Assyria and Babylonia

This article discusses the architecture of Assyria and Babylonia, two kingdoms that were located in modern-day Iraq and surrounding parts of Syria, Turkey, and Iran. This region overlaps with Mesopotamia (an ancient Greek name for the region between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers). The rise to prominence around c. 1800 bce of the cities of Assur in northern Iraq and of Babylon in central Iraq is taken as the article’s starting point. The main focus is, however, on the later histories of Assyria (c. 900–612 bce) and Babylonia (c. 626–538 bce). Both kingdoms can be said to have reached an imperial scale during these periods (Assyria around 730 bce during the reign of King Tiglath-Pileser III, and Babylonia when its armies conquered Assyria in 612 bce). Both empires came to control large parts of western Asia and at times also Egypt. This chapter will, however, focus on Mesopotamia proper, what might be described as its architectural koine (a multiregional shared material culture). The conquest of Babylonia by the Achaemenid Persian armies in 538 bce is taken as the end date. Architecture is an integral part of society and cannot therefore be studied on its own. The discourse on Mesopotamian architecture is notably sparse and uneven (as becomes apparent in this article). The limited nature of the discourse can be explained in several ways. First, although Mesopotamian architects created some of the most renowned buildings of their times, those architects did not write down their ideas, nor did they claim authorship. Ancient textual sources, although abundantly preserved, provide limited information when it comes to architecture. The activity of architecture was instead based on learned practice. Second, the architecture of the region was predominantly constructed of mud bricks supplemented with wood. More-extensive use of stones was generally limited to monumental buildings. Over the centuries, these buildings have collapsed and come to be buried under their own, and later, debris. Generally, only the lowest parts of the ground floor walls have survived. Our knowledge of ancient architecture is therefore dependent on archaeological excavations that commenced in the middle of the 19th century. Third, from the time the first excavations in the region commenced, archaeologists have focused mostly on the big urban centers and their monumental palaces and temples. Archaeologists have become more interested in other types of buildings and settlements over time, but our knowledge remains limited and biased to certain regions and periods. These biases, unfortunately, continue to shape the discourse and limit what can be referenced. Although this chapter does not aim to be comprehensive, it does include a substantial selection of the works that have been published on the architecture of the region.

Phytolith evidence for the pastoral origins of multi-cropping in Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq)

Multi-cropping was vital for provisioning large population centers across ancient Eurasia. In Southwest Asia, multi-cropping, in which grain, fodder, or forage could be reliably cultivated during dry summer months, only became possible with the translocation of summer grains, like millet, from Africa and East Asia. Despite some textual sources suggesting millet cultivation as early as the third millennium BCE, the absence of robust archaeobotanical evidence for millet in semi-arid Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq) has led most archaeologists to conclude that millet was only grown in the region after the mid-first millennium BCE introduction of massive, state-sponsored irrigation systems. Here, we present the earliest micro-botanical evidence of the summer grain broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) in Mesopotamia, identified using phytoliths in dung-rich sediments from Khani Masi, a mid-second millennium BCE site located in northern Iraq. Taphonomic factors associated with the region’s agro-pastoral systems have likely made millet challenging to recognize using conventional macrobotanical analyses, and millet may therefore have been more widespread and cultivated much earlier in Mesopotamia than is currently recognized. The evidence for pastoral-related multi-cropping in Bronze Age Mesopotamia provides an antecedent to first millennium BCE agricultural intensification and ties Mesopotamia into our rapidly evolving understanding of early Eurasian food globalization.

Factors affecting sustainable marketing on small business in the northern region of Iraq

Sustainable marketing is the promotion of environmental and socially responsible products, practices, and brand values. The main objective of this study is to investigate the factors affecting sustainable marketing on small business in the Northern-Iraq. The sample of the study includes all the workers in small businesses. The targeted sample size of the study is 400 workers who are selected randomly. A poll was planned and used to record data based on a Likert scale (five scores) incorporates the workers' characteristics regarding the sustainability factors. I evaluated the pre-prepared questions with the workers and managers of small business face-to-face. And also this questionnaire in the 2017 year collected. The data were analyzed with SPSS programs by utilizing methods containing descriptive statistics, Chi-square test. The outcomes demonstrated that the effective factors that sustainable marketing the workers in the small business are in accordance with the multidimensional structure of mental and sociological issues and perceiving every one of these undertakings and acing them and proposing and submitting arrangements make the errands and duties of the managers more difficult. Research included “Gender”, “Education”, “Extreme poverty “Attitudes and beliefs”, “Government intuition " and “Low”, a significant role insupportable promoting an independent company.

