An Open Gate: Cities of the Fourth Millennium BC (Tell Brak 1997)

The Uruk Expansion: Culture Contact, Ideology and Middlemen

“…The urban centre of Tell Brak has also produced evidence of administrative technology where symbols have been used for accounting. All of this pre-dated the earliest findings of the equivalents in south Mesopotamia (Mallowan 1947, D. Oates 1985:164, Jasim & Oates 1986, Ball et al1989, Oates & Oates 1997, Emberling et al 1998:1, Emberling & McDonald 2001:21-23, Frangipane 2001, Gibson et al 2002, Rothman 2002, Ur 2002:393-401, Akkermans & Schwartz 2004, Oates 2004a, 2004b). The finds contested earlier anticipations of irrigation agriculture as a prerequisite for hierarchical power (Wittfogel 1964(Wittfogel [1957:12) and its importance for the Hansen (1965Hansen ( [1954), J. , Akkermans (1988), Schwartz (1988Schwartz ( , 2001, Ball et al (1989:31-32, figs 19-21), Weiss (1991:688), Oates & Oates (1993:170-174), Lupton (1996), Rova (1996Rova ( , 2003aRova ( , 2003b, Stein et al (1996:213-220), Nissen (2001), Rothman (2001Rothman ( : 2002, table 1.1), Gibson et al (2002), Ur (2002Ur ( , 2010, Ball & Wilkinson (2003), Emberling & McDonald (2003:3-12), Mayo & Weiss (2003), Numoto (2003), …”

Surface collection and offsite studies at Tell Hamoukar, 1999

“…The earliest occupation of Tell Hamoukar detected by the surface collection is characterized by the ceramic assemblage best known from Tepe Gawra levels XIA-IX (Tobler 1950). It has been referred to as the Middle to Late Gawra period (Porada et al 1992), the Northern Early Uruk period (Oates and Oates 1997), the Late Chalcolithic II (Tomita 1998b), or the LC2 period (Algaze et al 1998). A few sherds of this period were recovered from the southern end of the mounded lower town, but their greatest occurrence is in the fields south of the mounded site proper (Fig.…”

“…10) are best paralleled at Tepe Gawra in levels XIA-IX (Tobler 1950), Qalinj Agha (Hijara 1973) and Tell al-Hawa Trench LP . In the Khabur Basin such ceramics are characteristic of Area TW level 18 at Tell Brak (Oates and Oates 1997, "Northern Early Uruk"), and early Phase 2 at Tell Umm Qseir (Tomita 1998a). However, it is possible that occupation began slightly earlier, in the terminal Ubaid or Ubaid-Uruk transitional period.…”

“…Assuming the sherd distribution represents actual settlement, if one simply applies the standard 100 to 200 persons per hectare figure, it would produce a population estimate ranging between 28,000 and 56,000 persons! Although scholars are beginning to reveal previously unrecognized levels of indigenous complexity in 4th millennium Northern Mesopotamia (Stein 1999;Oates and Oates 1997;Emberling et al 1999;Rothman 1994), few would be willing to postulate a level of social complexity capable of administering and provisioning a settlement of that size at this period in time, ourselves included. Two interpretations of the southern extension of Tell Hamoukar can be offered at present.…”

Early Mesopotamian urbanism: a new view from the north

“…The earliest and almost certainly the largest of the recently excavated non-residential buildings was identified some 11m below the surface of the tell in what is now designated TW Level 20 (Figure 4). Here, in the south-east corner of the excavations, the then 10 × 20m trench literally cut across the north-west corner of a clearly important building of totally unknown type (Oates & Oates 1997). This small corner contained a massive entrance with towers on either side and an enormous doorsill consisting of a single piece of basalt, 1.85 × 1.52m in area and 29cm thick, a type of stone not native to the open steppe in which Tell Brak is situated.…”