TEPE GAWRA — SPEISER 445 



had spread from the shores of the Mediterranean to the valley of 

 the Tigris, a remarkable expanse for neolithic times. From that 

 time on, Gawra managed to attract all the important early civili- 

 zations now known to Eastern Asia : the Halafian, Obeid-Samarra, 

 the northern phases of the Uruk, Jemdet Nasr, and Early Dynastic 

 cultures, and representatives of Akkadian, Old Assyrian, and Hur- 

 rian times. Here the story breaks off, because the conical mound 

 had grown too tall and limited for practical occupation. And 

 well it might break off at this point. From here on, hundreds of 

 scattered mounds and tens of thousands of inscriptions take up 

 the tale. The middle of the second millennium B. C. is a compara- 

 tively modern period in the light of today. Nor are the preceding 

 millennia so obscure now as they once were. A brooding Sargon 

 may have pondered over the secrets buried in Gawra, as he viewed 

 the mound from his palace in nearby Dur Sharrukin. Shepherds 

 watching their flocks from this tall vantage point may have mused 

 drowsily about the treasures within. Today these treasures are no 

 longer imaginary. Archeology has rescued them from their ob- 

 scurity and turned them into so many milestones of ancient times. 

 But the essential mystery of it all remains undiminished. 



