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A Short Investigation of the Temple At Al-‘Ubaid

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

P. Delougaz
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Extract

The following is an account of a short investigation carried out under the auspices of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago at Al-‘Ubaid in January 1937.

Excavations on this site have previously been undertaken by other institutions; some explanation is therefore necessary of the origin and circumstances of our short campaign.

In the course of the Oriental Institute's exploration of the Dyala region, not only was the existence of early Sumerian civilization established at several sites in this comparatively northern part of Babylonia, but successive stages in its development were revealed and could be studied in detail. At Khafaje it was with this problem that we were mainly occupied for seven successive seasons.

The uniformity of the material culture as found at these sites and at others located in Sumer proper soon became apparent, and was confirmed by innumerable cases of obvious resemblance between individual discoveries. It, therefore, seemed not unreasonable to expect a similar uniformity to appear in contemporary architectural remains.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , Spring 1938 , pp. 1 - 9
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1938

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References

page 1 note 1 The site was discovered in 1919 by the late Dr. Hall. Work was carried on there first by Dr. Hall and afterwards by Sir Leonard Woolley. The results of the excavations were fully published by these two excavators in collaboration with Gadd, C. J. Mr., in Al ‘Ubaid, Oxford University Press, 1927 Google Scholar.

page 1 note 2 Extensive Fonains of the Early Dynastic period were excavated at Tell Asmar, Khafaje, and Tell Agrab. The main results were published by Dr. Henri Frankfort and collaborators in the annual reports of the Iraq Expedition, Oriental Institute Communications, nos. 13, 16, 17, 19, and 20.

page 1 note 3 One of the first and most striking of such examples is a plaque from Khafaje (Kh. 1/400), a missing corner of which could practically be replaced by a fragment of a similar plaque found at Ur. See OIC. No. 13, 96–7.

page 1 note 4 OIC., No. 16, p. 64, fig. 40.

page 1 note 5 Delougaz, Planoconvex Bricks and the Methods of their Employment, Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization, No. 7.

page 1 note 6 Delougaz, , Planoconvex Bricks, pp. 28 fGoogle Scholar.

page 2 note 1 Al ‘Ubaid, pl. 1.

page 2 note 2 Ibid. 62.

page 2 note 3 Ibid., pl. 1, fig. 2; pl. 11.

page 2 note 4 Ibid. 14, 63.

page 2 note 5 Ibid. 62.

page 3 note 1 Al ‘Ubaid, 62.

page 4 note 1 Al ‘Ubaid, 73.

page 4 note 2 Ibid., 74.

page 5 note 1 Al ‘Ubaid, 63.

page 5 note 2 Ibid. 14.

page 6 note 1 The sounding, as I learned later from Sir Leonard Woolley, was made by Mr. M. E. L. Mallowan when he was a member of the staff of his expedition working at Ur.

page 6 note 2 Loftus, , Travels and Researches in Chaldaea and Susiana, 187 ff.Google Scholar; Jordan, , Dritter vorläufiger Bericht Uruk, (Abh. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. 1932. Phil.-Hist. Klasse Nr. 2)Google Scholar.

page 6 note 3 See Al ‘Ubaid, pl. XLII.

page 7 note 1 Loftus, , Travels and Researches in Chaldaea and Susianay 187 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 8 note 1 In this connexion it is interesting to note that exactly the same pattern occurs in some of the inlaid vases of the Jemdet Nasr Period found at Khafaje. Even the colours are the same, red and white on a field of black bitumen and occasionally on red paint. (See Illustrated London News, 09 26th. 1936, 526 Google Scholar.)

page 8 note 2 Such stone pegs are still common on the surface at Eridu, but they were also found previously in profusion on the surface of Al-‘Ubaid (see Al ‘Ubaid, 8).