found during the Danish excavation were divided between the National Museum of Iraq and the National Museum of Denmark.[8] So far, the prehistoric material of the Hassuna layers and the majority of the archives from the second millennium BCE have been published.[9][10][11]

In 2012, teams of the Netherlands Institute for the Near East and the Central Zagros Archaeological Project (CZAP) conducted new investigations at the site, as part of a larger archaeological project focussing on the entire Ranya Plain.[12][13][14] High water prevented work in 2016-2017 but in October 2018 low levels allowed a short season of work.[15][16]

The site and its environment edit

Tell Shemshara sits along the Little Zab, a tributary of the Tigris. Its strategic location in the northeastern corner of the Ranya Plain in the Zagros Mountains gave Shemshara control over travelling routes in all directions, particularly toward the north and east. Shemshara is a tell, or settlement mound, that can be divided in two parts; a high main mound and an elongated lower mound to the south. The main mound is about 75 meters wide at the bottom and about 25 meters wide at the top, whereas the lower town is 265 metres (869 ft) long and 13 metres (43 ft) high.[8] Shemshara is now partially submerged under Lake Dukan.[4] It has lost 164,000 cubic meters of volume to erosion since 1957 and at high water levels becomes an island.

Occupation history edit

The excavations at the main mound revealed 16 occupation layers, ranging in date from the Hassuna period (early sixth millennium BCE) to the 14th century CE. A single radiocarbon sample from the basal level of the site, 3m below level 16, provided a date of 7322–7180 BC (IntCal13).[17]

Hassuna Period edit

Layers 16–9 dated to the Hassuna period. This occupation was characterized by rows of stones that are interpreted by the excavators as foundations for mudbrick walls, a pebble floor and a clay basin in the final occupation layer.[18] Pottery, which has only been found in abundance in layers 13–9, shows stylistic links with that of Hassuna and Tell es-Sawwan.[19] Obsidian was the preferred material for stone tools, with flint making up only 15 percent of the total assemblage. Whereas the flint was procured locally, the obsidian was obtained from two sources in eastern Turkey – one as yet unidentified, the other one being the volcanic Nemrut Dağ more than 300 kilometres (190 mi) away from Shemshara.[20] A unique piece in this assemblage is a dagger of over 35.5 centimetres (14.0 in) in length, broken in four pieces due to a fire.[21] Other artifacts that have been found at the site include stone bowls, bracelets and quern-stones and small objects made of bone.[22]

Uruk and Jemdet Nasr Period edit

Whereas the main mound seems to have been abandoned after the Hassuna occupation, scarce archaeological material from the Uruk (fourth millennium BCE) and Jemdet Nasr periods (early third millennium BCE) has been found on the lower town.[23][24]

Middle Bronze Age edit

Both the main mound and the lower extension were re-occupied during the Middle Bronze Age (early second millennium BCE). Layers 8–4 on the main mound can be assigned to this period, mainly Hurrian in nature.[25][8] The excavations found a number of graves with bronze weapons on the main mound, as well as a mudbrick platform. In the lower town, a small part of a palace was excavated, and in three of its rooms a small archive of clay tablets was found.[6][7] The palace was destroyed by fire, and through analysis of the archive it has been proposed that this happened in year 30 of the reign of Shamshi-Adad I of Ekallatum in the first quarter of the 18th century BCE.[4]

The archive consisted of 146 clay tablets or fragments thereof, found in two groups, of which a small part dealt with the administration of the town, whereas the majority consisted of letters written to a certain Kuwari. Some fragments were part of the clay envelopes in which these letters were sent.[26] The texts were written in Akkadian. These texts revealed that during this period the site was called Shusharra (also known from texts at Mari, that it was the capital of a polity called māt Utêm or "land of the gatekeeper" and that it was ruled by a man named Kuwari.[27] Chronologically, the archive can be divided in two parts, one covering the period during which Shemshara was the capital of a small semi-independent kingdom, and one covering the period after Kuwari decided to become a vassal of Shamshi-Adad (who then established a garrison at Shemshara), who at that time had already conquered Mari and Shubat-Enlil and was now campaigning in the Zagros Mountains. Together, these two periods do not last longer than 3 years.[28] The letters in the Shemshara archive show that during this period, Kuwari had to deal with Turukkean refugees coming from the east and fleeing a war with Guteans (led by their leader Endusse); events which are also mentioned in the much larger archives found in Mari on the Syrian Euphrates.[29]

Islamic Period edit

Layers 1-3 were Islamic.

