Drahoslav Hulínek (Photo: Martin Frouz)
Today, Mar Shiprim invites you to ancient Sumer! The Slovak Archaeological and Historical Institute – SAHI, in cooperation with Iraqi institutions, launched in 2016 a long-term archaeological research project of the Tell Jokha site, in Southern Mesopotamia. The project is led by Drahoslav Hulínek, who has kindly agreed to describe to us in the following article the most recent activities carried out at Tell Jokha, and the most interesting discoveries made by the expedition on the site.
Slovak – Iraqi project SAHI-Tell Jokha
Exploration of ancient city of Umma
Drahoslav Hulínek
Slovak – Iraqi Project SAHI Tell Jokha carries out one of the most important archeological excavations south of Baghdad, in Iraq. It is the most extensive foreign archeological activity in the history of Slovak archeology. It is not a negligible statement because Slovak Republic has had and has its archeological teams participating in various important projects in Kuwait, Syria, Egypt, Sudan, Bulgaria and Guatemala, among others. Since the second season in 2017, on average 17 professionals, mainly from Slovakia, Iraq and Switzerland, have been participating in the project.
The project director is the author of this article Dr. Drahoslav Hulínek. Slovak Archaeological and Historical Institute – SAHI cooperates within the project with sumerologists from Swiss universities: Prof. Dr. Catherine Mittermayer from University of Geneva, Département des sciences de l’antiquité, Unité D’études mésopotamiennes; and Dr. Johanna Tudeau from Institut für Archäologische, Wissenschaften – Abteilung Vorderasiatische Archäologie in Universität Bern. Both researchers work on translations and interpretation of written texts found on the site. Geodetic support of the project is provided by the Slovak University of Technology, with chief surveyor Dr. Tibor Lieskovský, coordinating the team of surveyors.
Tell Jokha: the archaeological site, 2017. Photo: Project SAHI-Tell Jokha (Martin Frouz).
Project SAHI Tell Jokha explores the site in the area of ancient Sumer in southern Mesopotamia. It is the site Tell Jokha, where Umma, one of the most important ancient cities, is situated. In present day, this area is situated in the district of Er Rifain, in the province of Dhi Qar province. Since the 19th century, the site has been well known to scientists but to looters as well, unfortunately.
Especially since 1900, Tell Jokha has been the most looted archeological sites in Mesopotamia. The looting of the site culminated in 2003. This happened after the occupation of Iraq by the US military and its allies, as the site was not protected by the Iraqi authorities during this time. More than a hundred looters camped in various groups on the archeological site. Only the later activity of the US Army and the subsequent protection of the site by Italian Carabinieri brought an end to the looting. Following the re-establishment of the Iraqi government, the site is now protected by local archaeological police. Nevertheless, it still does not escape the attention of the robbers.
The constant threat to the site from looters was an important impulse to start a systematic archaeological research through the Slovak-Iraqi project Archaeological Project SAHI Tell Jokha. Slovak side is represented by Slovak Archaeological and Historical Institute, which is located in Bratislava.
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 Ceramic collections from the grave TJ17-2B-K9, Trench 2B (above) and terracotta statuettes from excavations and survey (below). Project SAHI-Tell Joha 2017 (photo: Martin Frouz). |
The archeological research of this site is one of the most important preventive activities against the lootings. Another important reason to research Tell Jokha is primarily the scientific activity which is carried out in the area of the tell. Through it, we want to obtain the most accurate stratigraphy of its archaeological layers, in order to determine precisely the beginning and the end of the human settlement and use. Another important goal is to gather as much information as possible from the Early Dynastic period of Sumerian city-states. In addition to the identification of find situations such as architectures, graves or tombs, we uncover also art objects as well as items of everyday use, but also clay tablets with inscriptions. So far, most of the information about Umma in the Early Dynastic period comes from clay tablets found in other Sumerian sites. This also applies to the information, known in the wider scientific community, about the conflict between the city-states in Lagash and Girsu and the city-state of Umma: most of the information about this conflict comes from other contemporary site, while very few data could be gathered from Umma itself. Despite the looting, we now have more than 30.000 clay tablets from Umma, mostly from the Ur III and Old Babylonian period. Unfortunately however, most of these clay tablets do not come from relevant archeological contexts, and therefore their informative value is incomplete.
Another goal of Project SAHI Tell Jokha is to continue the research of the Temple of Shara, which was largely uncovered by the Iraqi archeologist in 1999/2003. We want to find out what its economic and social background was. Through our research, we want to ascertain the definitive chronology of the construction of this shrine, more precisely whether its origins may indeed be dated back to the Early Dynastic period (so far, most scientists date it to the Ur III period). An equally important aim of this project is to gradually uncover the maximum extent possible of the ancient city of Umma.
Such pre-set goals have been addressed in the field during four seasons: 2016; 2017; 2019; 2020. Excavations are currently underway in two trenches, and the total excavated area is roughly 371 square meters.
The remains of a brick wall from the Temple of Shara. Tell Jokha 2016. Photo: Project SAHI-Tell Jokha.
