Tell Maghzaliyah (Tell Maghzalia), in Nineveh Governorate,

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

, is a prehistoric fortified

aceramic Aceramic is defined as "not producing pottery". In archaeology, the term means "without pottery". Aceramic societies usually used bark, basketry, gourds and leather for containers. It is sometimes used to refer to a specific early Neolithic perio ...

Mesolithic and

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...

site located approximately 7.5 km northwest of

Yarim Tepe Yarim Tepe is an archaeological site of an early farming settlement that goes back to about 6000 BC. It is located in the Sinjar valley some 7km southwest from the town of Tal Afar in northern Iraq. The site consists of several hills reflecting t ...

, with which it shows some similarities. It is situated near the Abra River, a tributary of the Habur River, which eventually drains into the Euphrates River. Tell Maghzaliyah shows the development of pre-

Hassuna culture The Hassuna culture is a Neolithic archaeological culture in northern Mesopotamia dating to the early sixth millennium BC. It is named after the type site of Tell Hassuna in Iraq. Other sites where Hassuna material has been found include Tell ...

. There are also numerous connections to the Jarmo culture going back to 7000 BCE.

Archaeology

The site is approximately 4500 square meters in area, and the depth of deposit is approximately 8 meters. It was excavated during 12 seasons between 1969 and 1980 on the Sinjar Plain, by a Soviet team from the Institute of Archaeology, Academy of Sciences led by R. M. Munchaev and N. Ya. Merpert with N.O. Bader. The original village housed approximately 150 people. It was more suited to hunting and gathering, than to long-standing agriculture. Archeological evidence includes

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and sta ...

flakes and

debitage In archaeology, debitage is all the material produced during the process of lithic reduction – the production of stone tools and weapons by knapping stone. This assemblage may include the different kinds of lithic flakes and lithic blades, bu ...

, along with evidence of semi-permanent settlement, including houses and utilitarian structures. Permanent settlement remains indicate pisé walls and stone foundations. The clay used for construction was apparently imported from other locations, as the primary natural stratigraphy is

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

loam. In its final phase the site was circled by a wall with massive stone facing. The excavators estimated a total of 15 building levels at the site, each with an average thickness of 50–60 cm. The assemblage suggests a tightly packed settlement, occupied continuously over its existence.

Early metallurgy

A hammered copper ‘awl’ (or a chisel) was found on the floor of one of the houses. Other early sites with metal are also

Ali Kosh Ali Kosh is a small Tell of the Early Neolithic period located in Ilam Province in west Iran, in the Zagros Mountains. It was excavated by Frank Hole and Kent Flannery in the 1960s. Site The site is about 135 m in diameter. Research has foun ...

in lowland Iran, and Tol-e Nurabad and

Tepe Sialk Tepe Sialk ( fa, تپه سیلک) is a large ancient archeological site (a ''tepe'', "hill, tell") in a suburb of the city of Kashan, Isfahan Province, in central Iran, close to Fin Garden. The culture that inhabited this area has been linked t ...

in the Iranian

Zagros Mountains The Zagros Mountains ( ar, جبال زاغروس, translit=Jibal Zaghrus; fa, کوه‌های زاگرس, Kuh hā-ye Zāgros; ku, چیاکانی زاگرۆس, translit=Çiyakani Zagros; Turkish: ''Zagros Dağları''; Luri: ''Kuh hā-ye Zāgr ...

. Also in the Iranian Zagros, near

Marvdasht Marvdasht ( fa, مرودشت, also romanized as Marv Dasht) is a city and the capital of Marvdasht County, Fars Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 123,858, in 29,134 families. Name Some historians hold that Marvdasht was ...

, are located the sites of Tall-i Mushki, and Tall-i Jari showing evidence of early metallurgy. All these settlements date to the late 7th/early 6th millennia BC.

Archaeology

Early metallurgy

See also

References

Further reading