In the 1989 British Museum excavations at Nimrud four small glass plaques were found that were published in a recent volume of Iraq (Curtis, Collon and Green 1993: 15–16, Figs. 14: 5–6 and 16). They came from Room T20 in Fort Shalmaneser, and were found in a deposit that predated a reconstruction of the building probably in the reign of Esarhaddon. The plaques are almost square, measuring about 1·4 × 1·55 cm and 0·15 cm thick (Figs. 1–2). They are made of blue glass and have recessed designs showing six-petalled rosettes in glass of a different colour. Where this inlaid glass survives it is now white but may originally have been yellow. One of the plaques has a small hole right through the centre. It was suggested then that originally these glass plaques would have been mounted in bronze frames and would have been hammered on to various types of furniture as decoration. Further research, however, indicates that it may be possible to suggest a more specific use for these plaques.

A survey of glass plaques with rosettes reveals that there were two different types in circulation in the ancient Near East. First, there are large blue glass plaques where the rosette design is recessed into the surface and filled with what is now (where it survives) opaque white glass. A characteristic of plaques made in this way is that the inlaid rosettes are visible only from one side. Barag comments that “the petals were probably pressed into the blue matrix while both were in a viscous state” (1985: 72), but in the view of von Saldern (1966: 632–3) “the shallow depressions in the tiles to receive the white fillings were cut [my italics] into the blue glass.”

The latter half of 1962 has witnessed a remarkably varied number of events including not only two rewarding excavations by the Directorate General of Antiquities and the continuation of its restoration programme at various ancient sites, but also the official opening of the new Iraq Museum, the return of two distinguished foreign expeditions to the field and a festival. If, then, we select the opening of the new Museum to begin this article, it is in the belief that the completion of that admirable enterprise marks a great and important step not simply towards the general advancement of Mesopotamian studies in Iraq and abroad, but equally towards the fuller realization by the Iraqi people of the outstanding material and intellectual achievements of their ancient forbears. To those, therefore, who have worked for the creation of the new building, and to those who have followed its progress it must be a source of great satisfaction that within the course of the next two years we may hope to see a great national collection installed in its new home.

The messenger staff Huṭāru was a non-anthropomorphic deity in the Neo-Babylonian Eanna temple of Uruk that also had a practical function: it served as a symbol of authority of the goddess Ištar during the collection of taxes and dues. In this article I edit and discuss two hitherto unpublished texts that shed new light on this little known divine object. Furthermore, I suggest its identification with the “Doppellöwenkeule”, a ceremonial mace with animal protomes that is represented alone or carried by Ištar on seals and terracotta plaques from the Old and Neo-Babylonian periods.

This paper studies a group of documents produced in the course of investigation into the activities of a gang that operated in Uruk in the latter part of Nabonidus’ rule. It examines the composition of this criminal group and the offences committed by its members. Above all, however, it seeks to reconstruct the procedures implemented by the temple officials in response to a hitherto unpublished royal writ BM 114574, a document that throws new light on the involvement of the king in the administration of justice in the Neo-Babylonian period.

This article presents new editions of three Old Babylonian wisdom texts. Text A contains dialogues between different professionals and their customers(?), Text B is a dialogue between a friend and his fellow, and Text C contains several riddles. All three texts are poorly preserved and the interpretation is tentative in many points.

The study presents a reconstruction of the arrangement of the soldiers of Lagash as represented in the first and second registers of the “Stele of the Vultures” of King Eannatum according to both philological and iconographic data. Through a process of deconstruction, it is possible to read the composition as the result of a combination of two perspectives employed by the Sumerian artists.

This paper makes available clay sealings found during the last campaigns of the Italian expedition at Seleucia on the Tigris whose publication was delayed by the 1990–91 Gulf War. The sealings were discovered in the North Agora—where a large archive building containing more than 25,000 sealings was also unearthed—and provide additional information on the iconography and style of the subjects impressed on their surfaces by official and private seals. Most of the sealings were found in the context of the stoa, a public building facing the archive on the opposite side of the agora, but seem to have been displaced there accidentally or for some reason, difficult to ascertain, only at a later date: originally they were probably kept in the archive building itself.

