Damaszener Mitteilungen, vol. 5.

• Author: Dunham, Sally

These two volumes continue the high quality of the series produced by the Deutsches Archaologisches Institut in Damascus. Twenty-four well illustrated articles present subjects ranging in time from the Ubaid down to the recent Islamic period. In the following comments these are arranged by period for the convenience of scholars with specific interests.

Only five articles deal with pre-Hellenistic topics and these are all in DaM 6. In a monograph-length article Wolfram Nagel and Christian Eder present a reevaluation of evidence for contact between Egypt and the Levant in the Middle Bronze Age (pp. 1-108). Following an "ultra-long" chronology, they suggest that Alalakh level VII was contemporary with the last third of the Middle Kingdom in Egypt, a time when Egyptian influence in the Levant was strong and, hence, the most probable time for the appearance of the many Egyptian motifs on the level VII seal impressions. They also define what they call the "Lebanese Group" of Middle Bronze Age seals (and impressions), most of which were not excavated. These show the use of many Egyptian motifs as well as "Aegean" ones such as bull leaping and animals in a "flying gallop." Certain seals in this group show chariot scenes which are considered by Na-gel to represent the oldest attestations of the chariot, which was introduced into the Near East by Indo-aryan peoples who Nagel suggests migrated into middle and south Syria in the Middle Bronze Age and eventually formed one element of the "Hyksos" of Egypt (pp. 74-75). In reference to the statement (p. 5) that the investigations of Reiner and Pingree, and Huber(1) have shown that the "long chronology" should be preferred, one should note the cautions given by Reiner and Pingree, and Kudlek concerning the unreliability of the so-called "Venus Tablets of Ammisaduqa."(2) Such basic admonitions render the rest of Nagel's and Eder's suggested reconstructions all the more open to debate.

Hamido Hammede and Yayoi Koike report on their excavations at Tell Abr in the Tishreen Dam Basin (pp. 109-75). They found six architectural levels belonging to the Ubaid Period topped by a very scantily preserved Uruk occupation. The earliest level, 7, is probably contemporary with Tepe Gawra levels XVI-XVIII (first half of the fifth millennium). A room with closely spaced parallel walls in this level, the function of which the excavators seem somewhat unsure (p. 122), is a type of building that has been found at various sites further east, ranging in date from pre-Pottery Neolithic...