Tepe Gawra Period

The Oriental Institute (University of Chicago)

A tell (mound) northeast of Nineveh in Iraq which has provided a cultural sequence from the 6th millennium BC to the mid 2nd millennium BC. The earliest material was of the Halaf Period while the succeeding period shows increasing contacts with the southern Mesopotamian Ubaid Culture. Belonging to this period is a group of three tripartite temples facing onto an open courtyard very similar to those of the south. The suceeding period is contemporary with the Uruk and Jemdet Nasr Periods further south but is culturally distinctive; this is often deseribed as the Gawra Period.

In this period (later 4th millennium BC) there is abundant evidence for differential wealth and social position manifest in the grave goods found in a number of tombs built of mud-brick or stone. Three of these tombs were particularly rich, containing many goods of gold, electrum, lapis lazuli and ivory; all materials that had to be imported. Several temples of the Gawra Period have been excavated; they are of an unusual form with separate portico not unlike the Megaron plan. The most distinctive building of this phase however is a circular structure known to the excavators as the Round House. It has a diameter of circa 18 metres, a thick outer wall and 17 rooms; its function is unknown ... (AHSFC).

The History of the Ancient Near East Electronic Compendium