Ancient Mesopotamian Materials and Industries: The Archaeological Evidence

~

ANCIENT % MESOPOTAMIAN MATERIALS AND INDUSTRIES The Archaeological Evidence

P. R.

s.

Moorey

CLARENDON PRESS, OXFORD 1994

o

vtD~l

t\

UNDE Oxford University Press, WallO" Sireel, Oxford Oxford New York Toronto Delhi Bombay Co/clitia Madras Karachi Kuala Lumpur Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo Nairobi Dar es Salaam Cape TOWII

PREFACE

OX2 60p

Me/hOI/me Auckland MadrM alld associated companies in Berlin lbadan Oxford is a trade mark. of Oxford University Press Published in the United States by Oxford University Press [IIC, New York.

©

P. S. Moorey 1994

All riRllts res{'fved. No part of Ihis publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmit/ed, in (lny form or by (IllY meam, Wilhollt the prior permission in wriling of Oxford University Pre.u. Wi/hin the UK, exceptiom are allowed in respect of any Iflir 7). Generally they were made by breaking a sheep or goat metapoidal, then splitting one of the pieces lengthwise or cutting it obliquely some distance below the articulation. Normally the articular end served as the butt, whilst the other end was sharpened for use. Even more common and various were the slighter awls made from slivcrs of hone, abraded or whittled at one end to provide a point. They were given baked clay or bitumen handles (cf. Lloyd and Safar 1945: pI. X. 2; Mallowan '935: pI. Xlla; Tobler '950: pis. XCIXa: " XCVIIIb: 5; Perkins '949: 85, '49; Woolley '956: '9 1, pI. '5: U.18477). Less easily classified are a heterogeneous range of bone points and gouges. They, and awls, arC intermittently reported through the historic periods at Nippur (McCown '967' [()I-z). In the absence of full publication it is not yet clear what tools were involved in Frankfort's remark about the third-millennium BC private houses at Tell Asmar, 'bone objects . .. must also have been in common household use, for they were found in great numbers'. This contrasts instructively with their general rarity in the many graves of the late prehistoric and Early Dynastic periods now published. Bone needles arc an equally ancient and persistent tool from the earliest villages (cf. Watson '983: 351) through to the end of the prehistoric period at least (cL Mackay 1931: 268, pI. LXXI: '-7). Needles were among the earliest tools to appear in copper and copper alloys (as indeed were nne awls; d. Tallon 11)87: i. 1t)23). The persistence of bone needles into historic times

113

is less easily traced; but it is likely that they remained current in view of the relative value of metal. As Woolley (1934: 310, pI. 231) appropriately observed, 'needles are rare, probably because they were out of place in a grave'; they are also amongst the most vulnerable of bone tools. It is not easy to document the use of bone for knives, though Woolley (1956: 82) reported 'a knife or wand made from an ox rib, the end rounded, the blade flattened and roughly shaped', in a late prehistoric or Early Dynastic context. More enigmatically, in a very early level of the Hassuna period settlement at Yarim Tepe I, the excavators reported 'an ox shoulder blade with a system of incisions . .. possibly indicating some form of reckoning' (Merpert and Munchaev 1987' 15). Little exactitude may be brought to bear upon bone 'polishers' and 'burnishers', reported from time to time, in relation to pottery-making. No less obscure is the role of bone tools in textile manufacture, where they have traditionally been thought particularly appropriate. On the rare occasions when they have been published, the identity of bone spindle-whorls is usually clear (cf. Starr 1939: 488; 1937' pI. 127FF); but not so that of various

spa/ulae. Spa/ulae appear among the earliest bone tools, sometimes perforated at one end (d. Shemshara: Mortensen '970: fig. 49d) or elsewhere; they were usually made from rib bones. Their range of shape and size, and their survival into historic times, is intermittently evident (cf. McCown 1967' 107-8). This is one of the rare instances among bone tools where a distinctive form becomes recurrent at a later date. A group of spa/ulae with one rounded and one sharply pointed end emerged both in Syria (Doyen 1986: 47 ft.: 'lissoirs') and in Mesopotamia (cf. Reuther '926: 32 ff., fig. 40: 'Knochenfedem'; Langdon '924: pI. XXIX.', centre; McCown 1967: 1'1. 154: 3) in the second quarter of the first millennium He, and is still reported centuries later (cf. Huot ef al. '987: '77, pI. 43': I). Their function has yet to be firmly established. Reuther (1926: 32-3) thought they might be 'forks' for eating; some have associated them with the appearance of linear scripts written on tablets with a point rather than a cut reed (cf. Moorey '978: microfiche I: C(6); recently Doyen ('986: 49) associated their apparently sudden appearance and then widespread use with a role in the newly introduced manufacture of cotton, though in form they are neither closely related to the Roman spatha nor to a weaving comb. Beek ('990) has argued that their 'carefully smoothed and polished' form could be used to remove foreign matter from the eye. Bone makes good handles, since it has a natural socket especially suitable for the tang of metal weapons and tools, or mirrors. It served this role from a very early date, long before the appearance of metal, though at present there arc no bone handles from Mesopota-

