Tepe Gawra

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tepe Gawra is an ancient Mesopotamian settlement in northwest Iraq, near the ancient site of Nineveh and 15 miles northeast of the modern city of Mosul. It was excavated between 1931 and 1938 by archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania, led by Ephraim Avigdor Speiser, who first discovered the site in 1927.

The excavations showed that the Tepe Gawra site was occupied from approximately 5000 B.C. to 1500 B.C. They include the earliest known temple to be decorated with pilasters and recesses. The Gawra Period (3500 B.C. - 2900 B.C.) is named for the site.

The name "Tepe Gawra" comes from the Kurdish words for "great mound."

[edit] External links

• Columbia Encyclopedia entry
• Images of artifacts from the Tepe Gawra excavations