Recent Archaeological Activity in Iraq

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Recent Archaeological Activity in Iraq: A Review

Author(s): Jeffery OrchardReviewed work(s):Source: Iraq, Vol. 25, No. 1 (Spring, 1963), pp. 104-109Published by: British Institute for the Study of IraqStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4199735 .

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104

RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICALACTIVITY IN IRAQ:

A REVIEW

ByJEFFERY ORCHARD

T HE latter half of I962 has witnesseda remarkably aried numberof events

includingnot only two rewardingexcavationsby the DirectorateGeneral

of Antiquities and the continuationof its restoration programmeat variousancient sites,' but also the officialopening of the new IraqMuseum,the return

of two distinguishedforeign expeditionsto the field and a festival. If, then,we select the opening of the new Museum to begin this article, it is in thebelief that the completion of that admirable enterprise marks a great andimportantstep not simply towardsthe generaladvancementof Mesopotamianstudies in Iraq and abroad,but equally towards the fuller realizationby theIraqi people of the outstandingmaterialand intellectualachievementsof theirancient forbears. To those, therefore,who have worked for the creation ofthe new building, and to those who have followed its progress it must be asource of great satisfactionthat within the course of the next two years wemayhope to see a greatnationalcollection installedin its new home.

During the first week in December I962, the City of Baghdadcelebratedthe Twelve-hundredthAnniversaryof its foundation by the Abbasid Caliphal-Mansur n 762 A.D. Coupledwith these festivities was the commemorationof the Eleven-hundredthAnniversaryof the death of the famous mediaevalArab philosopher, abu Yusuf Ya'cub ibn-Ishaq al-Kindi, who during the

period of his greatesteminenceresidedin Baghdad. The focal point of thesecelebrationswas a congress,which was attendedat the generous invitationofthe Iraq Governmentby manydistinguishedrepresentativesof foreign states,cities, universities,museumsand academic nstitutions. Among those invited

wasthe School'sVice-Chairman, rofessorM. E. L. Mallowan,who representedthe Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; Professor A. M. Honeyman,representing he Universityof St. Andrews; and ProfessorK. A. C. Creswellour greatauthorityon Muslimarchitecture.In additionto the mainmeetingsat which those participatingdeliveredpaperson themes relatingto Baghdadand to the works of al-Kindi,the CelebrationsExecutive Committeearrangeda varied and lavish programmeof excursions,visits, banquetsand entertain-ments. On the second day of the celebrationsthe newly restoredcollege of

1 I should like here to express my very gratcful thanks to the Director General of Antiquities, Sayid

Taha Baqir and to the Inspector General of Excavations, Sayid Fuad Safar for their kindness in allowing

me to publish this account of the Directoratc's work during June-December, I962, and for generously

providing me with the accompanying photographs.



I05 JEFFERY ORCHARD

al-Mustansiriyahwas the scene of the opening of two exhibitions,one showingbooks and manuscripts concerned with Baghdadand her history, the other

presenting examples of Baghdadi craftsmanship nd artistryboth ancientandmodern.

ProfessorMallowan, n handinga writtenmessageof greetingto the citizensof Baghdad from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge,delivered thefollowing briefaddress romtheplatformat" alShaabHall " on zndDecember,I962:-

" On this memorableoccasionI have the honourto represent he Universitiesof OxfordandCambridge,wo of England'smostancientacademic nstitutions,usually deemed to be rivals in the field of learning,but united in their desireto send greetings to the citizens of Baghdad, and homage to the memory of

its philosopher,Al Kindi.For myown part t is nearly orty yearssinceI began to studythearchaeology

of Western Asia, and all that time I have enjoyed the friendshipof my Iraqicolleagues. More recently,in the last fifteenyears,first at London, and thenat Oxford, I have been happyto teach Archaeologyto a younger generation,among them I am glad to say, students from Iraq,many of whom are workingat our Universities, as well as at other Universities in many parts of theworld.

That is as it should be, as was long ago realisedby Al Kindi himselfwhose

words I ventureto repeat to you, even though they may alreadybe known tomy learnedIslamic colleagues. This is what he said in the most ancientArabicwork on metaphysics,dedicatedto the Calif Mu'tasim,who had entrustedhimwith the education of his son.

