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MOUNDS OF THE NEAR EAST f Mounds of the Near East surveys the course and development of archaeological research in Iraq, Syria and Anatolia during its most formative years, in war. particular since the end of the 1914-18 From 1929 until 1961 the author played a central role in that development. This as a gives the book added importance, primary source. Furthermore, Professor Seton Lloyd sets out to explain and to defend the methods adopted by to resolve archaeologists in the Near East the peculiar problems of excavating mud-brick mounds, and to show that this is a specialised form of archaeology, which requires specialised training. This makes for stimulating reading, particularly for those trained in the belief that the techniques applicable to classical archaeology in Europe have universal validity. f The author is Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology in the University of London, and, from 1946 to 1961, was Director of the British Institute of Archaeology, Ankara, f The drawing on the cover is of the largest j of the *worshipper statues discovered in the excavation of Tell Asmar. EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS / George Square, Edinburgh 8 ALDINE PUBLISHING COMPANY 64 East Van Buren Street^ Chicago 30s. net. $6,00 MOUNDS OF THE NEAR EAST SETON LLOYD EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS SETON LLOYD 1963 THE EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS GEORGE SQUARE EDINBURGH 8 U.S. & CANADIAN AGENT ALDINE PUBLISHING COMPANY EAST VANBUREN STREET, CHICAGO I 64 5 SET IN SPECTRUM AND PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS BY JOH.ENSCHEDE EN ZONEN / HAARLEM PREFACE work of this calibre merits the dignity of a dedication, it is to my fellowworkers of several nationalities in the field of Near Eastern archaeology that it should be directed, in affection and intermittent nostalgia. Their names in these with a is which in appear pages frequency proportion to my ad miration for their ability. The substance of the book was given in the Rhind Lectures for 1962, and I am grateful to the University of Edinburgh for the opportunity to artic ulate the views which it contains. In particular, I am indebted to two Edinburgh scholars, Professors D. Talbot Rice and Stuart Piggott for their encouragement, while exonerating them from any complicity in the ex pression of my opinions. Among those to whom my thanks are due for permission to use illustrations are The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, The Iraq Government Directorate General of Antiquities, the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara and the Clarendon Press. If a University of London, Institute of Archaeology, SETON LLOYD 1963. KANSAS CITY (MO.) PUBLIC LIBRARY (o-oo 654 73 OS CONTENTS Introduction Pag 6 Mound Formation and Excavation 9 Chapter i Chapter 2: Mesopotamian Methods 29 Chapter 3: South 48 : Chapter 4: North Iraq: Sumerian Sites Mounds Iraq: Prehistoric 5 : Excavations in Anatolia Chapter 6 : Finding and Choosing Chapter Index Mounds 13 65 79 97 115 LIST OF PLATES Figure Figure i. 2. AND FIGURES Diagram of mound formations Diagram of building levels Old on mound. 1. Erbil: 2. Stepped sounding city at Sultantepe. Mound and 3. Sultantepe: 4. Mersin: Excavations in Yumiik Tepe. 5.