Details Of Assyrian History Uncovered

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31235, 6 December 1966, Page 10

Details Of Assyrian History Uncovered

fN.Z.P.A.-Reuter) PHILADELPHIA. Striking details of an Assyrian temple dating back to 1800 B.C. have been revealed during a third year of digging by an AngloAmerican team of archaeologists in northern Iraq. Dr. Theresa Carter, director of field work for the

museum of the University of Philadelphia, has issued a report of the digging, directed by Mr D. Oates, of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq, at Tell al-Rimah, 37 miles west of Nineveh and Mosul. Work this year revealed enough details, such as twisted columns and modelled mud brick of the second millenium before Christ, to permit a confident reconstruction of the plan of the ancient temple, said Dr. Carter. This temple is attached at

the back to a ziggurat (a lofty temple tower in stepped pyramid form with a shrine at the top). In the middle of the ziggurat is a brickwork room about 16ft by 10ft with seemingly no entrances or other means of access. This type of closed chamber within a ziggurat has been reported from other sites dated at between 800 and 1000 years after the Tell al-Rimah construction.

This mysterious room of the Assyrian temple was found to contain quantities of animal bones, mostly of wild fauna such as deer, hares, foxes and boars. The newly discovered column forms dominating the temple architecture are unique, said Dr. Carter. Five types of column forms were distinguished, many bearing wavy or ripple patterns. The most exotic pattern simulated the scales of a palm-tree trunk on half columns. One massive stone door jamb bears a figure flanked by palms and sheathed in a skirt with bands of nearly illegible cuneiform inscription.Objects found within the chambers included pottery and beads in stone, glass and shell in scattered caches; also shallow baskets of woven reeds.

In an upper level of the temple courtyard were found some 40 economic texts dating back to about 1250-1200 B.C. bearing accounts of commercial transactions in such commodities as barley, wool, tin, silver and wild boar’s fat. Dr. Carter said that the third year’s excavations reinforce original impressions of 1964 that Tell al-Rimah was founded as a religious centre early in the second millenium before Christ. After about 1250 B.C. the commercial life of the community maintained some population until the Inhabitants either died out or deserted the site. After this year, the Americans are withdrawing from the site, leaving the British group to carry on the excavations.