The Urban Archaeology of Early Kish. 3rd Millennium BCE Levels at Tell Ingharra

This research reconsiders one of the most important phases of the history of the ancient city of Kish in a way that Harriet Martin (1988: 7) defined as an “academic kind of salvage archaeology”. The text has been organized as follows: Chapter 1 provides an overview on the history of the research on Kish (from early the 1900s until today), with the aim of understanding the process and stages that led us to the current understanding of the site and the related issues. Chapter 2 illustrates the aims and methods applied in this research. Chapters 3 to 5 are organized according to the three macro-periods of occupation discussed in this research (i.e. from the late 4th millennium BCE to the end of the 3rd millennium BCE). In each chapter, a detailed discussion of the stratigraphy, architecture, burials and the stratified material culture (pottery assemblage and small finds) is provided for each structural phase. The urban origins of the city (Jemdet Nasr to Early Dynastic I-II periods, 3100-2600 BCE) are described in Chapter 3, while Chapter 4 discusses the development of the city during its most flourishing period (Early Dynastic III, 2600-2350 BCE). In Chapter 5 the evidence dating from the Akkadian and Ur III (2350-2000 BCE) periods from Tell Ingharra are considered. In the concluding chapter (Chapter 6) the results of the stratigraphic, architectural and urban analyses are correlated with other relevant areas of the site with a reliable and comparable sequence (PCB, Tell A and areas JA and JP), in order to offer a new comprehensive chronostratigraphy and the urban reconstruction of the site between the late 4th and the end of the 3rd millennium BCE.