The Ancient Diyala Valley

The Oriental Institute's excavations (1930-38) in the Diyala River basin of Mesopotamia northeast of Baghdad ... The expedition excavated four sites: Tell Asmar - Khafajah - Ishchali - Tell Agrab. The location of the Diyala basin in central Mesopotamia at the eastern edge of the alluvial plain formed by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers resulted in the presence there of items of material culture which derived from both southern and northern Mesopotamia. In the assemblage there are also objects that were direct imports from or influenced by Syria, Iran, the Persian Gulf and the Indus. With simultaneous excavations at four sites the Diyala expedition was able to set up a regional archaeological sequence for all periods from 3200 BC until 1750 BC, coining the terms Protoliterate and Early Dynastic and adopting the historical designations Akkadian - Ur III - Isin:Larsa and Old Babylonian for archaeological purposes. This sequence still exists as a standard against which other proposed sequences must be gauged ... (OI)

The History of the Ancient Near East Electronic Compendium