An expedition under the auspices of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq completed its eighth season at Nimrud, ancient Calah, during the first week of May 1957 after a two months' campaign which began early in March. For most of the season about two hundred workmen were employed including a number of skilled Sherqatis who have been with us from 1949 onwards. This year was memorable in the annals of the dig for two reasons: first we concluded our programme of work on the akropolis itself; secondly we began the excavation in the outer town of the great building known as Fort Shalmaneser which is likely to prove to be a military establishment more important than any other hitherto discovered in ancient Assyria and most prolific in its yield of antiquities.