114

WORKING WITH BONE, IVORY, AND SHELL

mia to compare with the fine polished and carved sickle·

handles of Natufian Palestine; local equivalents are less elegant (cf. Watson 1983: fig. 143: 1-3). In the Hassuna period at Tell Shemshara distinctive lancet-shaped handles in bone were split at each end on the underside

to take chipped obsidian or flint blades (Mortensen 1970: 58, fig. 49a-c). Bone fittings appropriate for knife-handles or for the inlay plates of metal flangehilted daggers and knives (cf. Moorey 1971: 74) are still rare in archaeological reports, but appear both in the

second (d. Starr 1939: 488; 1937: pI. 127EE) and the first millennium BC (d. Koldewey 1914: 270, fig. 194). The handles of the earliest cylinder seals were at times carved in stone closely resembling in shape the distal end of a goat or sheep metapoidal (cf. Boehmer and Dammer 1985' 138, fig. 4), which would seem at times to have been used for the purpose. Anatolian evidence suggests that bone might have

HlPPOPOTAMUS IVORY

this time at Assur than isolated published illustrations reveal (Haller 1954: 99, pI. 20C). At Nippur bone pins are intermittently reported from the later third millennium to the Neo-Babylonian period (McCown 1967' IOO, pI. 152). It is difficult to assess the use of bone for combs (d. Curtis 1983a, fig. I), as 'ivory' combs attract more attention in reports (see below).

From the earliest village settlements, as is well illustrated at Jarmo (Watson 1983: 356-8), bone was used for beads and pendants, rings and bracelets; but is rarely reported in such roles in historic times. Again this may simply be a reflection of a concentration of excavation where high-status ornaments are more likely to have survived. Although occasionally reported as a material for stamp seals, bone was not appropriate for engraved

cylinder seals. Bone kohl-tubes and mirror-handles are evident by at least the Achaemenid period (cf. Moorey 1980: 94-6).

been used in the manufacture of cheekpieces for horse-

bits before the general introduction of metal for the purpose III the second half of the second millennium BC; but actual examples have yet to be identified from Mesopotamian sites. Bone pegs appear to have been used to secure door-

locks, at least at Tepe Gawra (cf. Tobler 1950: pI. XCIXa), to judge by impressions of them recognized on the reverse of clay sea lings (Matthews, R. J. 1989'). (ii)

PERSONAL ORNAMENTS AND COSMETIC

ARTICLES

The material evidence for bone pins is still surprisingly sporadic and unpredictable, with an unexpected revival of the fashion in the Sasanian period, possibly inspired

by Roman fashion (cf. Kish: Moorey 1978: microfiche 3:G 14). They appear in the earliest village settlements (cf. Watson 1983) and then intermittently in published reports through prehistoric times to the Uruk IV-Ill horizon, when they seem to have been in regular use

(d. Mackay 1931: 271, pI. LXXI: 8-12; Genouillac 1934: 62, pI. 34a-b, d-e). In the earlier third millennium at Telloh (Girsu) Genouillac (1936: 124) reported that 'I'os avait servi

a faire des

poin: 34). Up to the middle of the fourth millennium BC moulded mudhricks had tended to be large and flat. In the Uruk period smaller proportions emerged so that two bricks could be handled together. Now, also for the first time, bricks were baked in kilns for special purposes and shapes were varied to suit particular functions in a building. Finkbeiner (1986: 47 ft., appendix II lists brick sizes) has provided a full review of the brick-shapes used at Uruk through the later prehistoric levels (VIlIVI-I). Riemchen, bricks of square section, predominate in level IV, with rectangular bricks appearing more rarely for specific purposes, as in the use of large-sized mudbricks (patzen) in terraces or the city wall or small baked bricks in the water channels and basins. Riemchen have a height equal to their breadth: but a length always greater than double their breadth; they vary in size from 16 X 16 2cm. Patzen are large rectangular bricks measuring 80 x 40 x 1416cm. (in level V: North-South Terrace) to 40 x 20 X 8 (in level III: Eanna). Riemchen persist

through level III, but Riemchen-nahe then also appeared (Heinrich 1935: 10), slightly rectangular rather than square-shaped in section; rectangular bricks were increasingly used. In level 117 (the earliest phase of I) plano-convex bricks (see below) appear for the first time with Riemchen. In 116 plano~convex Riemchen briefly appear, but have disappeared by 115. In 115 to II I plano-convex and rectangular bricks are in use side~ by-side. This broadly sustains the view that brick shapes may serve to a limited extent as chronological indicators at the transition from the late prehistoric to the early historic period; but they may at times be more sitespecific than is apparent from some pUblications. Elsewhere in the Uruk IV-Ill horizon brick sizes and shapes vary within the ranges found at Uruk itself (ct. Uqair: Lloyd and Safar 1943: pI. XVIa; Eridu: Safar el al. 1981: figs. 118-9). There is a striking similarity between building practices at Uruk and the socalled Uruk 'colonies' on the middle Euphrates which provide excellent evidence for contemporary building practices (cf. Ludwig 1979). In the large administrative building at lamdat Nasr (Uruk III) two sizes of flat bricks were used: 20 x 8.5 x 8 cm. and 23 X 9 x 6.5 cm. (Mackay 1931: 290). The former were always unbaked; the latter were both baked and unbaked. The baked bricks, normally found in paving, but occasionally used for walling, had three oblique holes through them, averaging { cm. in diameter, presumably to help in firing. There is only one period in Mesopotamia when a brick type is so distinctive and so widely employed that it may be used, with due caution, both as a chronological indicator and as a cultural trait. The plano-convex brick (pcb) appeared at the outset of Early Dynastic I, c.3000 BC, and began to disappear in the later part of Early Dynastic III, some six hundred years later. Neither its appearance nor its disappearance was so sudden and clear-cut as has often been assumed. At the outset, in the Eanna complex at Uruk and in 'Archaic I' at Ur, Riemchen and plano-convex bricks were used together (ef. Eliot 1950: IV; Woolley 1939: 1-4), whilst at Tell Ugair (Lloyd and Safar 1943: 147) Riemchefl bricks are laid in the herring-bone patterns particularly associated with plano-convex brickwork (see below). The return of the rectangular, flat brick (33 X 24 x 6 cm.) is first documented at Girsil (Telloh) buildings attributed to the time of Entemena (Sarzec and Heuzey 1884-1912: ii, 1'1. 31: 2-3), but planoconvex brickwork is still evident at other sites into the Akkadian period (Tun,a 1984: 125 ff.; Finkbeiner 1986: 56), whilst isolated examples were used in foundation deposits for much longer (cf. Woolley 1965: 670). Both at the beginning and the end there may have been regional variations in usage concealed by the restricted body of data currently available. The distinctive bombi? shape of the plano~convex

