ENGLISH SUMMARY
Archaeology at the water’s edge – rescue excavations along Lake Dokan in northea... more ENGLISH SUMMARY
Archaeology at the water’s edge – rescue excavations along Lake Dokan in northeastern Iraq.
After many years of war and turmoil it is now possible once more for archaeologists to conduct excavations in northern Iraq, which is part of ancient Mesopotamia. A Danish-Dutch project has returned to the Rania Plain (figs. 1-2), where Danish archaeologists last dug over 50 years ago. The aim is on the one hand to assess the state of preservation of the many ancient towns on the plain, on the other to investigate how the world’s first cities arose around 6000 years ago. The Rania Plain is periodically flooded by water from a dammed-up lake which on the one hand evens out height differences on the plain and makes it difficult to find one’s bearings in the archaeological landscape, and on the other hand breaks down the archaeological remains very quickly (figs. 3 and 5). Central to the project are the excavations of the tell Bab-w-Kur (figs. 6 and 7), which have given us new information on life on the Rania Plain in the Chalcolithic Age – that is, the fourth millennium BC. A large administrative building (figs. 9-10) and more than 25 kilns for the mass production of pottery testify that Bab-w-Kur functioned partly as a minor administrative centre, partly as a production site for pottery (fig. 12). Reconnaissances of the plain also show that the area was densely populated, with a network of large and small towns engaged in contacts and trading with one another. In particular, they show that the Rania Plain was at least as highly developed an urban society as the societies in central Mesopotamia, and that urbanization was not an isolated phenomenon.
ENGLISH SUMMARY
Archaeology at the water’s edge – rescue excavations along Lake Dokan in northea... more ENGLISH SUMMARY
Archaeology at the water’s edge – rescue excavations along Lake Dokan in northeastern Iraq.
After many years of war and turmoil it is now possible once more for archaeologists to conduct excavations in northern Iraq, which is part of ancient Mesopotamia. A Danish-Dutch project has returned to the Rania Plain (figs. 1-2), where Danish archaeologists last dug over 50 years ago. The aim is on the one hand to assess the state of preservation of the many ancient towns on the plain, on the other to investigate how the world’s first cities arose around 6000 years ago. The Rania Plain is periodically flooded by water from a dammed-up lake which on the one hand evens out height differences on the plain and makes it difficult to find one’s bearings in the archaeological landscape, and on the other hand breaks down the archaeological remains very quickly (figs. 3 and 5). Central to the project are the excavations of the tell Bab-w-Kur (figs. 6 and 7), which have given us new information on life on the Rania Plain in the Chalcolithic Age – that is, the fourth millennium BC. A large administrative building (figs. 9-10) and more than 25 kilns for the mass production of pottery testify that Bab-w-Kur functioned partly as a minor administrative centre, partly as a production site for pottery (fig. 12). Reconnaissances of the plain also show that the area was densely populated, with a network of large and small towns engaged in contacts and trading with one another. In particular, they show that the Rania Plain was at least as highly developed an urban society as the societies in central Mesopotamia, and that urbanization was not an isolated phenomenon.
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Papers by Henrik Brahe
Archaeology at the water’s edge – rescue excavations along Lake Dokan in northeastern Iraq.
After many years of war and turmoil it is now possible once more for archaeologists to conduct excavations in northern Iraq, which is part of ancient Mesopotamia. A Danish-Dutch project has returned to the Rania Plain (figs. 1-2), where Danish archaeologists last dug over 50 years ago. The aim is on the one hand to assess the state of preservation of the many ancient towns on the plain, on the other to investigate how the world’s first cities arose around 6000 years ago. The Rania Plain is periodically flooded by water from a dammed-up lake which on the one hand evens out height differences on the plain and makes it difficult to find one’s bearings in the archaeological landscape, and on the other hand breaks down the archaeological remains very quickly (figs. 3 and 5). Central to the project are the excavations of the tell Bab-w-Kur (figs. 6 and 7), which have given us new information on life on the Rania Plain in the Chalcolithic Age – that is, the fourth millennium BC. A large administrative building (figs. 9-10) and more than 25 kilns for the mass production of pottery testify that Bab-w-Kur functioned partly as a minor administrative centre, partly as a production site for pottery (fig. 12). Reconnaissances of the plain also show that the area was densely populated, with a network of large and small towns engaged in contacts and trading with one another. In particular, they show that the Rania Plain was at least as highly developed an urban society as the societies in central Mesopotamia, and that urbanization was not an isolated phenomenon.
Archaeology at the water’s edge – rescue excavations along Lake Dokan in northeastern Iraq.
After many years of war and turmoil it is now possible once more for archaeologists to conduct excavations in northern Iraq, which is part of ancient Mesopotamia. A Danish-Dutch project has returned to the Rania Plain (figs. 1-2), where Danish archaeologists last dug over 50 years ago. The aim is on the one hand to assess the state of preservation of the many ancient towns on the plain, on the other to investigate how the world’s first cities arose around 6000 years ago. The Rania Plain is periodically flooded by water from a dammed-up lake which on the one hand evens out height differences on the plain and makes it difficult to find one’s bearings in the archaeological landscape, and on the other hand breaks down the archaeological remains very quickly (figs. 3 and 5). Central to the project are the excavations of the tell Bab-w-Kur (figs. 6 and 7), which have given us new information on life on the Rania Plain in the Chalcolithic Age – that is, the fourth millennium BC. A large administrative building (figs. 9-10) and more than 25 kilns for the mass production of pottery testify that Bab-w-Kur functioned partly as a minor administrative centre, partly as a production site for pottery (fig. 12). Reconnaissances of the plain also show that the area was densely populated, with a network of large and small towns engaged in contacts and trading with one another. In particular, they show that the Rania Plain was at least as highly developed an urban society as the societies in central Mesopotamia, and that urbanization was not an isolated phenomenon.