Odaka et al., Shakar Tepe 2019

Late Neolithic in the Shahrizor Plain, Iraqi Kurdistan:
New Excavations at Shakar Tepe, 2019
Takahiro Odaka, Osamu Maeda, Kazuya Shimogama, Yuichi S. Hayakawa,
Yoshihiro Nishiaki, Nawshirwan A. Mohammed, and Kamal Rasheed
New excavations at Shakar Tepe in the Shahrizor Plain,
Iraqi Kurdistan, have revealed late 7th millennium BCElayers. Indigenous ceramic and lithic assemblages –chronologically ﬁxed by radiocarbon dates – ﬁll a partof a rather unknown hiatus in the Late Neolithic sequence of the Shahrizor Plain. In addition, they imply
the complex patterns of regional relationships in theperiods between Neolithisation and urbanisation.
The Shahrizor Plain is an intermontane valley along
the Zagros ﬂanks, located in the Sulaymaniyah Gover-upper level, part of an oven (Str. 1) was recovered in
the southeastern corner of the trench. The middle levelcontains a straight tauf wall (Str. 2). Below this wall,in the lower level, thick Late Neolithic deposits extend
down to the virgin soil. Eight of the ten radiocarbon
dates made on charcoal fall between 6400 and 6000
cal. BCE; two samples containing only small amountsof carbon (<400μg) date slightly older (Fig. 3).
The ceramics from the Late Neolithic deposit canbe divided into at least two assemblages. The ﬁrst asFig. 1

Location of Shakar Tepe.

(Map: S. Mühl)

norate, Iraqi Kurdistan (Fig. 1). During the last decade,its local prehistory gradually gained attention (e.g. Nieuwenhuyse et al. 2016; Wengrow et al. 2016; Matthews
et al. 2019), and a hiatus existing in the local Late Neolithic between the late 7th and the mid 6th millennium cal.
BCE became known (Odaka et al. 2019). Our new ﬁeld
project began at Shakar Tepe in September 2019 (Fig. 2),and aims to ﬁll this chronological gap.
Excavations were conducted at the northern edgeof the western mound (step trench Operation A: 9.5 x2.0m), revealing prehistoric deposits of approximately
5m thickness. Most parts of the sequence belong to theLate Neolithic while Ubaid layers were also identiﬁedin the uppermost level. The Late Neolithic deposits
seem to contain a few occupation levels; a detailed
study of the stratigraphic sequence is under way. In thesemblage identiﬁed in the upper level contains someware groups variants, such as “Hassuna-like” ﬁne ware(Fig. 4: 1-9), ﬁne plant-tempered ware (Fig. 4: 10-12)
and coarse plant-tempered ware (Fig. 4: 13-17). The“Hassuna-like” ﬁne ware has a compact fabric which
includes sands. The surface is mostly buﬀ-coloured,carefully smoothed, and decorated with geometric incisions; repeated short oblique lines (“slashes”) are themost remarkable motifs. This ware group is similar tothe so-called Hassuna Standard Incised Ware: Moreprecisely, it represents a local variant of the ware known
from Matarrah and Shaikh Marif in the Iraqi Zagros
foothills (Braidwood et al. 1952; Odaka 2019; Odakaet al. 2019). However, the sherds’ fabric (or ﬁring)from Shakar Tepe is generally quite hard while thosefrom Matarrah and Shaikh Marif appear to be “softer”.

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Field Report
Fig. 2

Topographic map of Shakar
Tepe. (Map: Y.S. Hayakawa)

Fig. 3 Section, structures andradiocarbon dates of Operation A.
(Plate: T. Odaka)

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Odaka et al., Shakar Tepe 2019
Fig. 4 Late Neolithic
pottery from Operation
A. (Photos, Drawings:T. Odaka)

