This article is about the archaeological site in Iraq. For the archaeological site in Iran, see Yarim Tepe (Iran).
Yarim Tepe on the map of the Middle East during Chalcolithic age (centre)
Yarim Tepe is an archaeological site of an early farming settlement that goes back to about 6000 BC. It is located in the Sinjar valley some 7km southwest from the town of Tal Afar in northern Iraq. The site consists of several hills reflecting the development of the Hassuna culture, and then of the Halaf and Ubaid cultures.
The settlement was investigated between 1969 and 1976, and later by the Soviet archaeological expedition under the leadership of Rauf Munchaev and Nikolai Merpert.[1]
Yarim Tepe excavations
Painted vessel figurine of a nude woman from Yarim Tepe II settlement. Halaf culture, 5th millennium BCE. Iraq MuseumPainted pottery jar from Yarim Tepe. Halaf culture, 5th millennium BCE. Iraq MuseumPainted pottery goblet from Yarim Tepe. Halaf culture, 5th millennium BCE. Iraq Museum
Yarim Tepe I
The hill known as Yarim-Tepe I belongs to Hassuna culture. The high central, oval-shaped core is 80 meters long and 30 meters wide. Some objects found here are reminiscent of those of Tureng Tepe in Iran.
13 building layers are found here, reflecting the main stages of this culture. The cultural level is 6.5 m deep. There are more than 1500 rectangular furnaces and ceramic ovens used for cooking. The earliest known kiln, dating to around 6000 BC, was found here.[2]
The village had courtyards and small streets with rectangular mud-brick buildings. There were also public granaries. Burials of children in vessels were found, as well as various stone utensils, such as stone crushers, and hacksaws.
The findings also include ceramic vases, female clay figurines, and other items.
Metal items were also found, such as a lead bracelet, copper beads, as well as copper ore, which represents some of the oldest metallurgy in Mesopotamia.[3]
Bovine bones were also found.
Yarim Tepe II
Yarim Tepe II is a settlement of the Halafian culture, belonging to the fifth millennium BC. It is located 250 m west of Yarim Tepe I, and is partly eroded by the nearby brook Joubara Diariasi.[4] Almost all of the dwellings are small one-room mud brick houses of the tholos plan.
The cultural level is 7 m deep, and it consists of ten structural horizons. The bones of both domestic and wild animals were found, among them the bones of sheep, ox, goats, and pigs.
Ceramic figured vessels in the shape of elephants and women were found among other pottery. Some ceramic containers have pictures of fish, birds, gazelles and other animals on them.
Some pendant seals were also discovered, including a very old copper seal.
The burial customs included cremations, and the burials of skulls[5]
Yarim Tepe III
Yarim Tepe III is located right next to Yarim Tepe II. The hill is 10 m high. The pottery is typical for Northern Ubaid and Halaf. It was excavated in 1978-79.[6]
At least three Ubaid building levels are found here on top of several Halaf levels. The uppermost levels of the Halaf cultural deposits are analogous to the Arpachiyah levels TT-6 to TT-8, and Tepe Gawra levels XVIII-XX. Three stone seal-pendants have also been found.
In 1985, Narimanov made comparisons between the Chaff-Faced Ware from Leyla-Tepe and the evidence from Yarim Tepe III. He believed that these parallels were due to the migration of some Ubaid culture representatives into Transcaucasia in the first half of the 4th millennium BC.[7]
Metallurgy
Metal was already quite common at Yarim Tepe; as many as 21 examples of worked copper or copper ore were found in the lower levels of the settlement.[8]
Even more remarkably, the earliest use of lead is also documented.
"The earliest lead (Pb) finds in the ancient Near East are a 6th millennium BC bangle from Yarim Tepe in northern Iraq and a slightly later conical lead piece from Halaf period Arpachiyah, near Mosul.[9] As native lead is extremely rare, such artifacts raise the possibility that lead smelting may have begun even before copper smelting."[10][11]
Kul Tepe (Iraq)
Kul Tepe (Iraq) is a related site located about 6km due west from Yarim tepe. Two mounds there (Kultepe I, and Kultepe II) have been excavated. The lowest level of Kultepe I contains material of Sotto type (from nearby Tell Sotto), and above it there is archaic Hassuna materials.[12]
The lowest level also contains three high quality marble vessels, with parallels at Tell es-Sawwan and Umm Dabaghiyah.
↑ Merpert N. Ya. 1993. The archaic phase of the Hassuna culture. In N. Yoffee, J. J. Clark (eds.), Early stages in the evolution of Mesopotamian civilization. Soviet excavations in Northern Iraq. The University of Arizona Press, Arizona: 115–127
↑ Piotr Bienkowski; Alan Millard (15 April 2010). Dictionary of the Ancient Near East. University of Pennsylvania Press. p.233. ISBN978-0-8122-2115-2.