308

THE BUILDING CRAFTS

brick has commonly been explained as the omission of a stage in the process of manufacture. In making a Riemchen brick the surplus mud was cleaned off the top of the wooden mould; with a plano-convex brick it was left and marked with the fingers or palm of the hand. Such bricks vary in size, but are generally larger than the Riemchen they superseded (broadly 20/ 30 x 12120 x 3/6 cm.), more irregular in shape, and generally less well-made. Tunca (1984: 123) is not convinced that plano-convex bricks were invariably moulded (cf. Delougaz 1933), arguing that a significant number of the sun-dried examples were freely modelled by hand. The first appearance of the plano-convex brick is closely, if not exclusively, linked to a distinctive method of bonding that formed 'herring-bone' patterns. The appearance of this phenomenon originally encouraged the idea that both this brick's shape and the methods of using it presupposed a tradition of laying stone alien to the lower Mesopotamian plain. On this assumption, invasions from the eastern mountains were postulated to account for its appearance (d. Jordan 1931: 18; Delougaz 1933: 25- 6 , 34, 37-8; Woolley 1934: 35)· Even if a derivation from stone~laying is correct, it does not require foreign innovators. It might have derived from the indigenous use of stone for building. However, in recent years there has been a marked tendency to accept the plano-convex brick as part of a complex process of evolution, with various strands of invention and borrowing contributing to a gradual development within local brickworking traditions (cf. Tun,a 1984: 126 ff.). Gibson (1980': 96) has suggested an origin in one of the simplest techniques of building with mud still evident in southern Iraq.

I have seen them !farmers in muddy areas near Nippurl building walls, usually compound walls, by just taking the shovel they have ... a small, shallow shovel which is the easiest to use in mud, and turn over the mud as they go along. Each shovelful is turned over onto the preceding one to build up the wall. When they get to the end, they throw each shovelful back the other way and get a herringbone pattern. Nissen (1988: 93) has argued that the combination of nat layers of plano-convex bricks in the structurally important parts of a building (corners, door-frames) and herring-bone pattern laying between allowed for faster, less skilled work: 'If, in addition, it is assumed that this technique made it possible for experienced and inexperienced people to work hand in hand, we would have yet another example of an expansion in the division of labour [at this period].' The plano-convex brick was particularly characteristic of Sumer. Its identification elsewhere has at times been obscured by arguments over det-lnitions of type. Mallowan (1946: 136; 1947: 54-5) claimed to have identified it at Tell lidle in the Balikh valley and at Tell

BRICKS AND BRICKMAKING IN MUD AND CLAY

Brak. It does not seem to be represented in buildings of the Early Dynastic Period excavated at Assur; but Tun,a (1984: 123-4) has argued, contra Parrot, that it may be recognized in use at Mari in the Pre-Sargonid buildings. If such brickwork penetrated beyond the northern limits of primary Sumerian culture, diffusion up the line of the Euphrates and its tributaries is the most likely channel of craft communication.

d

Fig. 20. Various patterns used in the laying of planoconvex bricks, c.3000-2350 BC (after Delougaz 1933: fig. 19).

Remarkably well preserved buildings of the Early Dynastic period in the Hamrin region indicate how much knowledge is lost when little but foundation courses are available for study. A number of round buildings (,fortresses') distinguish these sites. That at Uch Tepe, with surviving mudbrick vaulting arches, was constructed of mudbricks and mortar, comparable in composition, with a hardness equivalent to soapstone (Mohs 3) and 'an abundance of gypsum'. In this structure the bricks and mortar formed a tough homogeneous mass (cf. Gibson (ed.) 1981). With the return of flat bricks of regular shape by the last quarter of the third millennium HC, brick shapes and sizes were to become more or less standardized for the better part of two millennia. By the outset of the second millennium Be kiln-baked bricks were generally square and thereafter most fall within the range 40/30 cm. square, 8-lOcm. deep. Both Loud and Altman (1938: 13-14) and Mallowan (1966: 464) have reviewed the sizes and the techniques of NeoAssyrian brickwork; Koldewey (1931-2: 4) those of the Neo~Babylonian period. The special requirements in brickwork and in mortar across the millennia, for specific structural purposes, have been concisely

