The Excavations at Nimrud (Kalḫu), 1961

Abstract

The eleventh season of excavations at Nimrud opened on March 2nd, 1961; full-scale operations ended on May 5th, but a small party continued the extraction and conservation of the ivories for a further two weeks. The expedition was generously supported by contributions from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Royal Ontario Museum, Canada, the University of Pennsylvania, the British Museum, Les Musées Royales d'Art et d'Histoire, Brussels, the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, the University of Sydney, the University of Cambridge, and the Iraq Petroleum Company. I must once again express my gratitude to all the members of the staff. Miss Barbara Parker, in her tenth season as epigraphist and photographer, shared the epigraphic work with Mr. James Kinnier Wilson, Lecturer in Assyriology at Cambridge University, and Mr. Alan Millard; Mr. Jeffery Orchard catalogued the ivories and other finds, Mr. Nicholas Kindersley was in charge of the pottery, and Miss Charmian Reed and Mr. Eric von Gericke undertook the cleaning and treatment of the ivories. In addition, we were fortunate to have the experienced help of Dr. Vaughn E. Crawford of the Metropolitan Museum of Art during the latter part of the season, both in the field work and the photography. The quantity of ivories found was as great, and the body of inscribed material greater and more complex, than in previous seasons; that we were able at the same time to plan and record a large area of Fort Shalmaneser, yielding important historical evidence, reflects the ability and industry of my colleagues in their special fields, and their versatility in sharing the varied general duties of the dig. We must also record our thanks, for their constant and cordial cooperation, to the Director General of Antiquities, Sayid Taha Baqir, and his staff, to the Inspector General of Excavations, Sayid Fuad Safar, and to Sayid Selim al Jelili, now Inspector of Antiquities in Mosul Province, who spent his third season with us as representative of the Directorate General and as a valued member of the expedition.