The Development of Settlement in the North Jazira between the 7th and 1st Millennia BC

This, the second report on the activities of a team from the British Archaeological Expedition to Iraq in the north Jazira, will present an overview of the results of the first four seasons of fieldwork. A review of settlement change since the first millennium BC will be reserved for a future publication. The first two seasons of survey (autumn 1986 and 1987), which concentrated on the region around Tell al-Hawa, were followed, in autumn 1988, by a season of excavation of three sites within the hinterland: Tulul al-Biyadir, Tell al-Hilwa and Khanijdal. The most recent season, conducted over some four months between September 1989 and February 1990, resulted in a total survey coverage of some 475 sq km. In addition, a single Late Assyrian/Hellenistic/Parthian site (Khirbet ‘Aloki) was excavated to investigate the sequence of settlement within the area of putative Neo-Assyrian colonisation. The first interim report (Ball, Tucker and Wilkinson 1989, henceforth, Ball et al. 1989) presented an introduction to the area and the rescue project; this report will focus upon the development of settlement and the influence that early route systems had upon settlement patterns.