NINEVEH: The Excavation Report of the Halzi Gate. Volume I
NINEVEH: The Registered Objects. Volume II

Diana Pickworth
These two publications will be part of the final reports from the University of California at Berkeley’s “Expedition to Nineveh: 1987, 1989-1990”, directed by Professor David Stronach. The grant requested by the author is for funding toward the preparation of the final publications. These volumes of the Excavation Reports will be published by Peeters’ Press; Volume I will be co-authored with Professor David Stronach.

Nineveh, (36° 24’ N, 44° 08’ E), the largest ancient site in northern Iraq is situated at the crossroads of ancient east-west routes and the north-south trending Tigris River, beside the tributary Khosr River. The strategic location made it a natural capital of an empire-hungry Neo-Assyrian king, Sennacherib (704-681 BC), and final location of the empire’s demise in 612 BC. One of the last skirmishes between the defendants and the attackers is encapsulated in the Halzi Gate. Resting only centimeters below the surface, behind desperately placed last minute blocking stones, we excavated the remains of twelve individuals, some pierced with arrows, others with spears. A dead stallion outside the wall to the west of the gate, with parts of his unseated rider lying behind him, told a story with a bitter end.

All skeletal material was exported for research purposes. Research has continued throughout the interim by osteologists and cranial-dental experts. The premature close of the excavation meant that we were unable to reach the back of the inner passage behind the gate where the greatest concentration of skeletal material was located. Teenage boys, young children and an infant were among the dead excavated towards the rear of the passage. The technical reports are now complete and cranial-dental records secured. Funding for the reconstruction of one of the heads will be sought in the first year of this grant. The work will be performed at Stanford University in the Dept. of Radiology, under the direction of Dr. Paul Brown (Stanford University). This can be accomplished non-destructively. Silver samples from jewelry, and bronze samples from weaponry were also exported and these will be tested. Associated with the skeletons were chalcedony stamp seals, a necklace of carnelian and lapis-lazuli beads with an attached scarab, bronze fibulae and ivory personal items.

The walls of Nineveh, with their great eastern defensive gates, have been studied by Iraqi archaeologists and two gates were reconstructed as a preventative measure against the urban expansion of modern Mosul. It was the remoteness of the Halzi Gate at the south east corner of the city wall which preserved its information intact and only a small test trench by Dr. Tariq Mahdloum in 1965 had preceded our excavation. The formal publication of the ground plan of one of the largest Neo-Assyrian gates with its associated courts, information on its buried protective clay genii, and its associated inscriptions together with details of the building techniques of the city wall will augment tremendously current scholarship. As the site photographer I recorded all excavation work. I will ask for funding in the second year for preparation of the black and white photographs. Drawings of a small amount of fine pottery shards from the Halzi Gate area will also be included in Volume I. Thus, the Halzi Gate, with its associated warriors and young people who made a desperate last stand, will present a unique mirror into Iraq’s history in the late seventh century BC.

As photographer for 1987, 1988-1989 I became thoroughly acquainted with the significant excavated material coming from the multiple excavation areas of the site, which were assigned as Registered Objects. These items were delivered to the Baghdad Museum, Iraq in 1990. Materials for analysis which remained in the Mosul Museum store were photographed when necessary; this included all large fragments of stone, inscriptions and large vessels. This information will be included in Volume II. I have in the interim inked all of the drawings of the Registered Objects, and funding to digitize these is requested in the first year. Nineveh: The Registered Objects, Volume II, will present all of these items in chronological order. In this way a more comprehensive understanding of the material culture of a vast Neo-Assyrian city can be presented within the long chronology of the city. The objective of the publication is to present an anthropological perspective: of the range of social groups, of differentiation between royal and elite wares, to show the products of a workshop area, and present the weaponry then available. The vastness of the ancient city is difficult to comprehend unless one has driven around the perimeter. It was a rare privilege to be the photographer as one saw twice daily all of the archaeological results and this breadth of perspective will be apparent in Nineveh: The Registered Objects, Volume II.