The Rest of Yorghan Tepe

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The mound of Yorghan Tepe was occupied intermittently from around 5000 BCE to about CE 400. Only the 14th-century level (Stratum II) was extensively excavated. However, enough was recovered from the earlier and later levels to permit an outline of the site's occupational history.
3rd-4th Centuries CE: From the Early Sassanian settlement comes a sherd from a large vessel, elaborately decorated with impressed designs, and a small glass sprinkler.
Mid 2nd Millennium BCE: The town by this time included a large Hurrian population, and became known as Nuzi, one of the provincial towns in the kingdom of Arrapha.
Early 2nd Millennium BCE: Belonging to this period are a jar decorated with triangles and horizontal bands, an example of Habur Ware, and a bird-shaped vessel.
Late 3rd Millennium BCE: This settlement, Gasur, yielded typical pottery shapes and Old Akkadian tablets, including the world's oldest known map.
Late 4th Millennium BCE: This period is represented by a beveled-rim bowl, characteristic of the Late Uruk Period, and by stamp seals.
5th Millennium BCE: The earliest settlement at Yorghan Tepe was founded during this period, but has only had limited excavation.

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Ceramic Bird: This ceramic vessel is constructed with a hole in its mid-back, allowing liquids to be introduced, and with a second hole in its beak, which could allow for pouring. On its body are carefully incised "feathers, and underneath the body, there are incised duck feet". It was found on Pavement IIB, in Stratum IV; the blackening on it is from burning, perhaps in a destruction.

Beveled-Rim Bowl: This type of crude, mold-made bowl had its origins in southern Mesopotamia. Its presence at Yorghan Tepe is a reflection of increasing contact between southern and northern Mesopotamia in the late 4th millennium BCE.

Neolithic Artifacts: The first settlement at Yorghan Tepe was founded on virgin soil during the Ubaid Period (5th millennium BCE). Since only a limited exposure was possible at Yorghan Tepe, the excavators also dug soundings at the nearby site of Kudish Saghir, where Ubaid levels were at the surface. Characteristic of this period are painted jars, double-mouthed jars with knobbed surface decoration (seen above), and baked clay tools for grinding grain. This knobbed-ware jar is from Yorghan Tepe; of the two clay mullers (grinding tools), one is from Yorghan Tepe, and one from Kudish Saghir.