Prediction of California Bearing Ratio from Consistency and Compaction Characteristics of Fine-grained Soils

Soil’s characteristics are essential for the successful design of projects such as airports runway and flexible pavement. CBR (California Bering Ratio) is one of the significant soil characteristics for highways and airports projects. Thus, the CBR property can be used to determine the subgrade reaction of soil through correlations. Many of the soil geotechnical parameters such as compaction characteristics (Maximum Dry Density, MDD; Optimum Moisture Content, OMC), and consistency parameters (Liquid Limit, LL; Plastic Limit, PL; Plasticity Index, PI) can be in charge of changes that happen in soil CBR value. Soaked and/or non-soaked conditions of soils also affect CBR value. Hence, testing soils in a laboratory for CBR calculation is time-consuming that needs notable effort. Therefore, this study aims to generate some useful correlations for soil’s CBR with compaction and consistency parameters for 85 samples of fine-grained soils. The study trials were applied on natural soil samples of various places in Sulaimani Governorate, Northern Iraq. Statistical analysis has been carried out by using SPSS software (Version 28). Soaked CBR is counted, which is important for conditions such as rural roads that remain prone to water for few days. Based on the statistical analysis, there is a significant correlation between LL, PL, PI, MDD, and OMC with CBR as the dependent variable as a single variable equation with R2 of 0.7673, 0.5423, 0.5192, 0.6489, and 0.51, respectively. In addition, the highest value of R2 correlation was obtained between CBR value with consistency and compaction properties as a multiple regression equation with R2 of 0.82. The obtained equations for correlation purposes are successfully achieved and can be used, notably, to estimate CBR value.

Biostratigraphy and Facies Analysis of Upper Valanginian-Upper Hauterivian (Sarmord Formation) in Maten Anticline, Northern Iraq

Biostratigraphical and sedimentological study of the Sarmord Formation (Upper Valanginian - Upper Hauterivian) at the southern limb of Maten anticline is conducted within a well-exposed section. The formation is composed of marl, marly limestone, limestone, and dolostone, which yielded moderately diversified benthonic foraminiferal fauna, green algae, echinoderms, gastropods and some bioclast. The stratigraphic distribution of the benthonic species permits the recognition of two well-defined biozones. These are Everticyclammina kelleri Assemblage Zone, which represents the Late Valanginian age and Pseudocyclammina lituus Assemblage Zone, indicating Hauterivian age. These larger benthonic foraminiferal biozones are correlated with other zonal schemes inside and outside of Iraq, which indicates that the age of the Sarmord Formation in Maten anticline extends from Late Valanginian to Late Hauterivian age. The Sarmord Formation in the studied section is composed of limestone, dolomite, marl and conglomerate lithofacies types. Limestone lithofacies is represented by lime wackestone microfacies. According to the characteristic features of these facies, the depositional environments extend from tidal flat to shallow open marine environments.

Sequence Stratigraphy of the Fatha Formation in Shaqlawa Area, Northern Iraq

A surface section of the Fatha Formation (Middle Miocene) was studied in the Shaqlawa area, Erbil, Northern Iraq. It consists of siliciclastic silt, evaporates, and carbonates in a mixed siliciclastic silt composition. The Fatha Formation in the study area can be divided into two members of variable thickness based on rocky differences. Depositional settings ranged from shallow open-marine and restricted-hypersaline to supratidal and continental (sabkha, fluvio-deltaic, and exposure). It is bounded below by a type one sequence boundary above the Eocene Pila Spi Formation and marked by conglomerates. The upper sequence boundary with the Injana Formation is conformable. Thirteen sedimentary facies were distinguished in the Fatha Formation within the Shaqlawa region of northern Iraq and include sandstone to mudstone, wavy bedded sandstone to mudstone, Flaser bedded sandstone to mudstone, Marl, sandstone, cross lamination sandstone, Trough cross bedded sandstone, Planar cross bedded sandstone, marly limestone lithofacies, bioclastic grainstone to packstone microfacies, bioclastic lime mudstone to wackestone microfacies, lime mudstone-wackestone microfacies, and gypsum lithofacies. The depositional environment of the formation was inferred based on the facies association concepts. The succession formation can be divided into several third-order cycles, which reflect fluctuations in the relative sea-level rise. High-frequency cycles of transgressive System Tract and Highstand System tract. Fundamental to the evolution of the sequence, in this case, is the local tectonic component.

Facies Analysis and Paleoenvironmental Assessment of the Upper Campanian Hartha Formation in Y and J Fields Northwestern Zagros Basin, Iraq