'It is fitting ', said Al Kindi, ' to acknowledge the utmost gratitude o thosewho have contributedeven a little to the truth,not to speakof those who havecontributed much . .. We should not be ashamedto acknowledge truth, andto assimilate t from whateversource it comes to us, even if it is brought tous by formergenerationsand foreign peoples. For him who speaksthe truththere is nothing of higher value than the truth itself; it never cheapenshim

or abaseshim who searches for it, but ennobles and honours him!'These words come from the heart of a philosopherwho embracedmany

branchesof knowledge, which had their sources in Greece,in Syria, n Egypt,in Iran, and in India. And his claim to greatnessreliesnot only on his appre-ciation of a more ancient wisdom, it dependsalso on his criticaland originalapproach,which in one fundamentalphilosophicaltenet was at variancewiththe classical, Aristotelean view of creation. His writings marka criticalstagein the history of ideas, and we shall do well to remember to what distantfields he turned n his search or the truth, and how we ourselvesshouldlikewiseprofit on this occasion by opening our minds to colleagues from the most

distantparts of the world.He conceded indeed the superiorityof divine knowledge, but as a natural



RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL ACTIVITY IN IRAQ: A REVIEW Io6

scholarhe insisted that a knowledge of the sensible and immaterialworld hadalso to be acquiredthrough research taleb)and the industryof man.

It must indeed be a matterof pride to you in this countryto reflecthow trulyIraqiAl Kindi was. Born it may be in Basrah,bred in Kufa where his fatherwas Governor,matured,and honouredby successiveCaliphs n the roundcityof Baghdad,he developeda cosmopolitanoutlook in a cosmopolitan city whichwas one of the jewels of oriental architecture.

To an archaeologisteveryfootfall in the olderpartsof Baghdad s asoundingboardfor what lies below. Perhapsone day it may be possible to recovertheoutline of the perimeter,which Mansur s said to have markedout by burningrags in a great circle. And then perhapsit may be possible to reconstitutethese remains and reveal again the glories of some of the ancient Abbasid

brickwork. In so doing who knows if you may not recover the memoryof amore ancientBabylonianBagdadu, and of other lesser cities which the CaliphMansurmust have incorporatedwithin his own.

To conclude, I must finally pay tribute to the devoted labours of the IraqAntiquities Departmentfor the very distinguishedwork that has alreadybeenachieved both in Baghdad and beyond it, through its Director General, itsInspectorGeneralof Antiquities,and theirstaff. And it is you, your Excellency,Dr. Naji al Asil, who have beenpre-eminent n bringingthat sameDepartmentto its high level of attainment,and are now the honoured President of theBaghdad Academy.

We give you, andall

those who have succeeded you, ourheartfeltthanksfor the generous measureof cooperationwhich you have forso long offeredto your foreign colleagues. Allow me, Sir, to present you withthese addresses of congratulationfrom the Universities of Oxford and ofCambridge,andto join with them a messageof high esteem andgreetingsfromthe BritishAcademy,London, which wishes to be associatedwith you in spiritduring this commemoration."

Turningnow to the Directorate'smost recenteffortsin the pursuanceof itscurrent programme for the reclamation and restoration of Iraq's ancientmonuments, special mention may be made of the addition of Samarraand

al-Ukhaidirto the list of prominent sites receiving detailed attention. AtSamarrawork has been concentratedon the removalof earthand brick rubblefrom the interior of the Great Friday Mosque, built by the Abbasid Caliphal-Mutawakkil t a cost, accordingto the geographerYaqut, of 700,000 dinars.In I9II excavationswere carriedout within the vast enclosure by the Germanarchaeologistandorientalist,ErnstHerzfeld,2andlaterbetween 1936 and I940

the walls were the object of judicious restorationby the Directorate. So farduring the Directorate's present operationssome two thirds of the total areaof 45,000 square yards has been cleared,and in the process broad patches ofthe original brickpavementhave been laid bare together with the foundation

I E. Herzfeld, Erster voridufiger erichtuiberdie Ausgrabungenon Samarra,pp. 6-I3.



107 JEFFERY ORCHARD

coursesof the brickpiers which carried he columns supporting the roof. Asyet no restorationof the Mosque has begun, it being intended that this should

await the finalcompletion of clearancework. It is pleasingto note, incidentally,that an iron staircasehas been erected to enablevisitors to ascend to the topof the socle of al-Malwiya,the famous spiral minaretof the Friday Mosque,since hitherto this point could only be reachedby means of uncertain ootholdsin the brickwork.

