TELL
MADHUR
![](tellmadhur.jpg)
Tell
Madhur within Iraq
Location
: Diyala Governorate, Iraq
Region
:
Mesopotamia
Coordinates
: 34°22'48 N 44°59'24 E (approximate)
Type
:
tell
History
:
Periods
: Ubaid period, Early Dynastic period, Islamic
Tell
Madhur (also Madhhur) is a tell, or archaeological settlement mound,
in Diyala Governorate (Iraq). The site was excavated due to it being
flooded by the reservoir created by the Hamrin Dam. Madhur is best
known for its particularly well-preserved Ubaid house. A significant
Early Dynastic occupation, consisting of a rounded building typical
for the Hamrin region at the time, has also been attested at Madhur.
The
site and its environment :
The tell measures 100 by 80 m and rises 2.5 m above the surrounding
plain. The archaeological depists extended some 4 m below the current
surface of the plain as well, indicating that considerable soil
accumulation must have taken place since Madhur was first settled.
History
of research :
Tell Madhur was excavated at the end of the 1970s by the British
Archaeological Expedition to Iraq as part of the large, international
salvage operation to document archaeological sites that would be
flooded by the reservoir of the Hamrin Dam in the Diyala River,
which was being constructed at the time. Madhur is part of a large
cluster of excavated Ubaid period sites, including Tell Abada, Tell
Rashid and Tell Saadiya. During their work on Madhur, the British
Archaeological Expedition also carried out smaller excavations at
two other Hamrin sites; Tell Rubeidheh and Tell Haizalun. The excavations
at Tell Madhur were directed by Nicholas Postgate, T. Cuyler Young
and Michael Roaf.
Occupation
history :
In the oldest phase at Madhur, no architectural remains were found.
The Ubaid style pottery seems to have been very similar to that
of level 2, the next occupation phase.
Level
2 represents the most significant occupation phase at Tell Madhur.
The single most important feature of this level was an almost completely
preserved house, described by Michael Roaf as "one of the best-preserved
prehistoric buildings ever to have been found in Mesopotamia".
The walls were preserved up to 2 m in height, built from rectangular
mudbricks and supported by plastered revetments. The upper parts
of the walls had collapsed, but by counting the number of fallen
mudbrick rows, it could be measured that they were originally some
3.5 m high. Inside the building were found pieces of plaster with
red paint, indicating that (some of) the walls were decorated. The
freestanding building was relatively small, measuring some 14 by
14 m, and had a tripartite layout: a central, cruciform hall was
flanked by smaller rooms, some of which could be closed off by doors,
as indicated by the presence of door sockets. The building was destroyed
by fire and everything in it was preserved in situ, meaning that
all artefacts were still in the locations in which they were left
by the original inhabitants of Madhur. The inventory included pottery
vessels (both painted, incised and undecorated), grindstones, flint
and obsidian blades, spindle whorls, animal figurines and many sling
bullets. A large amount of carbonized grain, probably 6-row hulled
barley, was found in one of the smaller rooms. This provided a radiocarbon
date of 4470±80 cal BC. The house plan showed clear parallels
in nearby sites such as Tell Abada and Tell Rashid and sites further
north such as Tepe Gawra, Telul eth-Thalathat and even Degirmentepe
in Turkey. The pottery likewise had clear parallels with northern
sites such as Nuzi and Tepe Gawra. Based on the exquisite preservation
of the artefacts, specific activity areas could be pinpointed within
the house; some of the smaller rooms were used for storage and cooking,
whereas one end of the central hall was used for eating and probably
receiving guests.
The
settlement continued to be occupied after level 2. These next phases
also dated to the Ubaid period and consisted of houses that were
constantly being modified. The exact stratigraphy of these later
Ubaid phases were difficult to reconstruct due to later activities
at the site that severely damaged and eroded these late Ubaid remains.
The
excavators found no evidence for occupation during the Uruk period,
but the site was re-occupied during the Early Dynastic period (ED).
During the ED I period, a large building with a thick curved wall
with rooms on the inside of the curve. The building was not completely
preserved, but if it had been a complete circle, its diameter would
have been 30 m. This curved building, and the pottery found inside
it, has clear parallels in Early Dynastic round buildings excavated
at Tell Gubba and Tell Razuk, also in the Hamrin region. The pottery
and architecture seem to have set the Hamrin apart from the rest
of Mesopotamia during the Early Dynastic period, suggesting that
it may represent some sort of "cultural enclave". Several
tombs from the Early Dynastic I-III and one from the Akkadian period
were found as well. The Akkadian grave belonged to a young man,
17-20 years old, and contained pottery, bronze tools and weapons,
and carnelian and lapis lazuli jewellery as grave goods, as well
as two equid skeletons.
The
youngest evidence consists of some storage pits indicating occupation
during the 13th and 14th centuries AD, and the site was used as
a cemetery by local villagers in recent times.
Source
:
https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Tell_Madhur