Tell Rashid is a tell, or archaeological settlement mound, in Diyala Governorate,

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 the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

. The site lies in the foothills of the

Zagros Mountains The Zagros Mountains ( ar, جبال زاغروس, translit=Jibal Zaghrus; fa, کوه‌های زاگرس, Kuh hā-ye Zāgros; ku, چیاکانی زاگرۆس, translit=Çiyakani Zagros; Turkish: ''Zagros Dağları''; Luri: ''Kuh hā-ye Zāgr ...

, some south of

Tell Abada Tell Abada is a tell, or archaeological settlement mound, in Diyala Governorate (Iraq). Abada was excavated as part of the archaeological salvage operation to excavate sites that would be flooded by the reservoir of the Hamrin Dam. Excavations ...

, another

Ubaid period The Ubaid period (c. 6500–3700 BC) is a prehistoric period of Mesopotamia. The name derives from Tell al-'Ubaid where the earliest large excavation of Ubaid period material was conducted initially in 1919 by Henry Hall and later by Leonard Wo ...

site. It measures 54 by 30 m and extends 2.5 m above the surrounding plain. Tell Rashid was excavated for a single season in 1978 under the direction of Sabah Abboud Jasim as part of the archaeological salvage work being done for the construction of the

Hemrin Dam The Hemrin Dam is a dam on the Diyala River 100 km northeast of Baghdad, Iraq. The main purpose of the dam is flood control, irrigation and hydroelectric generation. Its power station has a 50 MW capacity. The dam and the attached power house ...

. The excavation trench reached a depth of 5 m, at which point virgin soil (undisturbed by human activity) was reached. Four different occupation levels were recognised, all dating to the Ubaid period.

Occupation history

The oldest level, IV, consists of some mudbrick foundations that were part of a larger building that extended beyond the excavated area. Based on the

ceramics A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

, the level could be dated to Ubaid 2. Level III yielded significant architectural remains, consisting of at least three separate buildings. Two of these were examples of the typical tripartite Ubaid house with a central hall or courtyard with smaller rooms on either long side, One of the buildings contained two child

burials Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

. The smaller of these two buildings had a facade adorned with

buttresses A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (si ...

, suggesting that this building may have had a special purpose, for example as a guest house. In level II, parts of a single building with several rooms were excavated. The youngest level I was severely damaged and only some wall fragments and hearths were found.

Material culture

Artefacts recovered from the excavation included clay

animal figurines Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and go through an ontogenetic stage in ...

and spindle whorls, undefined tokens and sling bullets. Small cones found at the site have been interpreted as

labrets A labret is a form of body piercing. Taken literally, it is any type of adornment that is attached to the lip (labrum). However, the term usually refers to a piercing that is below the bottom lip, above the chin. It is sometimes referred to as ...

. Stone blades were also found, some of which still had pieces of bitumen sticking to them, indicating that they were probably inserted in a wooden shaft, for example to create a

sickle A sickle, bagging hook, reaping-hook or grasshook is a single-handed agricultural tool designed with variously curved blades and typically used for harvesting, or reaping, grain crops or cutting Succulent plant, succulent forage chiefly for feed ...

. Recovered pottery consisted mostly of painted, incised or impressed ware and could be dated to the Ubaid 2-3 periods. Parallels for the so-called Fine Painted Ware at Tell Rashid have been found as far away as

Yumuktepe Yumuktepe (or Yümüktepe) is a tell (ruin mound) at within the city borders of Mersin, Turkey. In 1936, the mound was on the outskirts of Mersin, but after a rapid increase of population, the mound was surrounded by the Toroslar municipality o ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

Occupation history

Material culture

See also

References

Further reading