In deciding to proceed with selective excavation and general clearanceoperationsatal-Ukhaidirduringthe spring and summerof I962, theDirectoratewas motivated by the twofold desire to contributesome further, if possibledecisive, archaeologicalevidence to the still debatedquestion of the dating ofthis fortified desert palace, and at the same time to redeem it as a centre of

major tourist interest. While the latter ambition will of necessity requireseveralmore seasonsto achievefulfilment, t maybe saidthat the resultsof theexcavationshave substantially imited the time-spanwithin which the palaceis likely to have been constructed. For until now, though mainlyacceptingaMuslim attributionfor the building after Miss Gertrude Bell's identificationof the mosquein Igog, authoritieshavediffered n their definitionsof its precisedate by as much as three hundredyears. Brieflysummarized he Directorate'sfindings show firstly that there is no structural evidence to support thesuggestion that the mosque may representa secondary modification of anessentially earlier plan; secondly, that neither the pottery collected duringclearancework nor that obtained in the course of excavation can be datedmuch before the second half of the 8th centuryA.D., being principallycompar-able with wares of that date from the Directorate's excavations in the Daral-Imaraat al-Kufa;and thirdlythatnone of the coins found were earlier hanthe middle-to-lateAbbasid period. This combined evidence, therefore, goesa long way to confirm Creswell's contention, based on strictly architecturalarguments, hatthebuildingshouldbe datedwithin,andmost probably owardsthe end of the eighty years from 720-800 A.D. Unfortunately, he Directoratehas beenunable to offerany specificevidence to support Creswell'singenious

ascriptionof the palaceto Isa ibn Musa, nephew of the Caliphal-Mansur,4ndconsequentlythe authorshipof this magnificentretreatstill remainsanenigma.As regardswork already n progress at other sites, much has been accom-

plishedat 'AqarQuf, Babylon,Tell Harmal,Hatra and Ur. At 'Aqar Quf thereconstructionof the S.E. side of the Ziggurat has been raised still higher

(9 metres),and some furtherclearancework has been carriedout on the S.W.face in preparation or a similartreatmentof that side in the nearfuture. AtTell Harmal the total reconstructionof the two small templessituatedin theeasternangle of the town wall has been virtuallycompleted,and it is planned

3 See most conveniently in K. A. C. Creswell: ASbort Accoun of Early Muslim Architecture,PelicanBooks (1958) pp. 200-201.

boC. Cit. pp.201-5.



PLATE XXVII

_ t _ _ s ~ ~ ~4 --a_

-j

The north-east face of the Ziggurat at Ur as recently restored by the Directorate General

of Antiquities.

.4 I r _ m~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-~-ML~~~~~~~~i

sUtA:_- -% * 1 _-

a~~;_--



PLATE XXVIII

-__ _

A view from the north-east of the great Northernand Southernlwans showing the progressof clearancework in the Temple Area, Hatra.

VM_

Wor in prgeso_h etrto ftenrt alo h otenIa,Hta(Poo ycuts o h rqMsu.



RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL ACTIVITY IN IRAQ: A REVIEW io8

that they should serve as a site museum as well as giving visitors some visualimpressionof the original architectureof this Old Babyloniansite. It is also

noteworthy that the entire area of the ancient town has been enclosed by aprotective iron fence.

Due to severallong seasons of devoted work by the Directorateat Babylon,the areas flankingthe " ProcessionalWay " as it approachesthe Ishtar Gatehave now taken on a totallynew aspect. The latest and most dramaticadditionto this sectorof the sitehas been the completerestorationof E.makh,the templeof the goddess Nin.makh,situated to the S.E. of the Ishtar Gate. Resurrectedupon the stumpsof the ancientwallswith mud brick manufactured n the spotto the originaldimensions,the building has been handsomelycoated with mudplasterandits cella,passagesandsubsidiary hambersroofed over with wooden

beams and reed matting. The result has been to recreate most impressivelythe atmosphereof a Babylonian emple,albeitstrippedof its treasure,worship-persand mediatingpriesthood. To illumine the darkerrecessesof the buildingthe Directoratehas already nstalled the wiring for electriclighting concealedin modernreplicasof the temple'spotterylamps. Without any doubt E.makhis one of the Directorate's most remarkable estorationachievementsto date.

At Ur workhasnow been startedon the restorationof the E.kharsagbuildingbelonging to the beginning of the IlIrd Dynasty period, and this project isproceedingconcurrentlywith the repairsalready aradvancedon the Ziggurat.The Directoratealso hopes

duringthe courseof the

presentseasonto reinforcethe structure of the IlIrdDynasty Royal Mausolea.Two more protractedseasons at Hatrahave producedstill more remarkable

feats in the clearanceand restoration of this superbsite. In particularmuchcare and effort has been expendedon the structuralconsolidationand refacingof the towering walls of the Great SouthernIwan, which on the north sideat least had seemed in imminentdangerof collapse. An attemptis now beingmade to reconstruct the enormous arched vault which formerlyspannedthebuilding. Behind the GreatIwan the so-called" FireTemple" has beenclearedof earth and fallen masonrytogether with its narrow surroundingcorridor.

