Urban Dynamics of the Bronze Age at the Northern Periphery of Mesopotamia: Excavations at Bassetki

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Peter Pfälzner
• Subject Area: Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
• Term: since 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 407319400

The project investigates the dynamics of urban development in Northern Mesopotamia from the Early to the Late Bronze Age. Archaeological excavations at Bassetki (Dohuk region, Iraq-Kurdistan) are carried out to approach this topic. It is a Bronze Age city of 50 ha in size, consisting of an upper and a lower city. As established by Middle Assyrian textual finds at the site, it is the city of Mardama(n), which was a provincial capital in the Middle Assyrian Empire. However, the city is already attested in Old Assyrian times, the Ur III period, and in the Akkad period. This long city history is consistently provable by the archaeological stratigraphy. Moreover, it has been found out that the city dates back to the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC, the Early Ninevite V period. Within the context of the overarching urbanistic question, five objectives were defined for the project, which together are intended to increase our knowledge of the long-term urban development of northern Mesopotamia from the early 3rd to the late 2nd millennium BC. These are: 1.) clarifying the early urbanization of Bassetki in the Ninevite V period (3000-2650), in which the settlement already exhibits urban features due to a city wall; 2.) clarifying the role of Akkad in northern Mesopotamia (2350-2200), focusing on the question of whether and how Akkadian rule manifested itself in this city. A contextual reconstruction of the copper statue base with inscription of the Akkadian king Naram Sin, which was accidentally found at the site in 1975, will be pursued by the excavations in order to gain more insights into this question; 3.) the clarification of the processes and consequences of the urban crisis of the late 3rd millennium BC (2200-2000), which revolves around the questions of whether the city or part of it were temporarily abandoned at this time and whether a change in subsistence economy took place during this period; 4. ) clarifying the economic role of the Middle Bronze Age city (2000-1600), which may owe its prosperity to participation in the Old Assyrian trading system; and 5.) clarifying the role of the city in the Middle Assyrian period (1300-1100), in which the site featured an Assyrian governor's seat whose architectural and functional design needs to be clarified. These questions will be answered in four excavation areas, two of which are located in the upper city and two in the lower city. The site of Bassetki offers ideal conditions to investigate the changing development of an urban center of the Bronze Age against the background of changing economic, political, social and ecological conditions. The excavation project is scheduled for six years (2018-2024), three of which have already been completed, so that the present application requests funding for the second three-year project phase.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants