JEMDET
NASR
![](jemdetnasr.jpg)
Jemdet
Nasr shown within Iraq
Location
: Iraq
Region
:
Mesopotamia
Coordinates
:
32.717° N 44.779° E
Type
:
tell
Part
of :
Babil Governorate, Iraq
Area
:
1.5 hectares (3.7 acres) (Mound A), 7.5 hectares (19 acres) (Mound
B)
Height
:
2.9 metres (9 ft 6 in) (Mound A), 3.5 metres (11 ft) (Mound B)
History
:
Material
:
Mudbrick
Periods
:
Ubaid, Uruk, Jemdet Nasr, Early Dynastic I, Parthian?
Cultures
:
Sumerian
Site
notes :
Excavation
dates :
1926, 1928, 1988, 1989
Archaeologists
:
S.H. Langdon, L.Ch. Watelin, R. Matthews
Jemdet
Nasr is a tell or settlement mound in Babil Governorate (Iraq) that
is best known as the eponymous type site for the Jemdet Nasr period
(3100–2900 BC), and was one of the oldest Sumerian cities.
The site was first excavated in 1926 by Stephen Langdon, who found
proto-cuneiform clay tablets in a large mudbrick building thought
to be the ancient administrative centre of the site. A second season
took place in 1928, but this season was very poorly recorded. Subsequent
excavations in the 1980s under British archaeologist Roger Matthews
were, among other things, undertaken to relocate the building excavated
by Langdon. These excavations have shown that the site was also
occupied during the Ubaid, Uruk and Early Dynastic I periods.
History
of research :
In 1925, the team that was excavating at Kish received reports that
clay tablets and painted pottery had been found by locals at a site
called Jemdet Nasr, some 26 kilometres (16 mi) northeast of Kish.
The site was subsequently visited and it was decided that an excavation
was necessary. The first season at Jemdet Nasr took place in 1926,
directed by Stephen Langdon, Professor of Assyriology at Oxford
University and director of the excavations at Kish. The excavation
lasted over a month and employed between 12 and 60 workmen. Langdon
was not an archaeologist, and even by the standards of his time,
as exemplified by Leonard Woolley's work at Ur, his record-keeping
was very poor. As a result, much information on the exact find spots
of artefacts, including the tablets, was lost. A large mudbrick
building was excavated in which a large collection of proto-cuneiform
clay tablets was found. The finds from this season were divided
between the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad, the Ashmolean Museum
in Oxford and the Field Museum in Chicago; the latter two co-sponsors
of the excavations in Kish and Jemdet Nasr. A second season was
organized in 1928, lasting between 13–22 March and directed
by L.Ch. Watelin, the then-field director at Kish. This time, some
120 workmen were employed. Watelin kept almost no records of his
excavations at the site but from the few notes that survive he seems
to have been digging in the same area as Langdon.
In
1988 and 1989, two further excavation seasons were carried out under
the direction of British archaeologist Roger Matthews. The aims
of the 1988 season were to conduct an archaeological survey of the
site, to revisit the large building on Mound B that had been excavated
by Langdon but very poorly published, and to explore a building
that was visible on the surface of Mound A. During the 1989 season,
again directed by Matthews, a dig-house was constructed on the site.
Research focused on Mound B with the aim to further explore the
ancient occupation in that area. No work was carried out on Mound
A. Further excavation seasons, although planned, were prevented
by the outbreak of the Gulf War in 1990 and no fieldwork has been
carried out at the site since then.
The
importance of the findings at Jemdet Nasr were immediately recognized
after the 1920s excavations. During a large conference in Baghdad
in 1930, the Jemdet Nasr period was inserted into the Mesopotamian
chronology between the Uruk period and the Early Dynastic period,
with Jemdet Nasr being the eponymous type site. Since then, the
assemblage characteristic for the Jemdet Nasr period has been attested
at other sites in south–central Iraq, including Abu Salabikh,
Fara, Nippur, Ur and Uruk. The period is now generally dated to
3100–2900 BC.
Jemdet
Nasr and its environment :
The name Jemdet Nasr translates as "Small mound of Nasr",
named after a prominent sheikh in the early twentieth century. Jemdet
Nasr is located in modern-day Babil Governorate in central Iraq,
or ancient southern Mesopotamia. Before the implementation of the
Musaiyib irrigation project in the 1950s, the site lay in a semi-desert
area. Today, the site is located in an area that is heavily irrigated
for agriculture. The tell consists of two mounds, A and B, that
are located adjacent to each other. Mound A is 160 by 140 metres
(520 by 460 ft), 2.9 metres (9 ft 6 in) high and has a total area
of 1.5 hectares (3.7 acres). Mound B, located immediately to the
northeast of A, measures 350 by 300 metres (1,150 by 980 ft) for
a total area of 7.5 hectares (19 acres), reaching up to 3.5 metres
(11 ft) above the modern level of the plain.
Occupation
history :
Occupation is thought to have started at least in the Ubaid period
and occupied until the Early Dynastic I period. The Ubaid occupation
of the site has not been explored through excavation but is inferred
from pottery dating to that period, and clay sickles and a fragment
of a clay cone, that were found on the surface of Mound A. Both
the 1920s as well as the 1980s excavations have resulted in considerable
quantities of Middle Uruk period (mid-4th millennium BC) pottery.
It seems that during this period, both Mounds A and B were occupied.
During the Late Uruk period (late 4th millennium BC), an extensive
settlement must have existed at Mound B, but its nature is again
hard to ascertain due to a lack of well-excavated archaeological
contexts.
The
Jemdet Nasr period settlement (3100–2900 BC) extended over
an area of 4–6 hectares (9.9–14.8 acres) of Mound B.