The Upper Campanian Hartha Formation represents potential Cretaceous hydrocarbon-bearing reservoir rocks across the Y and J oilfields northwestern Zagros Basin, northern Iraq. The study objective is depositional environment which affects reservoir properties by tool, lithofacies, core, thin section, and logs, using petrel (V.2016) and strat software, facies distribution, grains, and diagenetic processes control and enhance reservoir properties which can plan platform production and minimize risks in choosing production wells location at two fields scale The current study is concerned with lithofacies and microfacies of the Hartha Formation within two fields in northern Iraq. Several subsurface well-log data, core, and cutting samples have been used in order to prepare thin sections that were subjected to sedimentological (lithofacies, and grain-size) examination. The petrography investigation revealed five rock-units including Hr. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, the thickness of 89 m in the Y-A field and increasing to up to 140 m in the J-B field might be due to erosion or tectonic uplift of the topography in Y subbasin. Which is locally sub-basin within study fields western banks of Tigris river as gentle slope ramp depositional condition with Spectrum microfacies from lime-mudstone to packstone texture with rudest and benthic debris enhances by diagenesis, dolomitization, dissolution moldic porosity, fracture; dolostone is more effective in the upper section of the formation in A than B Wells. Many factors, such as cementation, compaction, and pore-filling autogenic minerals, decrease reservoir quality, and their effects are similar in wells A and B.

Drawing Distinctions: Assyrians and Others in the Art of the Neo-Assyrian Empire

Between the ninth and seventh centuries BCE, the Neo-Assyrian Empire became the largest the world had yet seen. In the process of imperial conquest, the Assyrian state incorporated previously foreign territories and people into their world. Landscapes, materials, and the labor of conquered bodies became a part of the Assyrian royal palaces of northern Iraq, both as elements of their construction and as themes emphasized within the extensive visual programs of the palace reliefs. Within and through visual depiction of enemy bodies and foreign landscapes, in the process of being (often violently) reshaped by Assyrian hands, Neo-Assyrian kings brought the farthest reaches of their world into the center of imperial power. This article considers how specific strategies of representation in palace art allowed the Assyrian palace to serve as a microcosm of the empire and a map of its borders. Palace art emphasized the remade, reworked, or recreated, defining “Assyrianness” as that which remakes and has been remade. As a central act of remaking, I examine representations of captive or submissive foreigners, whose presence in the reliefs commemorates their humiliation while compounding and enhancing it in the very ways that these figures are depicted: cringing, deficient, and physiologically incorrect. I pay particular attention to examples from the late King Ashurbanipal’s reign, in which foreign leaders are singled out through representation with distinctive facial features. I argue that this act of (literally) drawing distinctions was an inherently imperial process, one that both expressed and enabled an ideology of expansion and control.

Ammonites and Foraminifera of Shiranish Formation (Late Campanian-Maastrichtian) from Sulaimaniya and Erbil Governorates, Northern Iraq

This study deals with the biostratigraphy of Shiranish Formation (Late Cretaceous), depending on the Ammonite and associated Foraminifera in four outcrop sections, three of which are located in Al-Sulaimaniya governorate (Dokan, Esewa and Kanny dirka sections) and one in Erbil governorate, northern Iraq (Hijran section). Fourteen species of Ammonite belonging to fourteen genera were determined, which are: Dsemoceratidae, Gaudryceras, Gunnarites, Hoplitoplacenticeras, Kitchinites, Kossmaticeratinae, Neancyloceras, Neokossmaticeras, Nostoceras, Paratexanites, Partschiceras, Phylloceras, Pseudophyllites and Yubariceras. Also, thirty- five species of Foraminifera belonging to thirteen genera were determined, which are: Cibicides, Cymopolia, Eggellina, Elphidium, Globigerinelloides, Globotruncana, Hedbergella, Heterohelix, Marginulina, Miliolid, Neobulimmina, Nodosaria and Textularia. Seven range zones were determined, three of which are of Ammonite, which are: Desmophyllites larteti (Seunes, 1892), Nostoceras (Nostoceras) hyatti and Pseudophyllites teres (Van Hoepen, 1920), whereas the others are of Foraminifera species, which are: Glt. gagnebini Tilev, Glt. tricarinata lapparenti Brotzen, Glt. tricarinata tricarinata (Querean) and Glt. Stuartiformis Dalbiez. According to these findings, the age of Shiranish Formation was determined as the Late Campanian- Maastrichtian.

Paleoenvironmental conditions during deposition of Kolosh and Gercus formations in northern Iraq as deduced from clay mineral distributions

A mineralogical study using X-ray diffraction supported by scanning electron microscopic examination on the Paleocene- Eocene Kolosh and Gercus formations from northern Iraq is conducted to show the distribution of clay minerals and their paleoenvironmental implications. Smectite palygorskite, kaolinite, illite, and chlorite are commonly present in varying proportions within the Kolosh and Gercus formations. Association of smectite and chlorite in the claystone of the Paleocene Kolosh Formation refers to marine environment of this formation, whereas development of palygorskite fibers from smectite precursor may relate to post-depositional diagenesis. In addition, the abundance of illite and kaolinite in the Eocene Gercus Formation suggests a greater influence of terrigenous input in humid conditions, affecting the distribution of these clay minerals. The study shows vertical change in clay minerals distribution when illite and kaolinite dominate in the Eocene Gercus Formation, in comparison to chlorite and smectite abundance in the Paleocene Kolosh Formation which may relate to global warming in the Eocene.