Hamrin dam
Tell Hassan
The excavation of Tell Hassan, which took place in 1978-1979, brought to light 13 occupational levels of settlements dating from the Halaf period (late 6th millennium B. C.) to the Sasanian period (224 A. D.). It must be noted that actual architectural structures are related to the most ancient phase only, the Halaf period, in levels I-II and, to a lesser degree, levels III-IV. In level V the village was abandoned.
In the western part of the site, extending over approximately one and a half hectares, dwellings that span the four levels 1-4 were discovered. The central part, on the other hand, is crossed by a ditch, at the bottom of which layers corresponding to the deepest levels of the adjacent village were recognized. To the east remains of structures pertaining to the village were uncovered suggesting that the area was dedicated to productive activities, such as a ceramics kiln belonging to level 1.
Levels I and II
In level Ia, the most ancient one, the dwellings brought to light are limited to 11 rooms, built on virgin soil. Level Ib, excavated more thoroughly, follows the organisation of the rooms of Ia.
The architectural structures are delimited by an open area to the west, probably a courtyard, and, to the east, by another open area occupied by two large pits dug into the virgin soil. Several functional areas were identified inside the settlement: dwellings to the north, and productive and storage areas to the south; a sling balls depot, a stoneworker’s shop; to the east, beyond the previously mentioned ditch, a kiln, probably used for ceramics, was found. The residential area was plausibly occupied by more than one family, because several rooms were used as kitchens.
Level II displays a certain architectural continuity with the previous level, although the settled area in the northwestern part was replaced by an open area. Moreover, some rooms that had a more specialized function in the previous phase, like the stone workshop and a living room, were nnow used for several purposes.
In this level too, as in the previous ones, several kilns were found. In one room, white or pink plaster disks were found next to a kiln. They may have been used to check the colours used to paint the pottery.
Levels III and IV
Level III is not well preserved, mostly due to the Isin-Larsa graves cutting across the settlement’s centre and to the strong erosion in the northern part; consequently, the structures are often difficult to recognise.
However, structures have been identified in the eastern part of the tell: specifically a tholos, a type of building with a circular layout that, almost always in association with quadrangular buildings, is typical of Halaf settlements throughout Mesopotamia. Our tholos was probably used for storing perishable goods or as a shelter for animals: it contained virtually no pottery fragments or utensils.
Very little remains of level IV, including what was probably the wall of a kiln in the eastern area. An interesting element is given by the different construction technique. The tauf, which in the previous levels had a high content of straw, is now mostly sandy.
Halaf pottery
The Hamrin basin, in the middle valley of the Diyala river, is delimited to the east by the westernmost slopes of the Zagros and, to the west, by the Jebel Hamrin hill range, that separates this region from the floodplain of southern Mesopotamia.
It is therefore very distant from the place where Halaf culture was born, around the start of the 6th millennium B.C.: the valleys of the Khabur river’s tributaries in upper Syria.
In fact, the Hamrin area represents the southernmost point of expansion of Halaf culture, here documented in its final phase. It is a culture characterized, throughout its approximately one millennium-long history, by ceramics of exceptionally high quality, made in ine fabric, typically in orange, buff and pink colour, and often decorated with brown, orange, red or black paint that in its latest phase may also be polychrome.
In fact, in addition to stone utensils made from flint of very good quality and from obsidian, clay figurines and tools typical of a late-Neolithic agricultural village, lavish and plentiful painted ceramics stand out among the materials of our Halaf village. Besides its aesthetic value, this material is of interest for many reasons: first of all, it is not a homogeneous assemblage but comprises several different types of ware.
One type of ware, found prevalently inside the village, is characterized by a more or less fine fabric whose main colour ranges from orange to buff, usually with a glossy surface and painted decoration. The typical shape is the bowl, often decorated both inside and outside in an almost endless number of variations on crosshatching or horizontal waves.
Level II and subsequent levels saw the appearance of fine bowls with a glossy surface, lavishly decorated with polychrome zigzag motifs and ovules that cover the entire surface, as well as of vases decorated with a stylized bird motif covering a wide surface area. These decorations do not replace the previously mentioned crosshatched bowls, that are still very frequent, but embellish the household furnishings with pieces displaying an exceptional degree of lavish craftsmanship and creativity.
A second type of ware comes from the already mentioned central ditch, whose
oldest levels, however washed out, appear to be contemporary to those of the
village. The vases shapes are also the same as those found in the village,
but with entirely different decorative patterns: typical examples include
bowls with disc- or ring-shaped bases, while typical decorations include close
bands of orange-red horizontal lines.
In the upper layers, such "striped" decoration is
still a distinctive element, especially on open and sinuous shapes, but a
new material, made from a greenish or buff fabric, with a higher sand
content compared to the previous one, is also present. These bowls continue with an imperceptible evolution, in the vases of level V,
dated to the Obeid 3 phase.
Another type of ware is present in the western part of the village, beyond a pebbly alley, in a dwelling that is unfortunately heavily eroded. In this area the pottery displays further differences. The “village” lavish material is absent, while an often overfired ware, with coarser, sandy fabric and green, brown or purple paintings appears. The decoration patterns imitate the crosshatching of the village, along with new elements. In fact, we may find, for example, a large green jar with diamond and goat decorations, or a small globular vase with a band of scorpions painted on its shoulder.
On a stratigraphical basis, these different ceramic types seem to display one at least partial contemporaneity, possibly with different groups or clans that, while maintaining their own characteristics due to the conservativism that is typical of agricultural societies, lived side by side. The wealth and variety of painted decoration testify the importance given in Neolithic times to this everyday material, which assumed important functions in communicating the system of values and social identity of a society, but also the ability and creativity of individual potters.
With time, mutual influence was inevitable, however gradual and imperceptible. As we have seen, one of these wares evolved through a process of transition that ended in the Obeid ceramics of level V.
Level V
With level Va the Halaf village was abandoned and, with the two phases of the Obeid 3 period (5th millennium B.C.), the settlement clearly shifted towards east: the actual settlement was not found, but it was probably located under the houses of the modern inhabitants. Phase V comprises a great central ditch and a canal that ran across the eastern part of the site. The central ditch was probably used to store water, which, led into the canal from a nearby waterway, was used by the nearby settlement.
The subsequent level Vb is composed of a few architectural structures that emerged above the ditch in the eastern part of the site, with remains of fireplaces and household activities (pottery, animal bones, spindle whorls), and a craftsmen’s area, with kilns, one of which had two chambers and was used to bake pottery, as it contained remains of over-fired vessels.
As mentioned earlier, subsequent human presence became limited to graves that, from the Uruk period (IV millennium B. C.) to Sasanian times were laid by travellers or by the inhabitants of the surrounding areas.