Telul eth-Thalathat is an
archaeological site
An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...
located west of
Mosul
Mosul ( ; , , ; ; ; ) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. It is the second largest city in Iraq overall after the capital Baghdad. Situated on the banks of Tigris, the city encloses the ruins of the ...
and just east of
Tal Afar
Tal Afar (, ; ) is a city in the Nineveh Governorate of northwestern Iraq, located west of Mosul, east of Sinjar[Nineveh Province
Nineveh Governorate (; , ) is a governorate in northern Iraq. It has an area of and an estimated population of 2,453,000 people as of 2003. Its largest city and provincial capital is Mosul, which lies across the Tigris river from the ruins of a ...]
(
Iraq
Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...
).
Archaeology
The site consists of at least five separate
tells or settlement mounds. Telul eth-Thalathat was excavated for four seasons between 1956 and 1965 and again in 1976 by a team from the
University of Tokyo
The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several pre-westernisation era ins ...
Iraq-Iran Archaeological Expedition. The main focus was to establish a complete Ninevite 5 sequence at Tell V. The first two seasons, in 1956 and 1957, were led by N. Egami and worked at Tell II. Burials, residential areas, and a presumed temple were uncovered. The final season was led by S. Fukai. Among the small finds was a small square stamp seal with two human figures dated to the late 4th or early 5th millennium BC.
Occupation history
Telul eth-Thalathat was occupied in the
Ubaid Ubaid, Ebeid, Obeid, Obaid, Ubayd, Ubayyid, Ubaidi, the Americanized Obade, etc., used with or without the article Al- or El-, are all romanizations of أبيض or عبید, an Arabic_language, Arabic word or name meaning 'white' (the former) or the ...
,
Nineveh 5, and
Uruk
Uruk, the archeological site known today as Warka, was an ancient city in the Near East, located east of the current bed of the Euphrates River, on an ancient, now-dried channel of the river in Muthanna Governorate, Iraq. The site lies 93 kilo ...
periods, as well as during Middle
Assyria
Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...
n times. Excavations have revealed over 20 kilns and a number of burials, as well as some figurines and
spindle whorl
A spindle whorl is a weighted object fitted to a spindle to help maintain the spindle's speed of rotation while spinning yarn. History
A spindle whorl may be a disk or spherical object. It is typically positioned on the bottom of the spindle. T ...
s. Eleven Neolithic clay tokens were also recovered. On Tell V a single period Ninevite 5 settlement was found. It included a 6 by 18 meter building interpreted as a granary. Tell II showed occupation from the Pottery Neolithic to Middle Uruk periods.
[Sudo, Hiroshi, "The development of wool exploitation in Ubaid-period settlements of North Mesopotamia", Beyond the Ubaid: Transformation and integration in the late prehistoric societies of the Middle East. SAOC 63, pp. 169-179, 2010]
See also
*
Cities of the ancient Near East
The earliest cities in history were in the ancient Near East, an area covering roughly that of the modern Middle East: its history began in the 4th millennium BC and ended, depending on the interpretation of the term, either with the conquest by ...
References
Further reading
Fukai, S. and T. Matsutani, Excavations at Telul eth-Thalathat, 1976, Sumer, vol. 33, no. 1: pp. 48–64, 1977
*Nishiaki, Yoshihiro, and H. I. H. Prince Takahito Mikasa, "Reexamination of neolithic stone artifacts from Telul eth-Thalathat, northern Iraq", Essays on Ancient Anatolia and its Surrounding Civilizations. Harassowitz, Tübingen, pp. 153–172, 1995
*Nishiaki, Yoshihiro, "Hafting Systems of Sickle Elements from the Chalcolithic Levels of Telul eth-Thalathat II, Iraq. In : CANEVA I., LEMO-RINI C, ZAMPETTI D. and BIAGI P. (eds), Beyond tools : Redefining the PPN Lithic Assemblages of the Levant, Berlin : ex oriente (SENEPSE 9), pp. 55-72, 2011
*Uwe Sievertsen, "Frühe Pfeiler-Nischen-Architektur Aus Tepe Gawra Und Telul Eth-Thalathat", Iraq, vol. 67, no. 1, pp. 399–409, 2005
External links
Pottery object from Telul eth-Thalathat at the University of Tokyo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Telul Eth-Thalathat
Archaeological sites in Iraq
History of Nineveh Governorate
Tells (archaeology)