Excavations at Tell Brak

Volume 2 - Nagar in the 3rd Millennium BC

by David Oates, Joan Oates and Helen McDonald

Series: McDonald Institute Monographs

Imprint: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research

643 Pages, 8.5 x 11 in, 100s of b/w figs and illus

Hardcover
9780951942093
December 2001
In Stock

$150.00

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Description
Praise

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.

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