described by Benseval (1984). Specially shaped bricks (triangular, half-spherical, etc.) for particular purposes are known from the third millennium, as in the 'Piliers de Goudea' at Telloh (reconstructed for Louvre displays 1989), to the first millennium, as at Nineveh (Nebi Yunus) and Khorsabad. A chronological sequence, though only for bricks from major public buildings, may be established through bricks with royal inscriptions (Walker 1981). From rare Early Dynastic examples until the end of the Hnd Isin Dynasty (c. 1157-1026 BC), all brick inscriptions from Sumer and Babylonia, with the exception of those from Tell Asmar (Eshnunna), and occasional individual rulers of provincial cities, were written in Sumerian. For the period from about 72 I to 637 BC they are either in Sumerian or Babylonian; from Nabopolassar (625-605 BC) only in Babylonian. In Assyria thc local language was used throughout, save for Sargon II's use of Sumerian in a specific case in the late eighth eeotury (Walker 1981: no. 168). In the south inscriptions were either stamped or inscribed by hand with a stylus on either face of the orick, on both faces, or on the edge. Stamped inscriptions are generally rather more common than inscribed ones and stamps, in stone or metal, have survived (d. Saloncn, A. 1972: pI. XVIII). Assyrian bricks arc inscribed rather than stamped, and appear never to have been stamped on the edge. Inscriptions on the faces would not normally have been visible when set in a wall; but those on the edge of a brick would. In the absence of inscriptions it is much less easy to characterize brickwork as the work of specific rulers. At Ur Woolley (1965: 3) sometimes attempted this. In the case of the architectural enterprises of Kurigalzu (I), c.1400 BC, a sandy clay was used to make lightly baked bricks, in contrast to the widely employed sundried mudbricks of earlier and later times. They were Llsed with mud mortar, less commonly with the bitumen mortar previously used, and casually employed. In constructing, or reconstructing, walls, Kurigalzu's builders only put a burnt brick facing over a core of old walls or rubble without any attempt to bond old and new. The detailed recording of brickwork has not progressed enough to take such lines of investigation very far, nor, in view of the nature of the archaeological evidence for Mesopotamian mud brick buildings, is it likely that any modern study can do real justice to the skills of local bricklayers. (iii)

DECORATIVE TECHNIQUES IN MUDBRICK

ARCHITECTURE

(a) Latc prehistoric cone mosaics Even though the archaeologist in Mesopotamia has normally to deal only with the foundations or lowest courses of buildings, significant information has sur-

vived about the techniques of wall decoration either in modelled clay or in paint, though this is more elusive. The widespread use of colour, whether in variously tinted plaster surfaces or in murals, has often been underestimated since it was so fugitive and is often only evident through the most meticulous excavation, particularly in villages. It is less often overlooked in excavations of major public buildings. In the prehistoric period there is so far no evidence that bricks themselves were moulded for decorative purposes; but in the later part of the period cone-shaped objects were used in various ways both to protect and to decorate, often at one and the same time, the walls of major buildings. This technique was to spread during the Late Uruk period across the Near East to an extent never again matched by so typical a Mesopotamian building device.

Fig. 21. Reconstruction of part of a terracotta cone mosaic fa: 17-IR, pI. IV) show Assyrian soldiers hewing timber with axes in a heavily forested area, In some cases the axes have spiked butts. A scene on the 'Rassam Obelisk' of Assurnasirpal II of oxen pulling a solid-wheeled cart, loaded with a tree-trunk, shows how smaller timbers were moved overland (Reade 19Ro: 14, pI. VII). A fragment from the bronze gate overlays of Shalmaneser III from Balawat, now in

BC)

reliefs at Khorsabad (detail after

the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, illustrates Assyrian foot soldiers carrying logs in a forested mountain landscape (Canby 1974, no. 18B and cover picture). On the same king's throne base at Nimrud (Mallowan 1966: 446, pI. 448b) heavy timber is brought as a tribute, carried by teams of four men using ropes. The most comprehensive scenes of timbering are those carved on the walls of Sargon's palace at Khorsabad, which show the transport of timber by water in the following stages: I. Manpower is used to haul logs down a mountain; they are piled up at the water's edge to await transport. 2. The timbers are stacked in boats or drawn behind them, As the timbers have rounded or angular cut ends they had clearly been shaped to some extent before being moved. 3. The wood is transferred from ships to land by teams of men. Albenda (lgR3) has interpreted this as transport of timber from the Lebanon by sea. Linder (1986) cogently challenged this interpretation, identifying the boats as rivergoing vessels and the region of timber procurement as the Amanus. He demonstrated that all Neo-Assyrian representations of boats comparable to those shown on this series of reliefs are riverine watercraft, not seagoing merchant ships (d. Graeve 1981, for illustrations). This had already been argued, in 1847, soon after these reliefs were discovered (A. Jal, cited by Linder 1986: n. 48). The lumberjacks wear the 'leather caps' of western vassals, perhaps in this case hard hats to protect them from the more obviolls hazards of forestry. Linder (1986: 278-9) points out that the practices shown 'disregard basic shipping prin-

354

THE BUILDING CRAFTS

ciples of open sea navigation. It is in river traffic, with

steady currents prevailing, that paddling in an upright position is feasible, and, for relatively short distances,

the towing of logs behind the boat can be controlled.' Although neither the inscription nor the landscape detail allows the location to be securely identified, the fauna is freshwater rather than seawater (Linder 1986:

279; contra Albenda 1983: 27-8).

