Archaeology of Ancient Iraq is a new series dedicated to publishing the latest research on the archaeology and languages of ancient Iraq, from prehistoric to recent times. It aims to provide Iraqi scholars and practitioners with an avenue to international publication and also to ensure that research by international colleagues is distributed in Iraq.
The series has an international editorial board and is peer-reviewed. Titles are published in English and/or Arabic, and income from direct sales will be used to send free copies to Iraq. To date, 20 copies of AAI1 and 15 of AAI2 have been distributed to our Iraqi colleagues, universities in Iraq, and the State Board for Antiquities & Heritage. Our thanks to everyone who has ordered direct from us.
Authors who wish to submit a manuscript for consideration, please email us at info@iraqarchaeology.org.
Tell Khaiber: A Fortified Centre of the First Sealand Dynasty
Excavations at Tell Khaiber near Ur in southern Iraq produced the first stratified assemblage dating to the elusive First Sealand Dynasty that ruled over southern Babylonia in the mid-second millennium BCE.
This final report presents the results of that work, describing the architecture, pottery and finds from the large fortified building that dominated the landscape. It includes a full discussion of the administrative practices and the local economy as revealed by the 145 cuneiform tablets recovered from the building.
This volume will be of importance to all those with an interest in the archaeology, history and ancient languages of Mesopotamia.
ISBN 978-1-910169-04-9 Hardback.
xiv +246 pp., 260 figures, 42 tables.
Hardback £35.
European customers may incur an additional VAT charge on receipt of books.
Please note that we are currently unable to ship to the USA.
Pottery from Tell Khaiber: A Craft Tradition of the First Sealand Dynasty
The First Sealand period in Babylonia has long been obscure, despite the major changes that occurred in the area at that time. The defining characteristics of its ceramics are almost unknown, making identification of its sites through surface survey almost impossible. However, recent excavations at Tell Khaiber near Ur have uncovered a large fortified building of the period, with a dated administrative archive. The pottery from it represents the first substantial stratified corpus of Sealand period ceramics, providing a solid chronological sequence for the middle centuries of the 2nd millennium in southern Iraq. Using the latest methods and approaches, this volume not only establishes a typology and relative chronology, but also addresses the chaîne opératoire underpinning Sealand period pottery, from clay collection through to vessel use and discard.
ISBN 978-1-910169-02-5. xii +278 pp., 117 colour figures, 15 tables, 77 plates.
Hardback £35.
European customers may incur an additional VAT charge on receipt of books.
Please note that we are currently unable to ship to the USA.
“With this comprehensive publication of the mid second-millennium BCE pottery corpus from Tell Khaiber in southern Iraq, Calderbank presents an innovative, groundbreaking study in the field of southern Mesopotamian archaeology.”
American Journal of Archaeology review: https://doi.org/10.1086/721566
FORTHCOMING:
Tell Mohammed Arab: The Ninevite 5 Sounding
This volume is the primary record of the excavation, between 1983 and 1985, of the Ninevite 5 Sounding at Tell Mohammed Arab in northern Iraq.
The preliminary reports on Tell Mohammed Arab outlined a sequence for the first half of the third millennium BC in northern Iraq and north-eastern Syria which has subsequently been widely accepted.
The volume presents the stratigraphic and architectural evidence, the small finds, and a detailed analysis of the development of the pottery. The implications of the results are discussed in the last chapter where the authors challenge the most recent chronological scheme for northern Iraq in the third millennium as proposed in the ARCANE series, and suggest that the term ‘Ninevite 5 culture’ might be better left unused.
ISBN 978-1-910169-05-6
xii +250 pp., 42 colour figures, 58 b/w, 94 plates.
Hardback £35.
European customers may incur an additional VAT charge on receipt of books.
Please note that we are currently unable to ship to the USA.
Publication date: 12 November: 2025
Editorial Board
Dr Jaafar Al-Jotheri, University of Al-Qadisiyah
Dr Tim Clayden, Wolfson College, Oxford
Dr Jane Moon, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
Dr Mohammad Sabri, State Board for Antiquities Heritage
Dr Mary Shepperson, University of Liverpool
In partnership with the State Board for Antiquities & Heritage, Iraq
Email Us: info@iraqarchaeology.org