Jebel Aruda

S. Ceramic elements of the Uruk assemblage. Hacinebi, redrawn from Stein 2002 Uruk, redrawn from Nissen 2001 Jebel Aruda, redrawn from van Driel 2002. 

However, this is labeled Late Chalcolithic 4 in Akkermans and Schwartz 2003 fig. 6.3. While the colony status of Sheikh Hassan, Habuba Kabira, and Jebel Aruda is well known, Schwartz (2001) also includes Tell el Hajj, Hadidi, Mureybit, and Tannira in this category, although I doubt that there is enough exposure at these latter sites on which to base this... 

But what is I would suggest that while the overall pattern of expansion seems like a gradual rise, retraction, and collapse, the small shifts within this mapping should be given due consideration, for they break down the picture of systematic and monolithic movement and reveal it to be, in essence, a series of stops and starts. What happens at each point is in part a product of the previous point and in part a product of the new situations in place at that moment in time. The relocation of a colony presence in the Late Uruk period from the left bank of the Euphrates at Sheikh Hassan, to Habuba Kabira and Jebel Aruda... 

Particularly interesting, however, is the situation of this complex, which is set on an artificial platform over two meters tall and made of mud-brick - located, what is more, on a high terrace on the central part of the site (Olavarri and Valdes Pereiro 2001). Qara Quzaq itself is a small, conical mound that stands high in the floodplain of this narrow point in the Euphrates River. It is a local landmark, visible from every direction as one comes across the various passes from the steppe and descends into the valley. It is very similar in overall appearance to the White Monument of Tell Banat North (Fig. 24) and in its visuality within the landscape, albeit on a minor scale, to Jebel Aruda. 

Jebel Aruda Variations on a Late Uruk Domestic Theme. In Artefacts of Complexity Trackingthe Uruk in the Near East, edited byj. Postgate, I9I-205. Iraq Archaeological Reports 5. Cambridge British School of Archaeology in Iraq, van Driel, G., and C. van Driel-Murray. 1979. Jebel Aruda, 1977-78. Akkadica 12 2-33. 

Jebel Aruda, the 1982 Season of Excavation. Akkadica 33 1-26. van Gennep, A. 1960. The Rites of Passage. First published 1909. Chicago University of Chicago Press. 

Plan of Jebel Aruda showing the distribution of pyrotechnic facilities... 

---