BUILDING WITH WOOD

cross-cut tree-trunks for use in construction were probably not barked or hewn in their mountain homes

difficult to establish with certainty, identifying its use

before transport as they are likely to have suffered heavy pounding as they travelled. The wedge was also used to split trees. It, like the axe, is designed so that the edge splits the timber on a tiny front between the fibres of the wood. It is no easier to identify with confidence the tools

p. 47 for stone vessels).

used by carpenters involved in construction work, save from the most meagre and scattered clues. On the stela of Ur-Nammu of Ur (C.2112-2095 Be) the king as· 'builder' is shown carrying a heavy copper-alloy axe of

were probably quick to dull and difficult to sharpen, most of all under the conditions to be expected in forestry. The axe was also used for lopping and barking,

perhaps with the help of the butt spikes shown on some of the axes employed by Assyrian lumberjacks (cf. Mallowan and Davies 197(): pI. IV). An Akkadian period cylinder seal shows a deity stripping the branches of a tree, perhaps also the bark, with an adze

(Williams-Forte, in Muscarella (ed.) 19S1: 87, no. 43; Tallon [987' i, fig. 17). However, large trimmed and

(a) Roofing The pattern of roof construction in Mesopotamia from prehistoric times until the advent of modern materials has been remarkably consistent. Timbers, worked or unworked, have been placed across the space to be

consolidate canal banks. In the north it was employed from prehistoric times for roofing timber. Margueron

(1992) has attempted to reconstruct the use of roofing timbers in two buildings at Uruk, the late prehistoric Kalksleinlempei and the palace of Sinkashid of the Old

iders, ladle for bitumen mortar, and a flat wooden

potamia until the Achaemenid period; before then their

The following woods are listed:

trowel (Woolley 1974: pI. 41a: centre, right; FIGURE 19) Axes of the type shown are normally used to split and

use was considerably more restricted and rarely, if ever,

dress timber. Adzes would have served many purposes,

man shapes a chair-leg with one (Barrelet 1968: 393, pI. LXXVl:779; Tallon 1987: i, fig. 16; PLATE I B). The

Smaller timbers were laid over the beams and then over them was set brushwood or reeds sealed by successive layers of mud, annually repaired. 'It is probable that the ceilings of the ground-floor rooms and the floors of the rooms above were of the same nature as the roofs'

basic range of awls, chisels, drill-points, gouges, and

(Woolley 1976: 21). At Shahr-i Sokhta in south-east

to carry roofing (cf. Koldewey 1914: 108; Collon 1969).

punches evolved early in the history of copper

Iran in the third millennium Be Costantini (1979: 106-

metallurgy

iron

8) has identified roof-beams as 30-40-year-old poplar

(cf. Deshayes 1960; Tallon 1987; Curtis el al. 1979). Salonen (E. 1970: 59-77) analysed the terminology for

trunks, stripped and sawn, set with some 50 to 60 cm.

and

were

carried

over

into

before the Seleucid period, considerable ingenuity

sculptures. They arc not lumberjacks. Early iron saws

TIMBER IN BUILDING

number of woods for use as 'beams' or 'roof-beams'.

woodworkers and their craft skills. Since the screw and the vice, as well as the workbench clamp, were not known to craftsmen in Iraq

tion saws for tree-felling; the logging tool was the axe, of stone, of copper alloys, and eventually of iron. The men carrying saws on the reliefs of Sennacherib (Cuftis el al. 1979: fig. 31b, c) are involved in stonecutting or at most in modifying the logs used to transport colossal

(iv)

spanned supported by the mudbrick walls enclosing it.

Babylonian terracotta plaque in the Louvre where a

Since the tools of the lumberjack are unlikely to be readily identifiable in palaces, whence most finds of Neo~Assyrian metalwork have so far come, the pictorial evidence is again invaluable. It corroborates the evi~ dence of ancient classical sources, which do not men-

Iraq to line the main waterways with poplars to provide good, straight structural timbers and in the process to

The extensive use of free-standing columns for roof support is a highland phenomenon not evident in Meso-

not least for shaping. This is well illustrated on an Old

cylinder seal (c. 23SD-2 IOO BC) showing a deity using an adze to trim or cut a tree (after Tallon 1987: i, fig. 17).

the wood most favoured for roofing by house-builders. It has long been the practice in central and southern

Babylonian period, to demonstrate that timbering was much more extensive in mudbrick architecture than is sometimes realized,

a type well known from excavations (cf. Moorey 1971: pI. XXII.I-3), together with a basket, builder's div-

Fig. 24. Detail from a scene carved on an Akkadian

from material evidence remains controversial (see

355

would be required in working timber, not least in sawing planks. A variety of short copper or bronze saws have been reported from excavations at sites like Farah,

Kish, Ur, and Susa (Deshayes 1960: 'Scies' A2:II:152; Tallon 1987: i. 184 ff., ii. 252-3; cf. Neve 1989) and iron examples are known in the Neo-Assyrian period

(Curtis el al. 1979: fig. 31a-c). Egyptian reliefs (Montet [925' pI. XXIII.l) illustrate how a timber was set vertically and secured with rope and a weight so that a

man using a saw, held by both his hands, might cut it vertically without buckling the saw. There is also no evidence that either the plane or the file was known before the post-Achaemenid period in Mesopotamia. It is difficult to isolate copper or bronze tools that might have served carpenters as scrapers, but possible

between each beam. Trunks varied in length from 2 to 5 m. and in diameter from 10 to 30 em. In a conflagration such structures rapidly caught fire and collapsed into the rooms below as charred debris, ashes, and baked clay fragments. It is from such remains that excavators have commonly deduced the widespread use of wood, perhaps more widely used than the natural resources of this region might initially suggest, since it was constantly recycled and only caught fire in situ. The purchase of roofing timber constituted a major expense in mud brick buildings, so sound timbers were never abandoned. As Stone (1981: 20) noted in a study of Old Babylonian texts: 'since the presence of wooden items such as doors, ladders and even locks greatly enhanced the value of a piece of house property, it is clear that then, as in Southern Iraq today, the significant and valuable part of a house was its wooden roof-beams'. Such fittings were the basis for asse~,;;ment of value and were taken out of a house when it was abandoned.

