Imaginary Restoration

Only a few stones remained in place to suggest the shape of the latter: but a minute examination and recording of these enabled us to reconstruct the “portico” feature, which appears in our subsequent restoration. As for the temple itself by which the whole structure was crowned, no evidence of its shape remained. For the purpose of imaginary restoration we were compelled to fall back on the known appearance of the contemporary Painted Temple at ’Uqair.

Since this framework of speculation

regarding the raison deter of such isolated temple mounds has departed rather

far from the subject of excavating technique, it may be interesting as a

postscript to reflect on the frustration which Campbell Thompson must have felt

in his attempts to probe the secrets of so characteristic a Mesopotamian mound.

His previous experience had been largely in Britain. His method of approach

therefore, was to cover the site with small trial holes, seldom much more than

two yards square. These were indeed excavated with extreme care, as one gathers

from his report, in which he meticulously records, with sketches, the depth

beneath the surface and character of each sherd or email object found.

Nevertheless, one sees now that this

process could have been prolonged almost indefinitely without any prospect

whatever of coming to understand the anatomy of the mound. Nor, for that

matter, does it seem likely that any textbook rule of procedure, which is today

available, would have been over much help to a prospective excavator at a site

of this sort. In our own case, flexibility of procedure and an understanding of

what Campbell Thompson called “dissolved mud brick” were perhaps the two

factors, which contributed most to the success of our operation.

North Iraq Prehistoric Mounds

During the greater part of the two previous

chapters, our subject has been confined to the excavation of mounds in

Mesopotamia: and this country must still occupy us a little longer. The quest

for early civilizations, which we have been unconsciously following, since it

ran parallel to the evolution of an excavating technique, may now be pursued

one stage further by turning our attention northwards towards the undulating

hill country, which was once Assyria. This will still serve our primary

purpose, because northern Iraq is outside the limits of the alluvial plain and

excavating conditions are a little different from those in the south.