Tell Brak

KhaUdi, L., Gratuze, B., Boucetta, S. (2009) Provenance of obsidian excavated from late chalcolithic levels at the sites of Tell Hamoukar and Tell Brak, Syria. Archaeomefry, 57,879-893. 

The Habur region at that time was more or less divided between Samsi-Addu and Yahdun-Lim (Charpin 2004a 144), and eventually the two kings met in battle at Tell Brak, ancient Nagar (Charpin 2004a 138), located near the confluence... 

A rather different example may be drawn from a context somewhat closer in time and space to this discussion. The discovery many years ago of a monumental building at Tell Brak (Mallowan 1947) bearing bricks stamped with the divine name of Naram-Sin - that is, a-ra-am- en.7xi, where stands for dingir, the sign... 

Interestingly, perhaps the first evidence of contact between the south and true north is at Tell Brak, where in level 16 a few beveled-rim bowls were found. Dates for this level vary. David and Joan Oates (1997 287) placed it around 3500 BCE, with which Wright and Rupley concur (2001 101-2). Subsequent work at the site, however, seems to have pushed the date back to before 3600 BCE (it is considered Late Chalcobthic 3 see, for example, Rothman 2002 52, table 2) and perhaps as early as 3700 BCE (Akkermans and Schwartz 2003 fig. 6.3 Oates 2005 18-21). This would correspond to the establishment of Sheikh Hassan around 3680/3600 BCE. A walled site of approximately one hectare. Sheikh Hassan is the first so-called Uruk colony, with the possible exception of Tell Abr. It contains a cell building similar to that of ZeytinU... 

This is, unquestionably, a somewhat false picture, because there are many other sites besides those for which we have reworked C14 dates and many other sites for which we have indications of Uruk interaction but no substantial data. But this is true for every reconstruction of the path and nature of the Uruk expansion. The exposure at some of the sites argued to be one kind of settlement or another is simply too small to be in any way definitive. This is the case with Tell Brak for example, where the thirty-odd square meters about which there is any detail pales in comparison to the postulated 55 ha size of the site (Ur et al. 2007) this is also the case with Jerablus Tahtani, from which Uruk pottery was retrieved in a two-by-six-meter trench (Peltenburg et al. 2000 68). While there appears in the excavated areas at both sites to be a complete replacement of the local Late Chalcolithic assemblage by the Uruk - gradually... 

The situation at Tell Brak, ancient Nagar, should provide sufficient warning about the limitations of this approach (see also Ristvet 2008). The discovery of cuneiform tablets from the site of Tell Beydar, ancient Nabada, revealed that site to be a subsidiary settlement of the polity of ancient Nagar, for which Nabada seems to have been regional coordinator of agricultural and pastoral production from a number of smaller sites. 

While I incline to the bread-mold function for beveled-rim bowls, I suggest a different way of understanding their distribution and interpretative significance. Their introduction constitutes at some sites a sharp demarcation when juxtaposed with local Late ChalcoUthic traditions, a distinction that becomes even more marked when the full Uruk repertoire arrives. At the same time, other local Late Chalcolithic settlements - Arslantepe, Tell Brak, and Susa - have their own parallel and precedent version of this form in play at the time of the beveled-rim bowl encounter. Brak, like the Euphrates site of Arslantepe, represents a strong northern indigenous power that in some way accommodates Urukeans, and, just as at Arslantepe, southern material attributes intervene... 

Mass-produced pots from Arslantepe and Tell Brak. Group A from Arslantepe level VII, redrawn from Frangipane 2002 fig. 10b. Group B "pie plate and "casserole from level 16 at Tell Brak, redrawn from Oates and Oates 1993 fig. 54. 

Hut symbols/spectacle idols, A (redrawn from Breniquet 1996), h-d from Hacinebi (redrawn from Stein et al. 1997) "eye idols e-h from Tell Brak (redrawn from Oates 2005). 

It is Tell Brak that allows us to reconstruct with some degree of reliability the process of this feasting. Two very different kinds of cooking facilities were... 

These structures themselves are evidence of a commonality that extends across the north, because to the temples Matthews recognizes at Tell Brak, Tell Chuera, Tell Raqa i, Tell Kashkashouk, Tell Atij, Chagar Bazaar, and Mari, I would add three more. The first, although not the earliest, comes from Qara... 

Emberling, G., and H. McDonald. 2001. Excavations at Tell Brak 2000 Preliminary Report. Iraq 63 21-54. 

Excavations at Tell Brak 2001-2002 Preliminary Report. Iraq 65 1-75. 

Hald, M.-M., and M. Charles. 2008. Storage of Crops during the Fourth and Third Millennia B.C. at the Settlement Mound of Tell Brak, Northeast Syria. Vegetation History and Archaeohotany 17 (Suppl. 1) S35-S41. 

A Chiefdom in the Northern Plains. In Excavations at Tell Brak. Vol. 4 Exploring an Upper Mesopotamian Regional Centre, 1994-1996, edited by R. Matthews, 97-193. London British School of Archaeology in Iraq/Cambridge McDonald Institute... 

On the Results of the Tell Brak Excavations. Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 94 605-24. 

McMahon, A., and J. Oates. 2007. Excavations at Tell Brak 2006-2007. Iraq 69 145-71. 

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