For general purposes in the south, split palm logs

The Neo-Assyrian (and earlier) kings imported a

burii§u (juniper): (CAD 'B': 358; AHw 144; Postgate 1992": ISO-I, 187) Shalmaneser 1II (from the Amanus). erenu (cedar/pine): (CAD 'E': 274; AHw 237; Postgate 1992': IS2, 187-8) Adad-nirari I; Assurnasirpal II (Lebanon); Shalmaneser III (Amanus); TiglathPileser III (Lebanon: Amanus; Ammanana); Sargon

II; Sennacherib (Amanlls; Sirara); Esarhaddon (Lebanon; Amanus; Sirara); Ashurbanipal (Lebanon: Amanus; Sirara); also the Neo-Babylonian kings (Lebanon). mil:!ru (a conifer): (CAD 'M': 60; AHw 64[; Postgate [992'; 183, 188) Tukulti-Ninurta I and Assurnasirpal II (mi!Jru-land; east of the Tigris). musukkannu (sissoo); CAD 'M': 237; AHw 678; Postgate 1992'; 183, 188) Ashurbanipal (no source listed). surmenu (cypress): (AHw 1284; Postgate 1992': IS4, 188) Sennacherib (Amanus and Sirara); Esarhaddon (Lebanon; Sirara); Ashurbanipal (Lebanon; Amanus). At present the best evidence is that from Nimrud. 'As regards the timber used in the roof it is interesting that one specimen from the Fort [Shalmaneserl exam-

ined by the Forest Products Research Laboratory, Princes Risborough, proved to be pinus haiepensis var. brutii, that is Aleppo or Calabrian pine. And it is curious that up to date all the examined specimens of roofing timber have proved to be pine, and not

cedar' (cf. Mallowan 1966: 377 n. 12). In view of the uncertainty over the identity of erenu, and the possibility that it might well be 'pine' rather than 'cedar', earlier

examples may be identified by the late third millennium Be (Deshayes 1960: i. 375 ff., ii. 161). A 'two-handled' scraper was found at Nuzi (Starr 1939: 471; 1937' pI. 124F). There is still no certainty as to

of this wood makes it ill-suited for load bearing. Such

reports should be read in the light of Mallowan's evidence. Layard (IS53' 357) had identified roof-timbers

logs cannot effectively span more than 3.5 m. (McCown

in the Temple of Ninurta at Nimrud thus:

when the lathe was first introduced into Mesopotamia.

el al. [967: 37). Where palm is mentioned as roofmg ill

Childe believed, but could not definitely prove, that it

excavation reports it is often identified by the excavator's eye, not scientifically; when it is scientifically, as at Nuzi where 'the bulk of the charcoal was derived

was in use in Mesopotamia in the Bronze Age; 'there is

no direct evidence for its use till classical times' (Childe 1954: 193 n. I). Since so little timber has survived, and the use of the lathe in shaping stone vessels is extremely

formed adequate rafters, although the fibrous structure

from poplar' (Starr 1939: 494), the context is not clear. It is likely, as more recently in Iraq, that poplar was

Standing one day on a distant part of the mound, I smelt the sweet smell of burning cedar . . . The Arab workmen, excavating in the small temple, had dug out a beam, and, the weather being cold, had at once made a fire to warm themselves. The wood was cedar .. After a lapse of nearly three thousand years, it had retained its original

THE BUILDING CRAFTS

fragrance. Many other such beams were discovered and the greater part of the rubbish in which the ruin was buried, consisted of the same wood. Pine is available today on the Zagros slopes accessible from heartland Assyria. This is the only species native to Iraq. It may then have been available in antiquity rather closer than is sometimes assumed. In the Old Babylonian period at Tell ed- Der it is reported as a door-hinge and what may have been shelving for tablet storage. At Brak it was identified from house ruins attributed to the middle of the second millennium Be (see p. 360). Oak provided over fifty samples in the village at Jarmo in the seventh millennium Be (Braidwood, L. S., el al. 1983: 541), where it is likely to have been easily accessible. Where available it was enduringly popular in the north, recognized among fragments at Brak and Nuzi (see p. 360), and used at Nimrud for well-fittings. Samples of ash, elm, and plane, at Brak, all potential constructional timbers, do little more than illustrate the range of timber relatively accessible in the north. Whether or not the securely identified examples of lamarisk in north and south were from roofing is not apparent from the reports published so far. In most cases where archaeologists have reported the debris from roohng from prehistoric sites like Umm Dabaghiyah (Kirkbride 1973: 3) through to NeoAssyrian palaces no detailed reconstructions have been attempted. The isolated exceptions illustrate timeless practice. In Room L43:9 of House D in the Early Dynastic temple enclosure at Khafajah hre had preserved substantial portions of the roof (,ceiling') in debris east of the doorway from the courtyard (Delougaz 1941); 49-51, 133-6, figs. 121-3). It was made of a timber framework covered by mud-plastered reeds (,mats'); no timber identifications have been published. Similar structures were less explicitly described at Khorsabad (Loud 1936: 5-7, 9-10, tig. 85). A later, and rather more specialized, type of roofing was described by Koldewey at Babylon in what he had identified as the undercrofts of the renowned 'Hanging Gardens'. His account incorporates classical descriptions of the roof, designed to prevent penetration of water from above, and it is not easy to assess how much of this he actually found in the course of excavation:

