Tell Akkaz in Kuwait.

• Author: Paul Yule
• Position: Book review

Tell Akkaz in Kuwait. Edited by JACQUELINE GACHET-BIZOLLON. Travaux de la Maison de l'Orient et de la Mediterranee, vol. 57. Paris: MAISON DE L'ORIENT ET DE LA MEDITERRANEE, 2011. Pp. 436, illus., plates, CD-ROM. (paper)

The ancient tell of Aklcaz was once a small island, but in 1974 it was connected to the mainland and turned into a roundabout in the industrial part of Shuwaikh/Kuwait City. The Department of Antiquities excavated there in 1978,1984, and 1985. Moawiyah Ibrahim led a Kuwaiti-Jordanian team in 1978. Difficulties resulting from the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait resulted in a change of plans for French archaeologists originally intending to work on Failaka, and Gachet-Bizollon and her colleagues continued excavation of Tell Azaz from 1993 to 1996. Today the port authorities have posted the site as off-limits. Its edges have been consolidated.

Originally the island Akkaz had an area of some 12000 m2 and contained seven mounds, of which 3000m2 of early occupation remain, including one tell of 7 m in height. The site was generally disturbed, particularly by the building of a bunker in 1990-1991. Left exposed after excavation, such sites deteriorate quickly. The earlier excavation report is woefully short (J. K. al-Najjar, "Excavations on the Island of Alckaz (al-Qurain) 1978, First Campaign," Majallat dirasat al-khalij wa ljazirat al-Arabia 23 [Kuwait University, July 1980]: 5-14 [Arabic]), and its results have been incorporated in this new one.

This French- and English-language excavation report is rigorously organized and minutely thought out, beginning with the excavation strategy and continuing throughout the publication, its production, and editing. The text falls into three parts: site and architecture, material, and environment. All aspects are lucid, including the organization of each individual chapter and selection of images; it is a model for others. Welcome is the included CD containing selected tables and color images. However, the binding is Spartan.

Part I: Understandably the excavation of the early dwellings (levels 7-4) led to their rapid disintegration. But initially the stratigraphy of the several sites was surprisingly intact and the publication of their pottery is clear; the various wares are recognizable in their stratigraphic loci.

The lowest stratigraphy begins with the Seleuco-Parthian dwellings at around 140 C.E. (p. 18, Table 1). These buildings fill in the period following that of the fortified Seleucid...