Independent State Formation in Northern Mesopotamia: Excavation of the Uruk Period at Tell Brak, Syria

Regents Of The University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

With National Science Foundation support Dr. Geoff Emberling and his colleagues will conduct one season of field research and a second of analysis at the archaeological site of Tell Brak, located in Northeastern Syria. The site consists of a 65 hectare mound about 45 m high and is surrounded by a ring of five or more small sites at a radius of 0.5-1.0 km. While first excavated almost 50 years ago, only recently have the lower levels which date to the fourth millennium BC been uncovered and the limited soundings have exposed a large building with niched and buttressed walls, a massive gateway with stone door sill and door socket still intact, and an enclosed courtyard with large-scale non-domestic cooking facilities. The single associated cylinder seal impression recovered suggests a developing system of administrative control. The most recent excavations in the same level in a different part of the site have revealed a ceramic production area with kilns and a large clay pit, suggesting not only specialization of production but spatial concentration of such activities. The significance of these findings lie in both their early date and their location in northern Mesopotamia. Archaeologists have traditionally believed that the Tigris and Euphrates region of southern Mesopotamia served as the cradle of Near Eastern civilization and that the more poorly watered northern periphery was of secondary importance. While agriculturally fertile, the southern region however lacks essential natural resources such as timber and copper and archaeologists have attributed development in the North to colonization by Southerners to gain these materials. It is, in fact, clear that such settlement did take place. Tell Brak however significantly changes this picture because the recent excavations appear to reveal an unexpectedly high level of scale and social complexity which predates southern expansion and exceeds comparable developments in the South. Dr. Emberling and his colleagues will continue excavation in this early level to expand exposure both in the central area as well as an outlying region to determine the degree of social differentiation. They will address three specific questions: 1. When did Tell Brak grow in size and complexity and a series of high precision radiocarbon determinations will aid in development of a ceramic chronology. 2.In what sequence did trade, administrative control and specialization of production increase? This will provide insight into the processes with led to development at the site. 3. What were the effects of later southern expansion into the site. Dr. Emberling postulates that control over trade in crucial and abundant raw materials such as copper ore and obsidian (used to make stone tools) play a crucial role in Tell Brak's rise. Scientists wish to understand how states developed from a simple egalitarian agricultural base and how elites arise. Because states by definition incorporate large geographic regions, the process can be understood only in broad areal context. Tell Brak, because of its unexpected degree of complexity and its location at the "edge" of Mesopotamia has the potential to provide significant insight. A number of graduate student will participant, and thus the project will also serve an important educational function.