Nineveh 2003 Overview

Nineveh: Assyrian Pottery from the Lower Town, Iraq
Eleanor Barbanes-Wilkinson

This proposal requests funding to support the publication of the ceramic corpus from the lower town of Nineveh, located on the eastern bank of the Tigris close to the confluence of the Tigris and Khosr Rivers, in the vicinity of modern Mosul in northern Iraq (36°24' N, 44°08' E). The ancient city, one of the most important and oldest in Mesopotamia, was the last great capital of the Assyrian empire. Dominating the site is the high mound known as Kuyunjik, which may have been occupied almost continuously from the seventh millennium B.C. through the early Islamic period. In the early 7th century B.C., during the reign of the Neo-Assyrian king Sennacherib, the city was enlarged to 750 hectares, incorporating a secondary citadel, now called Nebi Yunus, and an extensive walled lower town. The primary goal of this project is the production of a ceramic type series for the period of Neo-Assyrian occupation in the city which, despite the considerable amount of archaeological work conducted at the site since the mid-19th century, has not yet been developed or published.

The proposed project will utilize the ceramics excavated and recorded by the University of California at Berkeley, under the direction of David Stronach, in the northern portion of the lower town during the last archaeological investigations at the site in 1989 and 1990. While the preponderance of pottery in the corpus appears to date from the 7th century B.C., preliminary review of the excavated assemblage indicates that it should provide a continuous sequence from at least the Middle Assyrian period (13th century B.C) through the fall of the Neo-Assyrian city in 612 B.C. Hellenistic, Parthian/Sasanian and Islamic ceramics recorded in the archaeological survey in 1990 will augment the excavated material. The study will include an analysis of the distribution of the ceramic samples from the Mashki Gate area of the lower town within their architectural context, with the aim of reconstructing functional areas and patterns of activity within households and within the larger urban fabric. This ceramic study, entitled "Nineveh: Assyrian Pottery from the Lower Town," will be one component of a larger publication summarizing the lower town excavations and survey, currently being prepared by Dr. Stephen Lumsden (Carsten Niebuhr Institute), the Director of the Lower Town Survey project and Supervisor of the Mashki Gate excavations. The resulting publication will be one of a series of fascicles devoted to the total results of the University of California at Berkeley Expedition to Nineveh.