The ﬁne plant-tempered ware has also been collected
at Shaikh Marif I (Odaka et al. 2019) and was, apparently, also recovered at Qalat Said Ahmadan (Tsunekiet al. 2015). This ware group is characterised by a ﬁnefabric, including a small amount of plants and minerals. The surface is sometimes treated with red-to-darkbrown slip or burnishing, and is occasionally decorated
with incisions or paints. Carinated bowls are common invessel shapes. The coarse plant-tempered wares generally represent thick-walled, large-sized, heavy vessels,including the so-called “husking trays”. A substantial
amount of chaff has been added to the fabric which also

contains mineral temper; a dark core is often observedwith this ware. Decorations such as incisions, appliquésor paint are rarely attested for this ware. This assemblage
is likely to be comparable with the early phase of Hassuna period at other key sites in Upper Mesopotamia.
Another ceramic assemblage – exclusively consisting of coarse plant-tempered ware – has been observedin the lower level of the Late Neolithic deposit. Its
fabric is more brittle and fragile than that of the upper
level, and its sections usually display a dark core. In
general, the surface colour is more reddish. This simple
assemblage may be comparable with that of the Proto-55
Neo-Lithics 20

Field Report
Fig. 5Late Neolithic lithic artefacts from Operation A.
(Photos: O. Maeda)

Hassuna period in Upper Mesopotamia, or that of thePottery Neolithic phase at Jarmo (e.g. Lloyd and Safar
1945; Adams 1983).
The majority of lithic artefacts recovered from theLate Neolithic deposit are irregular flakes made of local chert. No bullet-shaped blade cores are present;
only a few regular blades produced by pressure flaking (Fig. 5: 9-14) were recovered, probably imported
from elsewhere. This indicates that the lithic industry
at Shakar Tepe is not in line with the local tradition of
the M‘lefatian industry typical of the Zagros Foothills(e.g. Kozlowski 1999; Matthews et al. 2019). Instead,it seems likely to be another local lithic industry thatdeveloped in this period.
Some examples of very large and crude blades madeof local chert (Fig. 5: 1, 3-7) are noteworthy. Two caches of five of these blades, as well as two large blade
cores (Fig. 5: 2, 8), were uncovered. The size of theblades is very unusual: The largest one exceeds 16cm
in length and 6cm in width. However, their shapes appear not standardised and platform edges are not well
prepared before applying direct or indirect percussion.
Similar blades, sometimes with sickle gloss along the edges, have been reported from Matarrah (Braidwood et al.

1952: Pl. X); no examples from Shakar Tepe bear gloss.
Only 38 obsidian artefacts were found; 16 side-blow
blade-flakes (Fig. 5: 15-20) are the most interesting
artefact type, since characteristic for Proto-Hassunaand Hassuna contexts of northern Mesopotamia; theexamples from Shakar Tepe are those so far excavatedfrom the southernmost site in the Fertile Crescent andsuggest a certain connection to the north.
In addition to ceramics and lithics, a stone stampseal (Fig. 6: 1), a stone pendant/ link (Fig. 6: 2), clay
spindle whorls (Fig. 6: 3-6) and bone tools (Fig. 6: 7-8)
are noteworthy. Faunal and botanical remains are limited in quantity.
The new evidence from Shakar Tepe fills a part ofthe chronological gap in the local archaeological records of the Shahrizor Plain and implies the existenceof a discrete material culture in this region that has notbeen clarified until now.
Acknowledgements: We are grateful to the General
Directorate of Antiquities, Kurdistan Regional Government, and especially to Dr. Kayfi Ali, Dr. Simone
Mühl, Mr. Felix Walter, Dr. Yu Itahashi. Our project isfunded by JSPS-KAKENHI.

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Odaka et al., Shakar Tepe 2019

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Takahiro Odaka
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Yuichi S. Hayakawa
Faculty of Environmental Earth Science,
Hokkaido University
hayakawa@ees.hokudai.ac.jpYoshihiro Nishiaki
The University Museum,
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Directorate of Antiquities, Slemani,
Kurdistan Regional Government
nawshirwan.aziz@gmail.com
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Directorate of Antiquities, Slemani,
Kurdistan Regional Government
kamal_zewe@yahoo.com

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