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ [1]M. T. Larson, "The Shemshara Archives", Sumer, vol. 42, no. 1-2, pp. 36-39, 1983
  2. ^ [2] Soof, Behnam Abu., "Mounds in the Rania Plain and Excavations at Tell Basmusian (1956)", Sumer, vol. 26, pp.65-104, 1970
  3. ^ [3]Ingholt, H, "The Danish Dokan Expedition", Sumer, vol. 13, no. 1-2, pp. 214-215, 1957
  4. ^ a b c d Eidem 1992, pp. 11–13
  5. ^ Mortensen 1970, p. 9
  6. ^ a b [4]Laessøe, J., "An Old-Babylonian Archive Discovered at Tell Shemshara", Sumer, vol. 13, no. 1-2, pp. 216-218, 1957
  7. ^ a b [5]Laessøe, J., "The Second Shemshara Archive", Sumer vol. 16, no. 1-2, pp. 12-19, 1960
  8. ^ a b c Mortensen 1970, pp. 11–14
  9. ^ Mortensen 1970
  10. ^ Eidem 1992
  11. ^ Eidem & Læssøe 2001
  12. ^ Eidem 2012
  13. ^ Shimshara n.d.
  14. ^ Jesper Eidem, "Back to Shemshara. NINO Excavations 2012-2015", in Zagros Studies PIHANS Volume 130 Proceedings of the NINO Jubilee Conference and Other Research on the Zagros Region, 2020 ISBN 978-90-429-4055-0
  15. ^ Jesper Eidem, Matteo Merlino, and Emanuele Mariotti, Tell Shemshara 2018: Emerging and Floating Evidence, Ash-Sharq, 2019
  16. ^ Matthews, Wendy, et al., "Excavations and Contextual Analsyes: Shimshara", The Early Neolithic of the Eastern Fertile Crescent: Excavations at Bestansur and Shimshara, Iraqi Kurdistan, edited by Wendy Matthews et al., Oxbow Books, pp. 177–86, 2020
  17. ^ Flohr, Pascal, et al., "Radiocarbon dating of Bestansur and Shimshara", The Early Neolithic of the Eastern Fertile Crescent: Excavations at Bestansur and Shimshara, Iraqi Kurdistan, edited by Roger Matthews et al., Oxbow Books, pp. 187–96, 2020
  18. ^ Mortensen 1970, pp. 17–23
  19. ^ Mortensen 1970, p. 62
  20. ^ Mortensen 1970, p. 27
  21. ^ Mortensen 1970, pp. 33–35
  22. ^ Mortensen 1970, pp. 47ff., 58ff.
  23. ^ Al-Soof 1964
  24. ^ Al-Soof 1968, p. 82
  25. ^ [6]Peder Mortensen, "On the Chronology of Early Village-Farming Communities in Northern Iraq", Sumer, vol. 18, pp. 76-80, 1962
  26. ^ Eidem & Læssøe 2001, p. 14
  27. ^ Eidem 1992, p. 17
  28. ^ Eidem 1992, p. 16
  29. ^ Eidem 1992, p. 18

References edit

  • Al-Soof, Abu (1964), "Uruk pottery from the Dokan and Shahrazur districts", Sumer, 20: 37–44, ISSN 0081-9271
  • Al-Soof, Abu (1968), "Distribution of Uruk, Jamdat Nasr and Ninevite V Pottery as Revealed by Field Survey Work in Iraq", Iraq, 30 (1): 74–86, JSTOR 4199840
  • Eidem, Jesper (1992), The Shemshāra archives 2. The administrative texts, Historisk-Filosofiske Skrifter, vol. 15, Copenhagen: Kongelige Danske videnskabernes selskab, ISBN 87-7304-227-7
  • Eidem, Jesper; Læssøe, Jørgen (2001), The Shemshara archives 1. The letters, Historisk-Filosofiske Skrifter, vol. 23, Copenhagen: Kongelige Danske videnskabernes selskab, ISBN 87-7876-245-6
  • Mortensen, Peder (1970), Tell Shimshara. The Hassuna period, Historisk-Filosofiske Skrifter, vol. 5, 2, Copenhagen: Kongelige Danske videnskabernes selskab, OCLC 562453801
  • "Shimshara", Central Zagros Archaeological Project, n.d., retrieved 15 December 2013

Further reading edit

  • Eidem, Jesper (1985), "News from the eastern front: the evidence from Tell Shemshāra", Iraq, 47: 83–107, JSTOR 4200234
  • Kupper, Jean-Robert, "L'akkadien des lettres de Shemshära", Revue d'assyriologie et d'archeologie Orientale, 95, pp. 155-173, 2001
  • [7] Jorgen Lessee, I M 62 100 . A Letter From Tell Shemshara, in: Studies in Honor of Benno Landsberger, Assyriological Studies 16, Oriental Institute of Chicago, pp. 189–196, 1965
  • Jorgen Laessøe, The Shemshara tablets : a preliminary report, Arkaeologisk-Kunst historiske Meddelser udgivet of Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, Bind 4, nr. 3, 1959
  • Jorgen Laessøe, The towers of Shemshara, G. Barjamovic et al., Akkade is King. A collection of papers by friends and colleagues presented to Aage Westenholz on the occasion of his 70th birthday 15 May 2009 (PIHANS 118), pp. 79–91, 2011

External links edit

  • NINO back in Iraq -Research on the Rania Plain in Iraqi Kurdistan, autumn 2015
  • Web site for current dig

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