TEPE GAWKA — SPEISER 443 



link Gawra XIX-XV with the Samarra province, adding that demon- 

 strable contacts with the south are not found as a rule until later on, 

 specifically Gawra XIII. For our present purposes it will suffice to 

 state that, after the decline of the Halaf culture, Gawra was domi- 

 nated by a mixed Halaf- Samarra civilization, which gave way in 

 turn to one with a pronounced Obeid tendency. Toward the end of 

 the lengthy and syncretistic period represented by Gawra XIX-XII 

 we witness the intrusion of yet another element, this time from the 

 Iranian highlands. These manifold changes and combinations were 

 taking place 6,000 years ago. The comforting thought that early 

 civilizations were uniform and local is thus driven out by the composite 

 picture which modern archeology has succeeded ui reconstructing. 



Our conclusions based on the examination of pottery are borne out 

 by the study of contemporary architectural remains. In this respect 

 in particular, the early Obeid levels of Gawra have much to offer. 

 As early as level XIX we get a surprisingly clear plan of a house 

 with an enclosed courtyard in front of it (pi. 8, fig. 2). By the side 

 of this secular building, we find in the same level the remains of a 

 temple, the oldest religious structure known to man so far. In later, 

 historic times temple areas were not to be used over for private dwell- 

 ings. This type of taboo proves now to have existed also in remote 

 prehistoric periods. For on the ruins of the shrine from Gawra XIX 

 there was erected, in the succeeding level, a temple of closely similar 

 design (pi. 7, fig. 2). It is exceedingly interesting that these temples 

 of XIX-XVIII recall by their podia and entrances from the short 

 side, not the units of the Gawra XIII acropolis but the series of 

 shrines of Gawra XI- VIII. In other words, there appears to be a 

 cultural relationship between the builders of early Obeid and those 

 of Uruk times; the intervening structures of late Obeid times point, 

 on the other hand, to a different and unrelated tradition. In the face 

 of these facts, one hesitates to guess at the nature of the transforma- 

 tion that was responsible for the revolutionary developments embodied 

 in the acropolis of Gawra XIII. Such an upheaval could be brought 

 about only by new ethnic forces. 



Gawra XVII poses a problem no less acute. Here were uncov- 

 ered the remains of a tholos, or a circular building which originally 

 may have resembled a beehive dwelling (pi. 8, fig. 1). Now, pre- 

 historic tholoi are known otherwise only from the Halaf levels of 

 Arpachiya, near Nineveh. At Gawra, pure Halaf levels do not 

 occur after stratum XX. Thus architecture confirms the evidence 

 of pottery in characterizing the early Obeid deposits of Gawra as 

 composed of Obeid-Samarra as well as Halaf elements. 



Burials yielded many of the smaller objects recovered during the 

 season, including the best specimens of pottery. In fact, one of 

 the graves appears to have been a potter's burial; for the funerary 



