TEPE GAWRA — SPEISER 441 



1937. Another problem was to determine the total number of inde- 

 pendent building levels preserved at Gawra. The preceding cam- 

 paign had reached virgin soil, but that vras accomplished by means 

 of a small sounding simk down from the eastern edge, and not in 

 the regular excavation from the top. The side cut revealed six pre- 

 Obeid levels of the so-called "Halaf" period, with a still earlier, 

 purely neolithic, stratum resting on virgin soil. Simultaneously, the 

 systematic removal of layers in the main dig had brought us down 

 to level XVI. But this stratum was still too late to dovetail with 

 the top layer of the sounding. Definite correspondence had to be 

 sought in level XVII or below that. Until the two excavations had 

 been linked by material remains, there was no means of determining 

 the full length of the Obeicl occupation and the termination of the 

 preceding Halaf culture, the fourth long stage of prehistoric 

 Mesopotamia.* 



The season of 1937-38 brought the solutions to these questions and 

 contributed additional information that was altogether unexpected. I 

 shall outline the principal results in the remainder of this account, 

 with the aid of illustrations and field notes kindly submitted to me by 

 Arthur J. Tobler, the assistant director of the expedition. 



The Obeid age, to retain this name for want of a more comprehensive 

 term, proves to have lasted at Gawra from the beginning of level XIX 

 to the end of level XII. This long series of substantial settlements 

 must have spread over a long period of time. Wliile it is impossible 

 to assign absolute dates to prehistoric periods, the span between the 

 middle of the fifth millennium and the first quarter of the fourth 

 should be safe enough for purposes of general orientation. The ac- 

 companying material remains have their own peculiar eloquence at a 

 time when the introduction of written records was still some centuries 

 away. 



The period as a whole, the third in the order of remoteness from 

 the Early Dynastic age, has now definite boundaries at either end. It 

 was preceded by the Halaf civilization, which was predominant up to 

 the end of Gawra XX ; and it was followed by the northern counter- 

 part of the Uruk culture beginning with Gawra XI-A, Its own sway 

 extended thus over eight occupations. The guiding and unifying ele- 

 ment is furnished by pottery. There are certain characteristic features 

 of ware and decoration which persist throughout the eight superim- 

 posed settlements, but are not found either before or after. Other 

 features come up and vanish within the main period, without affecting 

 all of its stages. 



A common shape is a deep bowl with vertically arranged decoration 

 in black or plum-red (pi. 5, fig. 2). The designs consist of various 



* See now The beginning of civilization in Mesopotamia, Journ. Amer. Oriental Soc, vol. 

 59, No. 4, suppl., pp. 17-31. 1939. 



