Excavations at Tell Brak: Volume 2 - Nagar in the 3rd Millennium BC (McDonald Institute Monographs) - Hardcover

Oates, David; Oates, Joan; McDonald, Helen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0951942093 ISBN 13: 9780951942093

Publisher: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, 2001

Synopsis

Tell Brak, ancient Nagar, was one of the most important cities in northern Mesopotamia in the third millennium BC and a focus of long-distance trade. It was also, for about a century, a provincial capital of the Akkadian Empire founded by Sargon of Agade. This is the second of four volumes on the 1976-93 excavations at Tell Brak. The construction level of Naram-Sin's Palace, discovered by Mallowan in the 1930s, has been used as a point of chronological reference to provide the first well-dated corpus of archaeological material in northern Mesopotamia belonging to the second half of the third millennium. The major Akkadian buildings at Tell Brak are the first well-preserved examples to be discovered at any site, and include a great ceremonial complex and a unique caravanserai that housed the donkey caravans bringing metals from Anatolia. During the ritual closure of these buildings beautiful silver jewellery was deposited, along with numerous copper/bronze tools and the skeletons of some of the caravan donkeys. Specialist reports provide detailed historical, geomorphological, ceramic, faunal, botanical, microstratigraphic and other data.

About this title

Review

This volume is a major contribution to the field of Near Eastern archaeology and is required reading for anyone interested in ancient Mesopotamia.' (Michael D Danti BASOR, 331, 2003)

a rich and well produced and richly illustrated volume,' (D J W Meijer Bibliotheca Orientalis, 61, 2004)

beautifully and carefully produced and richly illustrated.' (Michael Roaf Antiquity, 2005)

An indispensable volume that will help to conceptually change the intellecutual landscape of the study of the third millennium B.C.' (Near East Archaeological Society Bulletin, 1999)

a fitting legacy for D. Oates: an accessible and holistic analysis of a site whose significant evidence for regional interaction and chronology makes it essential to scholars of many fields interested in the third millennium of the ancient Near East.' (Alexis Boutin Religious Studies Review, 2004)

Edition details

• Publisher: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0951942093
• ISBN 13: 9780951942093
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 643