All fallen blocks have been put on one side for subsequentre-usein the con-struction of the temple's originalvaulted roof. It is especiallyinterestingtoobserve that a notable series of statues was recovered from the temple andcorridor,four of which representedroyal personnages. Only two, however,could be certainly dentifiedfrom their Aramaic nscriptions,and these provedto be SenatruqI and SenatruqII. Debris has also been removed from thetemple marked " C " on Andrae'splan, which on the most recent evidencewas very probablydedicatedto Shulman,a West Semiticdeity. On the southside of the Temple Area the enclosure wall has been totally dismantled,sincein places it was leaning dangerouslyoutwards and in others the masonryhad

wholly given way. The blocks were carefullynumberedupon removal andwill be re-usedeventuallywhen the wall is rebuilt.



IO9 JEFFERY ORCHARD

In Baghdadmore strikimgprogress has been made with the restorationof

the carved brickworkof al-Mustansiriyah,he college founded by the Caliph

Mustansir n I232 A.D. Following the Governmentappropriationof the smallshops which had been cut in the thicknessof the college's outer walls, it hasnow been possible to brick these up and to restorethe beautifulIwan at the

northern end of the building. This Iwan is the only surviving part of the

celebratedDar al-Quran,reputedthe most importantsection of the College.Further, the additionaldiscoveryof substantialremainsof the foundationsof

the Dar al-Quranbeneaththe modem Siiq has encouragedthe Directorateto

enterinto negotiationsfor the demolitionof the nearbyal-AsifiMosque,which

is similarlybuilt over partof the area originallycovered by the Dar al-Quran,the aim being to extend excavationsand restorationto that quarteralso.

In two statementsreleased to the Iraq News Agency in July and SeptemberI962, the Directorateannouncedsome of the results of its recentexcavations

at Tell al-Dhiba'i. The mound is situatedin New Baghdadin the Karradah

al-Sharqiyahquarter,close by the side of the new Army Canal,and was the

scene of earlierexcavationsby the Directoratein I947.5 Together with Tell

Hlarmalwhich lies some 2-3 km. to the south, Tell al-Dhiba'i belongs to a

group of mounds of varying size enclosed within the angle formed by the

River Diyala and the Eastern Bund. From the earlier excavations it was

ascertained hatat Tell al-Dhiba'ithere exists a sequenceof occupationsdating

from the Agade period to early Kassite times. The recent excavations have,however, concentratedon the examinationof the Old Babylonian evels where

a number of public and private buildings have been studied, in particulara

templethelatestphaseof whichwas discoveredand excavated n 1947.6 Among

the Directorate'sfinds in these levels specialmention may be made of a con-

siderable number of tablets, including important mathematicaltexts, com-

mercialand legal contracts, etters and administrativedocuments.In conclusion we are happyto recordthe resumptionof work both by the

GermanWarkaExpeditionled by ProfessorH. J. Lenzenandby the American

Nippur Expeditionled by Mr. R. C. Haines. Besidestheir normal programme

of excavationsat Warka,the membersof the GermanExpeditioncarriedouta short preliminary eason at Babylonin the areaof the Ziggurat,where theyhoped to find some evidence of the pre-Neo-Babylonianphases of the temple

tower. At Nippur the AmericanExpedition has followed up its successful

examinationof the EarlyDynastic InannaTemple in I96o-6I7 by a compara-tively short season of exploratorywork in the surroundingareasprior to a

majoreffortin I963-64.

6 M. A. Mustafa: " Soundings at Tell Al Dhiba'i ",

SumerV (I949), Pt. 2, pp. 173-586, figs. I-4, pls. I-VI.' M. A. Mustafa: loc. cit. pp. 176-7, fig. 3, pl. I B.7 R. C. Haines: " A Report of the Excavations

at Nippur during 196o-6x ", SsowerXVII (1961), pp.

67-70, photos. 1-I2; and also D. P. Hansen & G. F.Dales: Arehaeolog i5 (1962), No. 2, pp. 75-84, figs-

'-'4.

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Recent Archaeological Activity in Iraq