A layer of reeds and asphalt was placed over a strong roofing of hewn stone, part of which has been found in the ruins, and above this rested two courses of bricks laid in mortar. A lead covering again separated these from the deep layer of earth placed on top. (Koldewey 1914: 1(0) A fragmentary ceiling ('un caissonnage de pIa fond') was recognized in the dehris of a room in the 'palais des Shakkanakku' at Mari at the outset of the second millennium Be, preserved by tire. A network of stakes

BUILDING WITH WOOD

of standard lengths linked by ropes running horizontally to form square apertures had been combined with matting and clay to form a wattle-and-daub construction (cf. Margueron 1985; 1992). (b) Walls

Since remote prehistory timbers had provided the reinforcement for moulded terre pise walls, as at Mureybet (Aurenche 1981: 87, fig. 48). In historic times the use of timber within the stone or brickwork of major structures has generally been reconstructed either from 'ghosts' left in clay or bitumen, or from cavities assumed from structural logic to have originally accommodated beams; occasionally vestiges of wood remain in situ. As Loud and Altmann (1938: 16) reported of Khorsabad, 'innumerable traces of planks and beams have been disclosed, usually in the form of mere imprints or "molds", which often give the size of the piece and the direction of the grain but nothing else. They do, however, definitely establish the use of wood for roofs, door leaves, lintels, and vertical shafts flanking temple entrances; and in some instances they tell the size.' Such was also the case in Babylon, where Koldewey (1914: 170) describes a gateway in the north wall of the main citadel: 'roofed over at the very moderate height of 1.5 metres with beams of palm wood. Bricks placed upright formed the cavities for inserting the beams, and in them the print of the wood in the asphalt can still be seen.' Only close examination of the anatomy of mudbrick walls reveals the role of timber in construction. On the Temenos at Ur in the earlier second millennium BC the 'practice of reinforcing mud brick construction with transverse timbers' was evident. 'The wood of the logs had perished, but the brickwork is found in good condition and in the round holes the imprint of the grain of the timber is perfectly preserved in mud casings' (Woolley 1976: 39-40). Comparable uses were recognized in the palace at Mari (Margueron 1992: 81). At Babylon Koldewey revealed that in the Palace of Nabopolassar near the citadel, 'Nebuchadnezzar jointed his brickwork with grid-like insertion of beams of poplar wood laid lengthways and crossways to strengthen it' (Koldewey 1 'Ivoires de Cappadoce', in Charpin and Joannes (eds.) 1991, 223~5. --and KACZMARCZYK, A, 1987 'Bronze Age Faience from Ras Shamra (Ugarit)', in Bimson and Freestone (cds.) 1987, 47~56. --and·---"-(1989), 'Trade and Local Production in Late Cypriot Faience', in K Peltenburg (cd.), Early S'ociety in Cyprus (Edinburgh), 209-16. --and POPLIN, F. 1987 'Matieres dures animales: Chide

du materiaux', in M. Yon (ed.), Ras Shamra-Ougarit, iii (Paris), 273~306. CAUVIN, J. 1972 'Sondage it Tell Assouad (Djezirah, Syrie)" AAAS 22, 85~9. --1978 Les Premiers Villages de Syrie-Palestine du IXe millenaire av. l.-C (Paris). --1983 'Typologie et fonctions des outils prehistoriques: apport de la traceologie a un vieux debat', in M.-C Cauvin (ed.) 1983, 259~74. CAUVIN, M.-C. 1979 'Tello et I'origine de la houe au Proche-Orient', Paiearient, 5, 193-206. --1983 'Les Faucilles prehistoriques du Proche-Orient Donnees morphologiques et fonctionnelles', Pa/eorient, 9, 63~79· --1983 (eel.), Traces d'utilisatiofl sur les ou/ils neolithique du Proche Orient (Travaux de la Maison de "Ori_ ent, 5, Lyon). CERNY, J. 1955 The Inscriptions of Sinai, ii (Oxford). CIIAKRABARTI, D. K. 1979 'The Problem of Tin in Early India~A Preliminary Survey', Man and Environment, 3, 61 ff. CHARLES, J. A. 1967 'Early Arsenical Bronzes~A Metallurgical View', AlA 71, 21-6. --1968 'The First Sheffield Plate', Antiquity, 32, 278~

85· --1975 'Where is the Tin?', Antiquity 49, 19~24. --1978 'The DeVelopment of the Usage of Tin and TinBronze: Some Problems', in Franklin et al. 1978, 2532 . --11 'The Green Jasper Cylinder Seal Workshop', in Kelly-Buccellati (cd.) 1986, 57~70' --19R7 First Impressions: Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East (British Museum Publications).

ne

BIBLIOGRAPHY

372

BIBLIOGRAPHY

--1984 Nuslz-i Jan Ill: The Small Finds (British Institute

CaLLaN, D. 1991 'Les Tresars de Nimroud', Le Monde et la Bible, 71, 49-52. COMPAGNaNI, s., and TOSI, M. 1978 'The Camel: Its Dis~ tribution and State of Domestication in the Middle East

