538 ANNUAL KEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 193 5 



habitation that were revealed in this pit belong to three main cultures, 

 viz, the second aeneolithic, marking the transition between the neo- 

 lithic and the bronze ages, the Sumero-Akkadian, and the Hurrian. 

 Twenty centuries elapsed from the date of the lowest level to that of 

 the uppermost. 



The Second Aeneolithic Culture (second half of the fourth millen- 

 nium). — Levels 1-4, extending from 6.45 to 4.17 meters below the 

 present level of the plain : 



The archeological material from the first three levels, which is 

 fairly uniform, consists chiefly of painted pottery of the " S'usa II " 

 type. Animal figurines in clay, whorls, needles, flints, and nobbed 

 and incised ware were also in evidence. In the adobe walls individual 

 unburnt bricks could not be distinguished. On level 4 signs of prog- 

 ress begin to appear. A rudimentary potter's wheel comes into use, 

 and new types of pottery begin to displace the graceful painted speci- 

 mens of the earlier levels. Well-made unburnt bricks can now be 

 easily distinguished in the walls, and infant burials in bowls appear 

 for the first time. These significant changes, which do not necessarily 

 indicate the advent of alien invaders, were verified in the stratification 

 of Kudish Zaghir, a small mound rising to 6.75 meters about li/^ 

 miles south of Yorghan Tepe. The whole period of human occupa- 

 tion on Kudish is limited to the time of the four lowest levels at 

 Yorghan, for Kudish was abandoned at the end of the prehistoric 

 period. In the region of Mosul (about 100 miles northwest of Nuzi), 

 Dr. E. A. Speiser discovered similar conditions: Tepe Gawra, like 

 Kudish, is primarily prehistoric; Tell Billah (8 miles away), like 

 Yorghan, is both prehistoric and Hurrian. 



The Sumero-Akkadian Culture (third millennium). — ^Levels 5-13, 

 extending from 4.17 meters below the level of the plain to 2.17 meters 

 above it : 



Levels 5-11 belong approximately to the first 6 centuries of the 

 third millennium; the period between level 11 (0.69 meter below the 

 plain) and level 12 (1.6 meters above the plain) as well as level 12 

 belong to the last 3 or 4 centuries of the third millennium ; level 13 

 is dated by a tablet unmistakably Cappadocian about 2000 B. C. The 

 culture of levels 5-11, although still presenting some relations with 

 the earlier period in its early stages, is fundamentally that of the 

 dynasty of Sargon of Akkad (about 2700-2500). This is particularly 

 obvious in the case of the wheel-turned unpainted pottery, the cylin- 

 der seals and seal impressions (levels 8-10), and the cuneiform tablets 

 (most of them on levels 9-10, a few on level 11 ; a single one, out of 

 place, on level 7). Copper came to light on level 6, bronze on level 9. 

 The ovens on level 6 are flat and without a vent hole, on level 7 high 

 and with an aperture at the top, on level 8 they have the bee-hive 



