Settlement Development in the North Jazira, Iraq: A Study of the Archeological Landscape.

• Author: Kramer, Carol
• Position: Review

By T. J. WILKINSON and D. J. TUCKER. Iraq Archaeological Reports, vol. 3. Warminster: ARIS & PHILLIPS, 1995. Pp. xv + 228 (with plates, figures) + 18 (Arabic) (paper).

This workmanlike volume presents the results of four seasons (1986-89) of survey (distributed over eight months) and limited excavations within an area of approximately five hundred square kilometers north of Tell Afar in northwestern Iraq. Political events interrupted the survey; nonetheless, one hundred eighty-four sites were recorded, surface remains collected, and four sites tested. In addition to evaluation of relationships between sites of differing size, there is much here relating to what some term "off-site" archaeology.

The sub-title is very appropriate. While political and culture-historical developments are the ultimate focus of inquiry, there are repeated cautions that natural as well as human modifications of landscapes affect the available record. Of particular interest to the authors is what they term "hollow ways" (linear depressions), especially those in the vicinity of Tell al-Hawa. Judged by its large size (not always or necessarily the best indicator of site function), this mound is treated as the regional center for the eight millennia considered in this report on a region with "admittedly subtle archaeological delights" (p. 12).

Four core chapters present and summarize data for occupation (or lack thereof) from the Halaf period to modern times, with emphasis on three major classes of evidence: surface artifact scatters, mounded sites, and "hollow ways." Previously interpreted as either paths or irrigation features, the last are here identified as remnants of road systems. Wilkinson and Tucker discuss ethnographic, historical, and archaeological evidence for water acquisition and control systems, including some that may be remains of the earliest wells. Somewhat problematic is that "hollow ways" are dated on the basis of their proximity to sites, a number of which represent multicomponent occupations spanning millennia. A similar problem faces archaeologists trying to date irrigation canals and reconstruct relationships among the sites to which they are evidently connected in, for example, the southern Mesopotamian alluvium.

This study introduces readers to...