Jemdet Nasr

Jemdet Nasr and its environment

The name Jemdet Nasr translates as "Small mound of Nasr", named after a prominent sheikh in the early twentieth century. Jemdet Nasr is located in modern-day Babil Governorate in central Iraq, or ancient southern Mesopotamia. Before the implementation of the Musaiyib irrigation project in the 1950s, the site lay in a semi-desert area. Today, the site is located in an area that is heavily irrigated for agriculture. The tell consists of three mounds, A, B, and C, that are located adjacent to each other. Mound A is 160 by 140 metres (520 by 460 ft), 2.9 metres (9 ft 6 in) high and has a total area of 1.5 hectares (3.7 acres). Mound B, located immediately to the northeast of A, measures 350 by 300 metres (1,150 by 980 ft) for a total area of 7.5 hectares (19 acres), reaching up to 3.5 metres (11 ft) above the modern level of the plain. Mound C lies about 500 meters to the east of Mound B and is largely made up of baked brick fragments with a few Islamic period sherds found on the surface.

Occupation history

Occupation is thought to have started at least in the Ubaid period and occupied until the Early Dynastic I period. The Ubaid occupation of the site has not been explored through excavation but is inferred from pottery dating to that period, and clay sickles and a fragment of a clay cone, that were found on the surface of Mound A. Both the 1920s as well as the 1980s excavations have resulted in considerable quantities of Middle Uruk period (mid-4th millennium BC) pottery. It seems that during this period, both Mounds A and B were occupied. During the Late Uruk period (late 4th millennium BC), an extensive settlement must have existed at Mound B, but its nature is again hard to ascertain due to a lack of well-excavated archaeological contexts.

The Jemdet Nasr period settlement (3100–2900 BC) extended over an area of 4–6 hectares (9.9–14.8 acres) of Mound B. Some 0.4 hectares (0.99 acres) was occupied by the single, large mudbrick building that was excavated by Langdon, and where the clay tablets were found. In and around this building, kilns for firing pottery and baking bread were found, and other crafts like weaving. Many of these crafts, and also agricultural production, feature prominently in the proto-cuneiform tablets – indicating that much of the economy was centrally controlled and administered. In the texts from Jemdet Nasr, the term "SANGA AB" appears, which may denote a high official. The building was probably destroyed by fire. There is no evidence for far-reaching trade-contacts; no precious stones or other exotic materials were found. However, the homogeneity of the pottery that is typical for the Jemdet Nasr period suggests that there must have been intensive regional contacts. This idea is strengthened by the finding of sealings on the tablets of Jemdet Nasr that list a number of cities in southern Mesopotamia, including Larsa, Nippur, Ur, Uruk and Tell Uqair.

After the destruction of the Jemdet Nasr building, occupation of the site seems to have continued uninterrupted, as pottery forms show a gradual transition from Jemdet Nasr forms into the Early Dynastic I repertoire. At least one building of this period has been excavated at Mound B. Based on the distribution of Early Dynastic pottery on the surface, the settlement seems to have been smaller than during the Jemdet Nasr period. A single Early Dynastic I grave was found on Mound A, but no further evidence for occupation during this period. The building that was visible on the surface of the mound was probably a Parthian fortress, but due to a lack of well-dated pottery from this area this dating could not be ascertained.

Material culture

Apart from the proto-cuneiform tablets, Jemdet Nasr gained fame for its painted polychrome and monochrome pottery. Painted pots display both geometric motifs and depictions of animals, including birds, fish, goats, scorpions, snakes and trees. However, the majority of the pottery was undecorated, and the fact that most painted pottery seems to have come from the large central building suggests that it had a special function. Pottery forms included large jars, bowls, spouted vessels and cups.

A number of cylinder seals, stamp seals and cylinder seal impressions on the clay tablets have been found at Jemdet Nasr. Stylistically, these seals are a continuation of the preceding Uruk period. The cylinder seals display humans as well as animals in a very crude style. Over 80 of the clay tablets bore a sealing, showing humans, animals, buildings, containers and more abstract designs. None of the sealings on the tablets was made by the seals that were found at the site, indicating that sealing either occurred outside Jemdet Nasr or that seals could also be made of perishable materials. One sealing, found on thirteen tablets, lists the names of a number of cities surrounding Jemdet Nasr, including Larsa, Nippur, Ur and Uruk.

The exact findspots of many objects retrieved during the 1920s excavations could no longer be reconstructed due to the poor publication standards, so that many can only be dated by comparing them with what has been found at other sites that do have a good stratigraphy and chronological control. Many of the objects found during the 1920s could be dated from the Uruk period to the Early Dynastic I period. Very few copper objects were found in Jemdet Nasr. These included an adze, a fish-hook and a small pendant in the shape of a goose. A particular type of stone vessel with ledge handles and a rim decorated by incised rectangles has so far not been found at any other site. The function of a number of flat polished stones incised with lines forming a cross is uncertain, but it has been suggested that they were used as bolas. They are common in Uruk period sites. Because clay as a raw material is widely available around Jemdet Nasr, clay objects are very common. Clay objects included baked clay bricks, clay sickles, fragments of drain pipes, spatulas, spindle whorls and miniature wagon wheels. Beads, small pendants and figurines were made of bone, shell, stone, clay and frit.

Proto-cuneiform texts

The clay tablets that were reported to the excavators of Kish in 1925 may not have been the first to come from Jemdet Nasr. Already before 1915, a French antiquities dealer had bought tablets that reportedly came from the site through looting. He sold them in lots to the French dealer Dumani Frères, the Louvre and the British Museum, while those resold to Dumani Frères were subsequently purchased by James Breasted for the Oriental Institute in Chicago. Another group of tablets was purchased in Kish in the 1930s and of these it was asserted that they came from Jemdet Nasr, although this is unlikely due to stylistic differences between these tablets and those excavated at Jemdet Nasr in 1926. During the first regular excavation season in 1926, between 150 and 180 tablets were found in Mound B; the error margin resulting from gaps in the administration kept by the excavators. Some of these tablets may actually have come from the 1928 excavations under Watelin. The tablets from the regular excavations are stored in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad. Two Uruk V period (c. 3500-3350 BC) clay tablets, called "numerical tablets" or "impressed tablets", were found at the site.

The Jemdet Nasr tablets are written in proto-cuneiform script. Proto-cuneiform is thought to have arisen in the second half of the 4th millennium BC. While at first it was characterized by a small set of symbols that were predominantly pictographs, by the time of the Jemdet Nasr period, there was already a trend toward more abstract and simpler designs. It is also during this period that the script acquired its iconic wedge-shaped appearance. While the language in which these tablets were written cannot be identified with certainty, it is thought to have been Sumerian. Contemporary archives have been found at Uruk, Tell Uqair and Khafajah.

The tablets from Jemdet Nasr are primarily administrative accounts; long lists of various objects, foodstuffs and animals that were probably distributed among the population from a centralized authority. Thus, these texts document, among other things, the cultivation, processing and redistribution of grain, the counting of herds of cattle, the distribution of secondary products like beer, fish, fruit and textiles, as well as various objects of undefinable nature. Six tablets deal with the calculation of agricultural field areas from surface measurements, which is the earliest attested occurrence of such calculations.