Tell Begum
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  Shown within Iraq  Tell Begum (Near East) | |
| Alternative name | Gird-i Begum |
|---|---|
| Location | Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraq |
| Coordinates | 35°17′51″N 45°53′05″E / 35.29750°N 45.88472°E |
| Area | 5 hectares |
| History | |
| Periods | Halaf, Late Chalcolithic, Early Bronze age |
| Site notes | |
| Excavation dates | 1960, 2013, 2022 |
| Archaeologists | Muhammed Ali Mustafa, Olivier Nieuwenhuyse |
Tell Begum (also Gird-i Begum) is a tell, or archaeological settlement mound, in Iraq. It is located near Said Sadiq in the Shahrizor Plain in the Sulaymaniyah Governorate of Iraqi Kurdistan.
The site] consists of a steep conical Upper Mound about 20 meters high and an elongated Lower Mound. Overall the site covers an area of hectares. The site was first investigated in 1960 by a team of Iraqi archaeologists led by Muhammed Ali Mustafa, prompted by construction of the Darbandikhan Dam. Work consisted of a step trench on the Upper Mound and a sondage on the Lower Mound. Results of the excavation were not published.[1] After a surface survey in 2012 (as part of the Shahrizor Survey Project) a new excavation was carried out in 2013 by archaeologists from Leiden University. This project reopened the older excavations and also conducted limited new excavations.[2] Three charcoal samples were collected from the Halaf layer (2.2–3.2 meters below the surface, Lower Town) and produced radiocarbon dates (calibration - INTCAL20) of 5481–5329 BC, 5387–5215 BC, and 5479–5307 BC.[3][4] In 2017 a geomagnetic survey was performed on 4 of the sites in the Tell Begum Cluster, north, northeast and south of Tell Begum. THe northern site was shown to be a Early Bronze Age settlement.[5] In 2022 excavations were conducted by the Freie Universität Berlin. Finds included beveled rim bowls, diagnostic pottery of the Uruk period.[6]
History
The oldest excavated layers date to Late Halaf period. At that time there was a number of small settlements in the area around Tell Begum. Together with the Main Mound and Lower Mound this is call the Tell Begum cluster.[7] (After an apparent hiatus in occupation during the Ubaid period, the site was resettled in the Late Chalcolithic 1 (LC1) period and continued to be in use into the Late Chalcolithic 3 (LC3) period (4300-3600 BC). Late Bronze Age, Iron Age/Achaemenid and Medieval occupation has also been attested.[2][8] Though no Ubaid period occupational remains were found, pottery sherd finds indicated that Ubaid occupation may lay deeper in the Upper Mound layers as yet unexcavated.[9]