Wartime Austerity

The Jabur tribe, who were our neighbors, had the most liberal ideas about private ownership and there was usually a good deal of shooting during the night. It was a period of wartime austerity: so the tires of our car for instance were worth something over a hundred pounds apiece in the market, and anything else valuable had to be kept chained to our beds.

In addition, there were curious weather

conditions. One night there was a freak storm of wind, of the sort for which

the district is well known; and the next morning the whole contents of our

kitchen, including heavy cooking pots, were recovered from a corn field almost

a quarter of a mile away. It can be imagined that these conditions were not

ideal for patient and methodical work. However, this was certainly, what was

required.

The conformation of the Hassuna mound was

an extraordinarily interesting one, since it perfectly illustrated the

phenomenon, which we have previously described as a “shift in the focus of

occupation.” It was possible to understand this before starting to excavate.

Judging from the preponderance of “Ninevite I” pottery on the surface, the

earliest occupation of the site was on the east side at the apex of the

triangle formed by the convergence of the two little river beds, and it

extended from there up to the summit of the mound.

Latest inhabitants

However, the lower slopes of the mound on the west side were covered with polychrome sherds of Tell Halaf ware, which one assumed to be considerably later in date. One could see therefore that, restricted by the enclosing banks of the two streams, the village had in later times expanded westwards and that traces of its latest inhabitants would be found low down on the western flank. Moreover, this was in fact exactly how it proved when we came to excavate.

The “Ninevite I” occupation had first

created a tiny mound at the apex of the triangle: but the Tell Halaf village,

which was bigger, had spread westwards down onto the level ground behind. On

the west side therefore, the earliest remains were deeply buried: but to the

east, they lay directly beneath the surface.

Therefore, it was to the east that we began

excavating: and here we ran straight into some of the most difficult wall

tracing that we had ever experienced. There was a cluster of small primitive

houses, but they were built of pies clay, without plastering, and the material

of which the walls were made proved almost indistinguishable from the fallen

debris, which filled the rooms. It needed all the ingenuity of our best wall

tracers to recover the plan.