Shell Objects from Tell Rad Shaqrah (Syria)

Dariusz Szeląg Shell Objects from Tell Rad Shaqrah (Syria) Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean 22, 587-616 2010 Shell objects from Tell Rad Shaqrah (Syria) Syria Shell objects from Tell Rad Shaqrah (Syria) Dariusz Szeląg Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw Abstract: Polish excavations at Tell Rad Shaqrah in northeastern Syria revealed remains of a settlement dated primarily to the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. The paper presents a collection of beads and pendants made of shell and nacre from Rad Shaqrah, mostly from funerary contexts. These beads and pendants find parallels among finds from sites in northern Syria and Mesopotamia (Tell al-Raqa’i, Tell Beydar, Tell Brak, Tell Bi’a, Tawi, Qara Quzaq, Mari etc.) and also from southern Mesopotamia (Ur, Uruk, Abu Salabikh). Among the shell artifacts there are also items made of exotic shells, which raises the question of trade and exchange of shells in northern Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium BC. Keywords: Tell Rad Shaqrah, shell/nacre artifacts, personal adornment, beads, zoomorphic pendants, quadrupeds The site From the late 1980s through the mid1990s Polish archaeologists participated in an international archaeological salvage program initiated in connection with the building of the Hassake Dam on the Khabur river in northeastern Syria (International Salvage Program of the Hassake Dam Area). The Hassake Southern Dam Project covered one of the areas under investigation and Tell Rad Shaqrah was the northernmost site in this area. It was excavated in 1991–1995 by a team from the Polish Centre of Mediterranean 1 Archaeology of the University of Warsaw headed by Prof. Piotr Bieliński.1 Tell Rad Shaqrah was a small tell, approximately 140 m by 120 m, rising 8 m above ground level (305 m a.s.l.), located on the eastern bank of the river about 15 km southeast of Hassake [Fig. 1]. Excavations uncovered the remains of a small settlement from the second half of the 3rd millennium BC (Early Dynastic III). Possible earlier occupation of the site was suggested by a smattering of potsherds attributed to Late Ninevite 5 culture For preliminary field reports, see Bieliński 1992; 1993; 1994; 1995; 1996. On excavations at Tell Rad Shaqrah, see also Koliński 1996. 587 PAM 22, Research 2010 Dariusz Szeląg Syria and a single pot-stand of Bichrome Ware (Koliński 1996). The site was settled also in the Akkadian period and after a long interval again in the Iron Age, in the NeoAssyrian period (Koliński 1996: 67; Reiche 1999). Shell finds from Tell Rad Shaqrah Excavations produced both unworked shells and artifacts made of shell,2 but neither were ever studied by specialists. The shells were not properly identified Fig. 1. Contour plan of Tell Rad Shaqrah showing the location of excavated areas (object inventory numbers in the catalogue herein are coded by the letters designating individual trenches) (Drawing A. Schneider; digitizing M. Wagner) 2 The excavation register from Tell Rad Shaqrah listed altogether 71 shells or fragments of shells: 22 were described as bivalves, the rest as shells. The latter group could have included more bivalves, but also, for example, land snails, the presence of which in archaeological layers could have been natural after all and not necessarily from the 3rd millennium BC. 588 PAM 22, Research 2010 Shell objects from Tell Rad Shaqrah (Syria) Syria to species, which would have been of particular importance had any exotic shells been found. The author has attempted to identify shell species based on drawings and photos, but the results cannot be considered as binding. Species identification is a broader issue which has been brought up also with regard to the origin of shell raw material used in Mesopotamia as well as ready shell products from this region (e.g., Gensheimer 1984: 65–67, 69–72; Moorey 1999: 129–130). Identification is especially difficult with regard to highly worked forms (Gensheimer 1984: 65). Shells in Mesopotamia Mollusks3 were used in Mesopotamia and the entire Near East from the earliest periods, from the Paleolithic as food (von den Driesch 1995: 350, listing terrestrial, freshwater and marine species from the Near East) and from the Neolithic and early Chalcolithic as ornaments, mainly because of the durability of the material (Gensheimer 1984: 67, Musche 1992: 9, 12, 31, see also Pl. VII: 1, 4, 5.2–5.6, examples from Ubaid culture). Intensive use of shells in Mesopotamia, both natural and as worked products, is observed from the turn of the 4th millennium BC (Gensheimer 1984: 67). From the Epipaleolithic shells were the object of exchange, trade in these products intensifying in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC often between very distant regions (von den Driesch 1995: 351). Shell artifacts found in Mesopotamia frequently originated from the Gulf of Oman; starting from the mid-3rd millennium BC or slightly later they also came from coastal India either directly or through intermediaries like the merchants of Oman (Gensheimer 1984: 65–67, 72). It has been pointed out (Moorey 1999: 129) that while the use of perforated shells as ornaments began from prehistoric times, it was in the 3rd millennium BC, especially in the ED II and ED III, that production of shell artifacts boomed. It does not come as a surprise because it was also a period of extensive trade contacts with regions where shells of marine snails used in craftwork, were commonly available. The role of shells in cult practices (von den Driesch 1995: 351–354) or more broadly socio-ritual functions (Gensheimer 1984: 65, 67) has been recognized based on texts of a magical nature and the context of some of the shell finds (temples, foundation deposits). It has been confirmed by the presence of shells and shell artifacts in deposits from Ashur (e.g., Ishtar temple, Ashur-Enlil ziggurat, see Andrae 1935: 24–25, 54–57, Pls 26:a, 27:a-b, Middle- and Neo-Assyrian), Mari (e.g., Ninhursag temple, see Beyer, JeanMarie 2007, ED III), Nineveh (so-called “Perlenstratum” probably connected with the Ishtar temple, see Gut et alii 2001, ED III–Akkadian), Tell Bi’a (Temple C, see Bivalves could have been part of the diet of the inhabitants of Tell Rad Shaqrah, which lies on the Khabur. Bivalves were consumed in the Near East from the Paleolithic and the most common species found on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers was Unio tigridis (von den Driesch 1995: 350). The bivalves shells from Tell Rad Shaqrah may have represented the most common species of Unio tigridis, Unionacea order of river bivalves (von den Driesch 1995: 350). 3 Mollusks are extremely numerous, divided into several classes. Of interest for the purposes of this study are the ones that form shells: snails (Gastropoda), tusk shells (Scaphopoda) and bivalves (Bivalvia). 589 PAM 22, Research 2010 Dariusz Szeląg Syria Miglus, Strommenger 2002: Pls 129–131) and other sites. In Nineveh shell beads constituted the second lar (...truncated)