Some Late Early Dynastic III Pottery from Tell Brak

Abstract

It is with the greatest pleasure that I dedicate this brief article to Professor Seton Lloyd, an archaeologist of enormous distinction, and one whom I am pleased and honoured to call friend, whose work in Iraq still forms the basis for all prehistoric interpretation.Well-dated ceramic materials are rare, even in the archaeology of the historic periods in Mesopotamia. In particular the third millennium remains imprecisely documented, especially in the north. It is for this reason that I present here a preliminary report on the pottery from the Late ED III destruction level at Tell Brak. Seldom can pottery of such early provenance be so precisely dated. There can be no doubt that this level represents the initial Agade conquest of the north, and the vessels published here comprise the complete or reconstructable pots found in situ on the floors of major buildings in areas CH and ER destroyed at this time (Pls. VIIIb, IXb, XVIa, b). In both areas many of the vessels contained cereals and other food substances, and it is from these well-stratified deposits that the radiocarbon samples have been obtained.