Tell es-Sawwan is an important Samarran period

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

Saladin Province The Saladin or Salah Al-Din Governorate ( ar, محافظة صلاح الدين) is one of Iraq's 19 governorates, north of Baghdad. It has an area of , with an estimated population of 1,042,200 people in 2003. It is made up of 8 districts, with t ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

. It is located north of

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

, and south of

Samarra Samarra ( ar, سَامَرَّاء, ') is a city in Iraq. It stands on the east bank of the Tigris in the Saladin Governorate, north of Baghdad. The city of Samarra was founded by Abbasid Caliph Al-Mutasim for his Turkish professional ar ...

. The site is a primarily Ubaid, Hassuna, and

Samarra culture The Samarra culture is a Late Neolithic archaeological culture of northern Mesopotamia, roughly dated to between 5500 and 4800 BCE. It partially overlaps with Hassuna and early Ubaid. Samarran material culture was first recognized during exc ...

occupation with some later

Babylonia Babylonia (; Akkadian: , ''māt Akkadī'') was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Syria). It emerged as an Amorite-ruled state c ...

n graves. It is considered the

type site In archaeology, a type site is the site used to define a particular archaeological culture or other typological unit, which is often named after it. For example, discoveries at La Tène and Hallstatt led scholars to divide the European Iron A ...

for the Samarran culture.

Tell es-Sawwan and its environment

Tell es-Sawwan is an oval mound long by wide with a maximum height of . The main mound was surrounded by a three-metre defensive ditch and a strong mudbrick wall. The village consisted of large houses and other buildings thought to be granaries. The inhabitants of Tell es-Sawwan were farmers who used irrigation from the

Tigris The Tigris () is the easternmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian and Arabian Deserts, and empties into the ...

to support their crops, as rainfall was unreliable. They used stone and

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start ...

tools similar to those of the Hassuna culture. Their prosperity, probably based on the dependability of irrigated crops, is evidenced by the presence of fine Samarran ware and beautiful, translucent marble vessels Underfloor graves of adults and children contained

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terra ...

and

alabaster Alabaster is a mineral or rock that is soft, often used for carving, and is processed for plaster powder. Archaeologists and the stone processing industry use the word differently from geologists. The former use it in a wider sense that include ...

statuettes of women and men, in various poses; some of these had the eyes and pointed heads typical of the Ubaid period.

History of research

The site was excavated by a team from the Iraqi Directorate General of Antiquities in seven seasons between 1964 and 1971. The second season was led by Khalid Ahmad Al-a'dami and the sixth and seventh season by Walid Yasin.Walid Yasin, Excavation at Tell es-Sawwan - the Sixth Season (1969), Sumer, vol. 26, pp. 3-20, 1970

Gallery

File:Female figurine Tell es Sawwan DAO33.jpg, Female figurine from Tell es-Sawwan, Louvre Museum File:Mother goddess from Tell es-Sawwan, Iraq, 6000-5800 BCE. Iraq Museum in Baghdad.jpg, Mother goddess from Tell es-Sawwan, Iraq, 6000-5800 BCE. Iraq Museum File:Mother goddess from Tell es-Sawwan, Iraq, 6000-5800 BCE. Iraq Museum, Baghdad.jpg, Mother goddess figurine from Tell es-Sawwan, Iraq, 6000-5800 BCE. Iraq Museum File:Alabaster jar with a necklace from Tell es-Sawwan, Iraq. 6000-5800 BCE. Iraq Museum.jpg, Alabaster jar with a necklace from Tell es-Sawwan, Iraq. 6000-5800 BCE. Iraq Museum File:Bowl with human bones from Tell es-Sawwan, Iraq, 6000-5800 BCE. Iraq Museum.jpg, Bowl with human bones from Tell es-Sawwan, Iraq, 6000-5800 BCE. Iraq Museum

Tell es-Sawwan and its environment

History of research

Gallery

See also

Notes

Further reading