On Some Peculiar Terracotta Nails Found in Amyan (Kurdistan Region of Iraq)

Abstract

In 2019, three fragments of terracotta nails were discovered at the site of Amyan (Kurdistan region of Iraq, Duhok Governorate), probably dated to the second half of the second millennium B.C. Typologically unprecedented, they nonetheless belong to the well-known category of nails found throughout Mesopotamia and Susiana, dating from the fourth to first millennia B.C. This article publishes the nails from Amyan and also contextualises them by comparing them to other terracotta nails found in northern Mesopotamia and dated to the second half of the second millennium B.C. By doing so, I ultimately propose an initial typology of these objects.