The Thi Qar Survey: Results from the Umma Region (Iraq)

Abstract

Exploratory archaeological surveys in Iraq began in the late 1930s with the Diyala Basin Archaeological Project, which established a scientific methodology later applied in southern Iraq, such as the surveys of Middle Sumer, Ur, Lagash, the Lake Hammar region, and the area surrounding the ancient city of Kish. The surveys led by Robert Adams, in collaboration with other researchers, are considered the most prominent and influential in Mesopotamian archaeology. Over two decades (1956–1975), he managed to survey a third of the entire alluvial plain despite extremely difficult conditions and the absence of prior maps of the region. These efforts faced rugged natural and environmental challenges that prevented the application of systematic samples, such as marshes, lakes, sand dunes, and complex irrigation canal networks. These obstacles, along with the intensity of agriculture in some areas, such as eastern Dhi Qar Governorate, resulted in vast areas and vital elements remaining unexplored. These areas include the region extending from the ancient city of Umma towards the Shatt al-Gharraf River, the plains between Girsu and Lagash, and the southern desert and marshlands surrounding Ur and Eridu. Although recent studies based on remote sensing and satellite imagery analysis (such as Corona images) have confirmed the existence of numerous archaeological sites overlooked by earlier surveys, modern field assessments remain limited. Data from the Dhi Qar survey of the Umma region have yielded mixed results; they confirm some prevailing trends while differing significantly from others identified by Adams (1981) in the settlement history of the central alluvial plain. Some of these differences may be attributed to the unique local socio-political and environmental dynamics that distinguished this region from the rest of southern Mesopotamia. For example, the Umma region appears to have been relatively remote during the Late Antiquity period, such as the Achaemenid period (539–330 BCE). While other areas in southern Mesopotamia experienced significant growth in population density, urbanization, and agriculture, the Umma region suffered a decline after its period of prosperity during the earlier Neo-Babylonian period (620–539 BCE). Similarly, neither the expansion of agricultural land and populated areas, nor the increase in the number of settlements during the Sasanian period (224–651 CE), had the same significance and momentum as in the central alluvial plain; this was likely due to Umma's location at the extreme ends of major irrigation projects, where access to water sources was not as easy or reliable as in the upper reaches of the rivers.