Recherche en Haute Mesopotamie: Tell Mohammed Diyab, campagnes 1990 et 1991 sous la direction de Jean-Marie Durand.

• Author: Dunham, Sally

This is the second volume of reports of the French Archaeological Mission to the Habur under the direction of J.-M. Durand. It contains reports on the work done at Mohammed Diyab in 1990 and 1991 (pp. 9-97), the preliminary survey done by the Mission in 1984 (pp. 103-32), and soundings done at Tell Amouda in 1986 (pp. 133-50). In addition, D. Charpin publishes and discusses a Mari letter concerning the Habur area in the Old Babylonian period (pp. 97-102).

The work at Mohammed Diyab included further excavations on the high mound in level 5, dated to the first half of the second millennium B.C. Here were remains of at least three closely spaced buildings, each of which underwent alterations during its occupation. In an open space in one of these buildings was a pitched-brick vaulted tomb which had been used at two different times. Late Habur Ware and an Old Assyrian cylinder seal were found in this tomb (pp. 31-34). Several of the rooms of the buildings appear to have been roofed by barrel vaults. M. Sauvage discusses this characteristic in a separate chapter where he surveys the evidence from other sites and suggests that the use of the vault is a tradition particular to northern Mesopotamia (p. 23-30). According to the pottery found, level 5 is felt to postdate the latest occupation at Tell Leilan, while level 4 above, excavated in 1987 and 1988, is dated to the mid-second millennium ("Mitannian" period; Bachelot 1990, Bachelot et al., 1990: 20).

Seven soundings made at various points in the lower city gave further evidence of some the periods of occupation already noted in a surface survey of the mound done by B. Lyonnet in 1988: Ninevite 5, late Early Dynastic/Akkadian, later Middle Bronze through the Middle Assyrian periods, and then, after an apparent hiatus, the Romano-Parthian period (pp. 39-48, by C. Castel). Most interesting is the discovery in sounding 7, near the southeast slope of the high mound, of what appears to be the remains of a massive stone rampart or terrace wall. The date is somewhat uncertain, since, although some late Early Dynastic/Akkadian sherds were found here, the bulk of the ceramic material was similar to that from level 5 of the high mound (pp. 45-46).

X. Faivre presents a detailed discussion of the pottery (pp. 55-89) from the excavations on the high mound, the soundings in the lower city, and a sounding made by D. Charpin on the high mound in 1988. This last is not published yet, a situation which is indeed...