The Burnt House at Arpachiyah: A Reexamination

Mallowan's excavations at Arpachiyah in northern Iraq in 1933 uncovered a Burnt House at the summit of the mound. Although the importance of the discovery has been recognized ever since as vital evidence for society in the late Halaf (mid-fifth millennium B. C.; ca. 5300 cal B. C.) in northern Mesopotamia, the basic data have never been reviewed and no comprehensive interpretation has been put forward. Using both published and unpublished material, this article attempts to review the evidence and propose a new interpretation, based on the current knowledge of the period. It is suggested that the Burnt House was the last in a series of structures where exchange-of obsidian, among other commodities-took place within a formalized social context, and it was through this role that Arpachiyah acted as a center of regional integration. The destruction of the Burnt House may have been a deliberate, ritual act.