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CHAPTER XVI - THE EARLY DYNASTIC PERIOD IN MESOPOTAMIA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
Sir Max E. L. Mallowan
Edited by
I. E. S. Edwards ,
C. J. Gadd  and
N. G. L. Hammond
Sir Max E. L. Mallowan
Affiliation:
Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and Emeritus Professor of Western Asiatic Archaeology in the University of London
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Summary

BABYLONIA: ARCHAEOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT

An earlier chapter (XIII) has described the historical development of the cities in Babylonia and their cultural background. Here we must concentrate on the archaeological evidence, for this is by far the richest source for the study of man's development in the Early Dynastic period. Indeed, when we come to discuss developments in Assyria and Mesopotamia proper, historical records are so scarce that the archaeological evidence becomes our primary source of reference.

The Early Dynastic period of Babylonia has been divided into three parts and the archaeological development has been traced through an exhaustive analysis of stratified objects. At present the most satisfactory ground for this study is the Diyālā valley, where extensive excavations have provided a detailed and continuous relationship between buildings and the small finds associated with them. The principal objects were cylinder seals, pottery, sculpture and metal. Each category was subjected to stylistic examination and compared with similar material from sites outside the Diyālā valley. In the Diyālā district itself no mound proved more rewarding than Khafājī, where the long sequence of ‘Sin Temples’ could be related to many other less complete sequences of religious and domestic buildings discovered there and elsewhere.

The analysis of style is, however, complicated by the fact that development did not proceed pari passu everywhere. Thus solid-footed clay goblets which were used in the Uruk-Jamdat Nasr period at Warka, Ur and Nippur did not appear before Early Dynastic I on the Diyālā the same observation applies to reserved slip ware. Archaic seals frequently occur in contexts much later than those to which they originally belonged.

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The Cambridge Ancient History
, pp. 238 - 314
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1971

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