Middle assyrian pottery from Polish excavations on the site of Tell Rijim (Iraq). Preliminary study

Abstract

Polish excavations at the site of Tell Rijim were part of the Eski Mosul dam Salvage Project, also called the Saddam dam Basin Salvage Project,conducted in northern Iraq in the 1980s, in connection with the construction of a dam at the locality of Eski Mosul on the Tigris. 1 Explorations, directed by Piotr Bieliński, were carried out in 1984–1985 by a team from the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology of the University of Warsaw. Both interim and final reports were published from this work. 2 Tell Rijim, also called Tell Rijim omar dalle, lays approximately 25 km to the northwest of Eski-Mosul, on the western bank of the Tigris (fig. 1). It constituted part of the “Raffan microregion”3 between the Tigris on one side and Jebel Butmah on the other. The site, which covered about 2.5 ha in area, was situated on a flat natural hill rising about 28 m abovethe water level of theriver. The hill extended alongside the riverbank; it was of oval shape, 250 m long and about 100 m wide. The western part of the mound was higher than the eastern one; only this part of the site was excavated.