Doubts about the Two-Lobed Burial and the Survival of Early Dynastic to Akkadian Transitional Building Levels in Area wf at Nippur

Abstract

“Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.”J. K. Galbraith“The complex sequence of burials, labelled Burial 14, involved inhumation of more than seven individuals. Initially, during excavation, the entire sequence was thought to comprise a single, multichambered tomb. But reconsideration of the stratigraphy and grave contents made it apparent that there were three separate burial phases.” With this honest admission McGuire Gibson and Augusta McMahon started their description of this strange burial complex. Their interpretation of the excavation led them to propose that one of the burial phases consisted of a two-lobed chamber containing the remains of three individuals (called Skeletons 2, 3, and 4). In this article I will suggest that this burial phase should be subdivided into at least two phases, an “Early Dynastic (ED)” burial containing Skeleton 3 and a “Late Akkadian” burial containing Skeleton 2. The dating of Skeleton 4 is uncertain but most probably it should also date to the Akkadian period.There are three reasons for suggesting this: first, the finds associated with Skeleton 2 appear to be considerably later than those associated with Skeleton 3; second, the two-lobed shape of the burial can be more easily explained as the result of several graves dug into each other than as the result of a single burial; and third, burials of three individuals in one grave at the same time are very uncommon in southern Mesopotamia in the second half of the third millennium BC.