This article seeks to demonstrate that the correct arrangement of the bronze bands on the Shalmaneser III gates from Balawat can be established by comparing the position of the nail holes on the ends of the bands with those on the edging strips that were fixed to the edges of the doors and partly overlap the ends of the bands. This new approach confirms the order previously proposed by Curtis and Tallis for the bands on the left-hand gate, but a new arrangement is suggested for the four lower bands on the right-hand gate.

The choice of this subject originates from the fact that the area of research to which I have been devoting myself recently includes the figurative cultures of Mesopotamia and Syria in the Early Dynastic and the Early Syrian periods, specifically in the field of war. Some of the data resulting from this research focus on the representation of the “head of the enemy”, which appears repeatedly in the documentation of the second millennium BC in Syria but so far seems to be absent in contemporary Mesopotamia. Despite the evident difference between the forms of representation from these two areas, I perceived in the figurative cycles of the Neo-Assyrian reliefs not only the recurrence of this theme but also the intentional display of severed heads, which reaches its climax in the numerous examples from the South-West Palace in Nineveh. My first aim is, therefore, to suggest a plausible approach towards identifying the origin of the display of “severed heads”, previously absent from Mesopotamian scenes of warfare, in the visual communication of the Neo-Assyrian period. My second aim is to offer an interpretation which may help shed light on ideological, cultural and anthropological aspects essential to the Neo-Assyrian political programme and its visual representation.

In the Library of the Institute of Archaeology, London, there is a collection of aerial photographs of Iraq taken by the R.A.F. during the 1930s. One of a pair, taken near Zairwan (36° 26′ N; 41° 59′ E) demands publication for the information it gives on the extent and structure of the Roman limes (Plate XX).

The photograph shows a stretch of wall with faces of large orthostats and filled with material whose nature cannot be determined from the picture. The wall runs along a low ridge. There are remnants of other structures against the wall and others, less well preserved, spreading down the slope of the ridge. These structures seem to be of poor masonry and almost certainly post-date the wall itself. There is no reason to suggest that they have any rôle in connection with the functioning of the wall. On the other side of the ridge are clear traces of what is probably a road with small mounds running along either side of it.

Zairwan is north of Jebel Sinjar and to the north-east of the important town of Singara. It stands at the foot of the mountains and gives its name to a pass of no great quality running through them.

The documentary evidence, namely the Aramaic inscriptions, discovered during the excavation of a small shrine at Hatra testifies to its dedication to the worship of Gnd', the god of Fortune. The façade of the lintel of the cella's entrance is incised with an inscription [406] asking that a certain Nšryhb, son of Tymly, and Bdy, son of šmšgrm, be remembered before (the god) Gnd' of Rmgu. The lintel of the niche is carved with a similar inscription, which prays that Hywš' the priest and R/Dbby' be remembered in the presence of Gnd' (the great). On the evidence of the lintel this god was thus endowed with two titles: the one indicates the association with Rmgu, and the other is the epithet “great” (rb'). Another important inscription [408] labels him with both appellatives: gd' rb' dy rmgu, “great Gd' (Gnd') of Rmgu“. As to the identity of Rmgu, a very important but damaged stele was found in situ in the niche of the cella. The stele portrays two adults and a boy in the process of feeding incense on to a fire altar. Three short accompanying inscriptions, two of which are incomplete, inform us that these persons are Rmgu, his son Šmš'qb and his grandson Tymlt. So apparently Rmgu was the chief of a wealthy tribe who had built a shrine and dedicated it to his favourite divinity, Gnd'. In due course this god became known by the name of his benefactor, probably to distinguish him from other similarly designated deities. It was a common religious practice at Hatra for tribes, chiefs and nobles to build and consecrate shrines and temples to particular gods. Among the well-known examples are: the shrine of Iššarbel (V), constructed by Nsru Mry', the Lord of Hatra in the years between A.D. 114 and 135; the shrine of Nergal (VIII), built by two tribes, Taimu and Bl'qb; and the shrine of Nebo (XII), erected by Šmš'qb, an architect.