Some 0.4 hectares (0.99 acres) was occupied by the single, large
mudbrick building that was excavated by Langdon, and where the clay
tablets were found. In and around this building, kilns for firing
pottery and baking bread were found, and other crafts like weaving.
Many of these crafts, and also agricultural production, feature
prominently in the proto-cuneiform tablets – indicating that
much of the economy was centrally controlled and administered. In
the texts from Jemdet Nasr, the term "SANGA AB" appears,
which may denote a high official. The building was probably destroyed
by fire. There is no evidence for far-reaching trade-contacts; no
precious stones or other exotic materials were found. However, the
homogeneity of the pottery that is typical for the Jemdet Nasr period
suggests that there must have been intensive regional contacts.
This idea is strengthened by the finding of sealings on the tablets
of Jemdet Nasr that list a number of cities in southern Mesopotamia,
including Larsa, Nippur, Ur, Uruk and Tell Uqair.
After
the destruction of the Jemdet Nasr building, occupation of the site
seems to have continued uninterrupted, as pottery forms show a gradual
transition from Jemdet Nasr forms into the Early Dynastic I repertoire.
At least one building of this period has been excavated at Mound
B. Based on the distribution of Early Dynastic pottery on the surface,
the settlement seems to have been smaller than during the Jemdet
Nasr period. A single Early Dynastic I grave was found on Mound
A, but no further evidence for occupation during this period. The
building that was visible on the surface of the mound was probably
a Parthian fortress, but due to a lack of well-dated pottery from
this area this dating could not be ascertained.
Material
culture :
Apart from the proto-cuneiform tablets, Jemdet Nasr gained fame
for its painted polychrome and monochrome pottery. Painted pots
display both geometric motifs and depictions of animals, including
birds, fish, goats, scorpions, snakes and trees. However, the majority
of the pottery was undecorated, and the fact that most painted pottery
seems to have come from the large central building suggests that
it had a special function. Pottery forms included large jars, bowls,
spouted vessels and cups.
A
number of cylinder seals, stamp seals and cylinder seal impressions
on the clay tablets have been found at Jemdet Nasr. Stylistically,
these seals are a continuation of the preceding Uruk period. The
cylinder seals display humans as well as animals in a very crude
style. Over 80 of the clay tablets bore a sealing, showing humans,
animals, buildings, containers and more abstract designs. None of
the sealings on the tablets was made by the seals that were found
at the site, indicating that sealing either occurred outside Jemdet
Nasr or that seals could also be made of perishable materials. One
sealing, found on thirteen tablets, lists the names of a number
of cities surrounding Jemdet Nasr, including Larsa, Nippur, Ur and
Uruk.
The
exact findspots of many objects retrieved during the 1920s excavations
could no longer be reconstructed due to the poor publication standards,
so that many can only be dated by comparing them with what has been
found at other sites that do have a good stratigraphy and chronological
control. Many of the objects found during the 1920s could be dated
from the Uruk period to the Early Dynastic I period. Very few copper
objects were found in Jemdet Nasr. These included an adze, a fish-hook
and a small pendant in the shape of a goose. A particular type of
stone vessel with ledge handles and a rim decorated by incised rectangles
has so far not been found at any other site. The function of a number
of flat polished stones incised with lines forming a cross is uncertain,
but it has been suggested that they were used as bolas. They are
common in Uruk period sites. Because clay as a raw material is widely
available around Jemdet Nasr, clay objects are very common. Clay
objects included baked clay bricks, clay sickles, fragments of drain
pipes, spatulas, spindle whorls and miniature wagon wheels. Beads,
small pendants and figurines were made of bone, shell, stone, clay
and frit.
Proto-cuneiform
texts :
The clay tablets that were reported to the excavators of Kish in
1925 may not have been the first to come from Jemdet Nasr. Already
before 1915, a French antiquities dealer had bought tablets that
reportedly came from the site through looting. He sold them in lots
to the French dealer Dumani Frères, the Louvre and the British
Museum, while those resold to Dumani Frères were subsequently
purchased by James Breasted for the Oriental Institute in Chicago.
Another group of tablets was purchased in Kish in the 1930s and
of these it was asserted that they came from Jemdet Nasr, although
this is unlikely due to stylistic differences between these tablets
and those excavated at Jemdet Nasr in 1926. During the first regular
excavation season in 1926, between 150 and 180 tablets were found
in Mound B; the error margin resulting from gaps in the administration
kept by the excavators. Some of these tablets may actually have
come from the 1928 excavations under Watelin. The tablets from the
regular excavations are stored in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford
and the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad.
The
Jemdet Nasr tablets are written in proto-cuneiform script. Proto-cuneiform
is thought to have arisen in the second half of the 4th millennium
BC. While at first it was characterized by a small set of symbols
that were predominantly pictographs, by the time of the Jemdet Nasr
period, there was already a trend toward more abstract and simpler
designs. It is also during this period that the script acquired
its iconic wedge-shaped appearance. While the language in which
these tablets were written cannot be identified with certainty,
it is thought to have been Sumerian. Contemporary archives have
been found at Uruk, Tell Uqair and Khafajah.
The
tablets from Jemdet Nasr are primarily administrative accounts;
long lists of various objects, foodstuffs and animals that were
probably distributed among the population from a centralized authority.
Thus, these texts document, among other things, the cultivation,
processing and redistribution of grain, the counting of herds of
cattle, the distribution of secondary products like beer, fish,
fruit and textiles, as well as various objects of undefinable nature.
Six tablets deal with the calculation of agricultural field areas
from surface measurements, which is the earliest attested occurrence
of such calculations.
Source
:
https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Jemdet_Nasr