In 2016 we set up Trench 1 in the northwest corner of the Temple of Shara and its surrounding area. It consists of two squares (1A a 1B), each covering an area of 10x10m. Various sanitary and hygienic features, including heating structures, ceramic pipes and tanks were uncovered here during all the four seasons of excavations. In regard to the occurrence of architectures, the most relevant situation can be found in the square 1A: there, we uncovered large object with multiple rooms, that were used for sanitary purposes.
Trench 1A: Chronological levels 3 and 4.
Now we know with certainty that there are two construction phases of this architecture, Level 3 and 4; the possibility that there could have been two different structures has not yet been confirmed. According to the latest analysis of the find situations from this area, the individual contexts from Level 4 are from the Sargonic/Old Akkadian period. However, we still cannot rule out the possibility that remnants of certain brick walls originated in the Early Dynastic period.
Square 1B was explored only in 2020, but we can already state that several wall structures from this area are clearly related to multiple find situations in the unit 1A.
Trench 2B, Grave K25. View from SE. Project SAHI-Tell Jokha (Lukáš Trnkus, 2019).
During the second season of the project in 2017 we opened Trench 2, in the highest area of the tell. This trench consists of two units (2A and 2B), with an area of 9x9m (2B) and 9x10m (2A). There, we identified many pits and disturbed area, to be related to the previous lootings. We uncovered multiple remains of various structures, but they were damaged by looting pits and therefore only partially preserved. It was only in Level 5, and especially in square 2A, that we reached the layers from the Early Dynastic period – where we uncovered clay tablets with inscriptions. We also found graves with ceramic grave goods and beads. In a child‘s grave (probably from the Ur III period, found in 2017) in the Trench 2B there were also beads made of gold, and a fragment of one inscribed clay tablet. A total of 18 clay tablets with cuneiform inscriptions, wither complete or the in fragmentary conditions, were found in the Trench 2. These tablets confirmed the current identified chronological line of excavations: they are from tje Old Babylonian, Ur III, Old Akkadian (Sargonic) and Early Dynastic periods. Some of the tablets were not found in undisturbed layers, but in secondary interventions and backfills following the lootings. Despite that, through their finding as well as the analysis of ceramics we could confirm that the city of Umma lasted continuously until the Old Babylonian period. While many researchers had previously expressed doubts about the continuous existence of the city until the first third of the 2nd millennium BC, thanks to the Project SAHI-Tell Jokha such doubts have been disproved.
The discovery of clay tablets, found only in the Trench 2A in 2019, has been particularly significant. Three of them were found in undisturbed contemporary layers: that means that they were not touched by any modern intervention, whether by looting or undocumented archeological research from the past. The clay tablets significantly helped to determine the stratigraphy in the Trench 2 and to date the contexts, find situations and levels.
Tablets T2, T3 and T4 from Trench 2A in situ. Project SAHI-Tell Jokha (Photo: Martin Frouz, 2017).
The oldest document is from the Early Dynastic IIIb period (2550/2540–2350 BC), and it bears witness to Ensi from Umma. This tablet (marked with the inventory number TJ19-2A-K54-T1) consists in a fragment approximately 4,3×5,2 cm in size, and it consists of three columns of text which is related to the sale of a field. Three people participated in this contractual business deal. The first mentioned person in the contract is a shepherd (sipa), whose name is not fully preserved. The second individual is named Mlu2-kala-ga. On the reverse side of the tablet, the third person is mentioned: he was the highest ranking individual participating in the trade, i.e. the governor (Ensi) of Umma. Unfortunately, his name has not been completely preserved. This clay tablet, written in Sumerian, is unambiguously from the Early Dynastic period – phase IIIb and it is a part of a series of contracts related to the group sales of various commodities, including lands and pastures. Its find confirms that we are gradually getting to the phases of the settlement of the Tell Jokha, related to the Early Dynastic period. From Sargonic or the Early Dynastic period are also three more fragments of clay tablets, which have been uncovered in 2020.
In the Trench 2 we reached levels 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 in both units: chronologically, then, we reached the levels related to the period of Third Dynasty of Ur and Sargonic/Old Akkadian period, but also more substantially to the Early Dynastic period. Based on the topographic survey we can state with certainty that the inhabited area of Tell Jokha in antiquity was 400ha. The center of this ancient city was around 30-40ha large. The highest point of the tell reaches 24,69m above the sea level. Based on the comparative geodetic, geomorfologic and archeological analysis, we assume that the cultural-anthropogenic layer has a maximum of ca. 16m here. Average altitude of the tell is approximate 6 to 10m above the sea level. During the topographic survey we found seal impressions that come from the area of Harappan culture in today’s India and Pakistan. These finds only emphasize the compelling evidence of documented contacts between the inhabitants of Southern Mesopotamia and northeastern areas of the indian subcontinent.
Project SAHI-Tell Jokha: the archaeological team.
Our goal is to continue with our research work in the field. We are currently looking at the options of carrying out full-fledged season of the Project SAHI-Tell Jokha on the site in Iraq in 2021. But of course, it all depends mainly on the development of the pandemic situation of COVID 19, and the possibility of being vaccinated against it.