↑ I. Narimanov (1985), Обеидские племена Месопотамии в Азербайджане. Тез. Всесоюз. архолог. конфер. Баку (The Mesopotamian tribes of Azerbaijan. Proc. All-Union. archeolog. confer. Baku): 271
Natalia Petrova, A technological study of Hassuna culture ceramics (Yarim Tepe I settlement). Documenta Praehistorica XXXIX (2012)
Yarim Tepe I. In N. Yoffee, J. J. Clark (eds.), Early stages in the evolution of Mesopotamian civilization. Soviet excavations in Northern Iraq. The University of Arizona Press, Arizona: 73–114 (1972, 1993 reprint) ISBN0816513937.
Merpert N. Ya. 1993. The archaic phase of the Hassuna culture. In N. Yoffee, J. J. Clark (eds.), Early stages in the evolution of Mesopotamian civilization. Soviet excavations in Northern Iraq. The University of Arizona Press, Arizona: 115–127.
Munchaev R. M., Merpert N. Ya.1981. Earliest Agricultural Settlements of Northern Mesopotamia. Nauka Press. Moscow. (in Russian)
Merpert, Nikolai I., and Rauf M. Munchaev. 1987. “The Earliest Levels at Yarim Tepe I and Yarim Tepe II in Northern Iraq.” Iraq 49:1–37
Merpert, Nikolai I., and Rauf M. Munchaev. 1973. “Early Agricultural Settlement in the Sinjar Plain, Northern Iraq.” Iraq 35:97–113
The Chalcolithic was an archaeological period characterized by the increasing use of smelted copper. It followed the Neolithic and preceded the Bronze Age. It occurred at different periods in different areas, but was absent in some parts of the world, such as Russia, where there was no well-defined Copper Age between the Stone and Bronze ages. Stone tools were still predominantly used during this period.
The Ubaid period 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 Woolley.
Tell Hassuna is a tell, or settlement mound, in the Nineveh Province (Iraq), about 35km south-west of Nineveh. It is the type site for the Hassuna culture.
The history of Mesopotamia ranges from the earliest human occupation in the Paleolithic period up to Late antiquity. This history is pieced together from evidence retrieved from archaeological excavations and, after the introduction of writing in the late 4th millennium BC, an increasing amount of historical sources. While in the Paleolithic and early Neolithic periods only parts of Upper Mesopotamia were occupied, the southern alluvium was settled during the late Neolithic period. Mesopotamia has been home to many of the oldest major civilizations, entering history from the Early Bronze Age, for which reason it is often called a cradle of civilization.
Tepe Gawra is an ancient Mesopotamian settlement 15 miles NNE of Mosul in northwest Iraq that was occupied between 5000 and 1500 BC. It is roughly a mile from the site of Nineveh and 2 miles E of the site of Khorsabad. It contains remains from the Halaf period, the Ubaid period, and the Uruk period. Tepe Gawra contains material relating to the Halaf-Ubaid Transitional period c. 5,500–5,000 BC.
In the archaeology of Southwest Asia, the Late Neolithic, also known as the Ceramic Neolithic or Pottery Neolithic, is the final part of the Neolithic period, following on from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic and preceding the Chalcolithic. It is sometimes further divided into Pottery Neolithic A (PNA) and Pottery Neolithic B (PNB) phases.
The Halaf culture is a prehistoric period which lasted between about 6100 BC and 5100 BC. The period is a continuous development out of the earlier Pottery Neolithic and is located primarily in the fertile valley of the Khabur River, of south-eastern Turkey, Syria, and northern Iraq, although Halaf-influenced material is found throughout Greater Mesopotamia.
The Samarra culture is a Late Neolithic archaeological culture of northern Mesopotamia, roughly dated to between 5500 and 4800 BCE. It partially overlaps with Hassuna and early Ubaid. Samarran material culture was first recognized during excavations by German Archaeologist Ernst Herzfeld at the site of Samarra. Other sites where Samarran material has been found include Tell Shemshara, Tell es-Sawwan, and Yarim Tepe.
Kültəpə is a settlement dating from the Neolithic, a village and municipality in the Babek District of Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan. It has a population of 1,859.
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The Hassuna culture is a Neolithic archaeological culture in northern Mesopotamia dating to the early sixth millennium BC. It is named after the type site of Tell Hassuna in Iraq. Other sites where Hassuna material has been found include Tell Shemshara.
Choga Mami is a Samarran settlement site in Diyala province in Eastern Iraq in the Mandali region. It shows the first canal irrigation in operation at about 6000 BCE.
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Tell Maghzaliyah, in Nineveh Governorate, Iraq, is a prehistoric fortified aceramic Mesolithic and Neolithic site located approximately 7.5 km northwest of Yarim Tepe, with which it shows some similarities. It is situated near the Abra River, a tributary of the Habur River, which eventually drains into the Euphrates River. Tell Maghzaliyah shows the development of pre-Hassuna culture. There are also numerous connections to the Jarmo culture going back to 7000 BCE.
The Halaf-Ubaid Transitional period or HUT is a prehistoric period of Mesopotamia. It lies chronologically between the Halaf period and the Ubaid period. It is still a complex and rather poorly understood period. At the same time, recent efforts were made to study the gradual change from Halaf style pottery to Ubaid style pottery in various parts of North Mesopotamia.
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