TELL
SHEMSHARA
![](tellshemshara.jpg)
Tell
Shemshara / Shusharra shown within Iraq
Location
: Iraq
Region
:
Sulaymaniyah Governorate
Coordinates
:
36°12'03 N 44°56'18 E
Type
:
tell
Length
:
270 m (890 ft) (lower mound)
Width
:
60 m (200 ft) (main mound)
Height
:
19 m (62 ft) (main mound), 6 m (20 ft) (lower mound)
History
:
Periods
:
Hassuna, Middle Bronze Age, Islamic
Site
notes :
Excavation
dates :
1957–1959, 2012
Archaeologists
:
J. Eidem, H. Ingholt, J. Læssøe, A. al-Qadir at-Tekrîti
Condition
:
periodically flooded by Lake Dukan
Tell
Shemshara is an archaeological site located along the Little Zab
in Sulaymaniyah Governorate, northeastern Iraq. The site was excavated
between 1957 and 1959 by Danish and Iraqi archaeologists and was
inundated by Lake Dukan until recently. The excavations showed that
the site was occupied, although not continuously, from the Hassuna
period (early sixth millennium BCE) until the 14th century CE. A
small archive recovered from the Middle Bronze Age layers (early
second millennium BCE) revealed that, at least in that period, the
site was called Shusharra and was the capital of a small, semi-independent
polity called mat Utêm or "land of the gatekeeper"
ruled by a man called Kuwari.
Archaeology
:
The site was first recorded in 1955 during an archaeological survey
of the Ranya Plain, which was to be flooded by the reservoir of
the planned Dukan Dam. In 1957, a Danish team of archaeologists
started a rescue excavation because the site would be flooded by
Lake Dukan once the Dukan Dam would be finished. The Danish excavation
was directed by Professors Harold Ingholt, who also excavated the
citadel mound of Hama, and Jørgen Læssøe. It
was funded by the Carlsberg Foundation and the Danish Government
Foundation for the Promotion of Research. The excavations were continued
in 1958 and 1959 by Iraqi archaeologists of the State Board of Antiquities
and Heritage (SBAH) under the direction of Abd al-Qadir at-Tekrîti.
The work was never published but a small archive of accounts tables
was found. The excavations have revealed that the site was occupied
at least from the Hassuna period onward and the latest occupation
phase dates to the 12th–14th centuries CE. The objects found
during the Danish excavation were divided between the National Museum
of Iraq and the National Museum of Denmark. So far, the prehistoric
material of the Hassuna layers and the majority of the archives
from the second millennium BCE have been published.
In
2012, teams of the Netherlands Institute for the Near East and the
Central Zagros Archaeological Project (CZAP) conducted new investigations
at the site, as part of a larger archaeological project focussing
on the entire Ranya Plain. High water prevented work in 2016-2017
but in October 2018 levels allowed a short season of work.
The
site and its environment :
Tell Shemshara sits along the Little Zab, a tributary of the Tigris.
Its strategic location in the northeastern corner of the Ranya Plain
in the Zagros Mountains gave Shemshara control over travelling routes
in all directions, particularly toward the north and east. Shemshara
is a tell, or settlement mound, that can be divided in two parts;
a high main mound and an elongated lower mound. The main mound is
60 metres (200 ft) in diameter and 19 metres (62 ft) high, whereas
the lower town is 270 metres (890 ft) long and 6 metres (20 ft)
high. Shemshara is now partially submerged under Lake Dukan. It
has lost 164,000 cubic meters of volume to erosion since 1957 and
at high water levels becomes an island.
Occupation
history :
The excavations at the main mound revealed 16 occupation layers,
ranging in date from the Hassuna period (early sixth millennium
BCE) to the 14th century CE. Layers 16–9 dated to the Hassuna
period. This occupation was characterized by rows of stones that
are interpreted by the excavators as foundations for mudbrick walls,
a pebble floor and a clay basin in the final occupation layer. Pottery,
which has only been found in abundance in layers 13–9, shows
stylistic links with that of Hassuna and Tell es-Sawwan. Obsidian
was the preferred material for stone tools, with flint making up
only 15 percent of the total assemblage. Whereas the flint was procured
locally, the obsidian was obtained from two sources in eastern Turkey
– one as yet unidentified, the other one being the volcanic
Nemrut Dag more than 300 kilometres (190 mi) away from Shemshara.
A unique piece in this assemblage is a dagger of over 35.5 centimetres
(14.0 in) in length, broken in four pieces due to a fire. Other
arti facts that have been found at the site include stone bowls,
bracelets and quern-stones and small objects made of bone. Whereas
the main mound seems to have been abandoned after the Hassuna occupation,
scarce archaeological material from the Uruk (fourth millennium
BCE) and Jemdet Nasr periods (early third millennium BCE) has been
found on the lower town.
Both
the main mound and the lower extension were re-occupied during the
Middle Bronze Age (early second millennium BCE). Layers 8–4
on the main mound can be assigned to this period. The excavations
found a number of graves with bronze weapons on the main mound,
as well as a mudbrick platform. In the lower town, a small part
of a palace was excavated, and in three of its rooms a small archive
of clay tablets was found. The palace was destroyed by fire, and
through analysis of the archive it has been proposed that this happened
in year 30 of the reign of Shamshi-Adad I of Assyria in the first
quarter of the 18th century BCE.
The
archive consisted of 146 clay tablets or fragments thereof, of which
a small part dealt with the administration of the town, whereas
the majority consisted of letters written to a certain Kuwari. Some
fragments were part of the clay envelopes in which these letters
were sent. The texts were written in Akkadian. These texts revealed
that during this period the site was called Shusharra, that it was
the capital of a polity called mat Utêm or "land of the
gatekeeper" and that it was ruled by a man named Kuwari. Chronologically,
the archive can be divided in two parts, one covering the period
during which Shemshara was the capital of a small semi-independent
kingdom, and one covering the period after Kuwari became a vassal
of Shamshi-Adad, who at that time had already conquered Mari and
Shubat-Enlil and was now campaigning in the Zagros Mountains. Together,
these two periods do not last longer than 3 years. The letters in
the Shemshara archive show that during this period, Kuwari had to
deal with Turukkean refugees coming from the east and fleeing a
war with Guteans; events which are also mentioned in the much larger
archives found in Mari on the Syrian Euphrates.
Source
:
https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Tell_Shemshara