The kiln furniture made for the Cuneiform Tablet Laboratory at the British Museum was nearing the end of its working life by 1992. A design project was thus undertaken to produce a kiln furniture solution that meets with the current conservation criteria, loosely based upon traditional potters' saggars. The primary innovation is a perforated refractory dish providing the same compartment throughout the firing and the desalination treatments. After three years' service the new kiln furniture's performance is assessed by comparison with the former “Inconel” firing basket and stainless-steel wire gauze equipment.

The Samarran ceramic assemblage of the Mesopotamian region has long remained an enigma. With the exception of the work of Braidwood et al. and Oates, the nature of the relationship between Samarran and other contemporary Mesopotamian and Iranian styles has not been systematically explored. This paper begins by challenging contemporary perceptions of the Samarran “culture” and continues by investigating the relationship of Samarran wares to those of the Hassuna and Ubaid traditions. Comparisons among these assemblages are made by means of recent miner-alogical data from the site of Tell 'Oueili (Tell 'Awayli) in southern Mesopotamia. The Ubaid 0 ceramic assemblage at Tell 'Oueili is seen to have a substantial Samarran component, and, in light of this information, new questions arise concerning the place of this style within the region. The data provided by Courtois and Velde are used to test the following hypotheses about Samarran ceramics: [1] that they were imported to the southern Mesopotamian plain, [2] that they were locally made in southern Mesopotamia, and [3] that they are an integral and undifferentiated part of the Ubaid 0 assemblage.

In the Iraq Museum are displayed two large fragments of a floor mosaic found during a series of emergency surveys and excavations, carried out in 1957–58 by the Directorate General of Antiquities of Iraq. The works were conducted in the plain on the Lower Zab river, south of Rānya (Arbil Liwa), which was due to be flooded on the completion of the Dokan dam.

This work was necessary because in the plain—known locally as Dasht-i-Bitawīyn and some 80 square miles in area—there were at least forty tells which would be submerged on the completion of the artificial lake.

The mosaic was found about 10 miles south of Rānya, at Tell Khwāris which is situated at the confluence of the Lower Zab and its tributary Rubar-i-Basalam. Tell Khwāris is 100 m. long, 80 m. wide and 4 m. high.

Nearby dwellers in the course of their agricultural works had dug a deep trench on the summit of the mound and had brought to light several pieces of the floor mosaic which were subsequently destroyed. Members of the Directorate General of Antiquities when informed of the discovery, were able to trace all extant parts of the ancient floor and remove them to Baghdad.

The fragment A 7876 (Oriental Institute, Chicago) occupies a special position among the cuneiform sources of the ritual Maqlû. The six-column tablet, inscribed in the Neo-Assyrian script of the 8th and 7th centuries BC, originally contained the complete text of the series with its nine canonical tablets. Taking into account the relevant duplicate manuscripts the article offers an annotated edition of this fragment and compares its style and format to other “large tablets” (dubgallu) of Babylonian literary texts.

When the hoard of tools excavated by Loftus at Tell Sifr in Iraq, in 1854, was reassembled for publication some years ago (Moorey, 1971), a number of items mentioned by Loftus (1857, 268) could not be traced in the British Museum reserve collections nor was it then possible to arrange for the analysis of selected objects. In the intervening years the missing items have been located. The parts of two sheet-metal cauldrons (Figs. 1–3), with cast handle fittings, have now been identified whereas in 1970 only a single fragment was located (Moorey, 1971, no. 83). The “copper ingot” reported by Loftus has now also been traced (Fig. 4), as have a copper or bronze ferrule (Fig. 5) and the “dice-box” (Fig. 6). It has been possible to increase the significance of this still unique find by some investigation of the metals and alloys from which it was made (Table 1). The following notes are supplementary in every way to the original paper, whose substance is not repeated here. The numbering of objects in the previous paper is retained.