CRADDOCK, P. T. 1977 'The Composition of the Copper

During the Third Millennium Be in the Light of Finds from Shahr-i Sokhta', in R. H. Meadow and M. A. Zeder (cds.), Approaches to Faunal Analysis in the Middle Easl (Peabody Museum Bulletin 2, Cambridge, Mass.), !O5-18. CONGDON, L. O. K. 1971 'Steel in Antiquity: A Problem of Terminology', in D. G. Mitten et al. (eds.), Studies Presented to George M. A. Hanfman (Mainz), 17-27. CONNAN, 1., and DESCHESNE, O. 1991 'Le Bitume dans I'antiquite', La Recherche, 22, 152-9. --1991" 'Etude geochimique des objets en matiere bitu~ mineuse: Campagne de 1983 (Oueili)', in Huot et al. 199 1,33 1-40 . --1991° 'L'Origine des bitumes archeologiques de Ras Shamra', Ras-Shamra-Ougarit VI: Arts et Industries de la pierre (ADPF, Paris), 101-26. CONRAD, H. G., and ROTHENBERG, B. 1980 Anlikes Kupfer im Timna- Tal (Bochum). CONTENAU, G. 1927-47 Manuel d'archeologie orientale (4

--1978 'The Composition of the Copper Alloys used by

vols.; Paris). --1940 'Une statuette sumerienne archaique du Musee du Louvre', Mon. Pial, 37, 37-45· --1941 'Maquette de colonne', RA 38, 52-3. COOKE, S. R. B., and ASCHENBRENNER, S. 1975 'The Occurrence of Metallic Iron in Ancient Copper', JFA

2,25 1- 66 . COONEY, 1. D. 1960 'Glass Sculpture in Ancient Egypt', JGS 2, 1l-43. --1964 Review of Lucas 1962, in AlA 68, 75-6. --1965 'Persian Influence in Late Egyptian Art', 10urnal of Ihe American Research Cenler in Egypl, 4, 39-48. --1976 Catalogue of Egyptian Antiquities in the Brihsh Museum IV: Glass (London), COOPER, I. S. 1983 The Cllrse of Agade (Baltimore and

London). --1986 Sumerian and Akkadian Royal Inscriptions I: Pre-Sargonic Inscriptions (American Oriental Society, New Haven, Conn.) --and HEIMPEL, W. 1983 'The Sumerian Sargon Legend', lAOS 103,67-82. COSTANTINI, L. 1979 'Wood Remains from Shahr-i Sokhta: A Source of Information for the Ancient Environment and Technology in Protohistoric Sis tan' , in M. Taddei (ed.), Soulh Asian Archaeology 1977 (Naples), 87-[21. COUROYER, B. 1965 'L'Are d'airan', Revue BihJique, 72, 5°8- 1 4. COURTOIS, L., and VELDE, B. 1984 'Recherche comparees sur les materiaux et les techniques de peintures ceramiques en Mesopotamie (VI_Yc millenaires)', Paleorienl, 10(2),81-93· --1987 'Analyses a la microsonde et description materi-

elle de quelques ceramiques Obeid 0 a Obeid 3 de 'Oueiii', in Huotelal. 1987, 121-40. --1991 'Les Peintures ceramiques a chromites de l'Obeid 3 et 4 de 'Oueili et en Basse Mesopotamie: recherches sur leur unite technique', in Huot et al. 199 I, 267- 83. --19913 'Recherches comparees sur les techniques ceramiques de l'Obeid 0 a 2', in Huot et al. 1991,285-3[2.

Alloys used by the Greek, Etruscan and Roman Civilizations. 2: The Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic Greeks', l.Arch.Sc. 4, 103-23. the Greek, Etruscan and Roman Civilizations. 3: The

Origins and Early Use of Brass', J.Arch.Sc. 5, 1-16. --1980 'The First Brass: Some Early Claims Reconsiderec\', MASCAJollmal, I, 131-3· --19800 'The Composition of Copper Produced at the Ancient Smelting Camps in the Wadi Timna, Israel', in

P. T. Craddock (ed.), Scientific Studies in Early Mining and Extractive Metallurgy (British Museum Occasional Paper no. 20), 165 ff. --1984 'Tin and Tin Solder in Sumer: Preliminary Com~ ments', MASCA Jotlmal, 3(1), 7-9· --1988 'Problems and Possibilities for Provcnancing Bronzes by Chemical Composition, with Special Reference to Western Asia and the Mediterranean in the

Early Iron Age' in Curtis (ed.) 1988,317-27. --(ed.) 1990 2000 Years of Zinc and Brass (British Museum Occasional Paper no. 50).

- - , and MEEKS, N. D. (1987), 'Iron in Ancient Copper', Archaeometry, 29, 187-2°4. CRAWFORD, H. E. W. 1974 'The Problem of Tin in Mesopotamian Bronzes', World Archaeology, 6, 242-7. --1975 'Geoy Tepe 1903: Material in the Collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge', fA, II, J -28. --1978 'The Mechanics of the Obsidian Trade: A New Suggestion', Antiquity, 52, 129-32. --1981 'Some Fire Installations from Abu Salabikh, Iraq', Paleorienl, 7(2), 105-14. --1983 'More Fire Installations from Abu Salabikh', Iraq, 45, }2-4· --1987 'The Construction Inferieure at Tello: A Rcas~ sessment', Iraq, 49, 71-76. --1991 Swner and the Sumuians (Cambridge). CRAWFORD, V. E. 1959 'Nippur, the Holy City', Archaeology, 12(1),74-83. --1960' Art of the Ancient Ncar East: The Third Millennium Be', Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Ar' (Apr.), 245-52. CROWFOOT, 1. W., and CROWFOOT, G. M. 1938 Samaria·-Sebaste 2: Early Ivories (London). CROWNOVER, D. 1964 'Some Frit from North Mesopotamia', Expedition, 7(1), 43-A· (:UKUR, A., and KUNC,:, S. 19H9 'Development of Bronze Production Technologies in Anatolia', 1. I1rcll. ,\'c. 1(1, 225