Arpachiyah 1976

The tell at Arpachiyah in Northern Iraq has proved to be a key site in providing detailed information concerning the Halaf culture. At the suggestion of Dr. Joan Oates and Professor David Oates an eight week season of excavations was begun on the site on 5th September, 1976. Mr. Tariq Aziz, the former Iraqi Minister of Information, arranged a grant to help finance this season. The staff consisted of two conservators (Mr. Jalal Ibrahim and Mr. Kalil Qabtan), a photographer (Mr. Mudhir al Khalide) two experienced Shergati excavators with three assistants, and the author as director. I would like to express my gratitude to the staff of the Mosul Museum, Mr. Manhal Jebur, Mr. M. Said al-Iraqi, and Mr. Hazim Abdulhamid. In addition special thanks go to Dr. Isa Salman, the Director General of Antiquities at the time, and to Dr. B. Abu es-Soof. During our two months on the tell we were visited by the late Professor Fuad Safar, Dr. Oates, Mr. M. A. Mustafa and Mr. T. Matsutani, all of whom provided us with sound advice which certainly assisted in the solution of some of the more difficult problems we encountered.The basic intention of these excavations was to expand on Sir Max Mallowan's 1933 season at Arpachiyah, to check and, if possible, to improve on the archaeological sequence that he established and which was published in this journal in 1935. The information produced in this report is taken in part from the writer's Ph.D. dissertation, The Halaf Culture in Mesopotamia, Institute of Archaeology, London University, to be submitted in 1980.