From K. Kris Hirst,
Your Guide to Archaeology.
FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now!

Definition: The site of Tepe Gawra is a Mesopotamian city in northern Iraq, fifteen kilometers from the modern town of Mosul. Tepe Gawra contains at least 24 occupations dated between about 5000-3000 BC.

The earliest occupations at Tepe Gawra are dated to the mid-sixth millennium BC, the Ubaid period in Mesopotamia. The earliest known representation of beer consumption is from a stamp seal discovered from the remnants of a house dated approximately 4000 BC.

Burials at Tepe Gawra reveal social stratification, expressed by the presence of beads of imported lapis lazuli as well as ivory, faience, turquoise, jadeite, carnelian, gold and electrum. A storage facility called the "round house" stored grain and weaponry.

Tepe Gawra was discovered and excavated by Ephraim A. Speiser in the 1920s and by Charles Bache from the American School of Oriental Research in the 1930s; and again in the 1970s by Arthur Tobler.

Sources

Bertman, Stephen. 2005. Tepe Gawra. In [/Handbook to Life in Ancient Mesopotamia. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology. Any mistakes are the responsibility of Kris Hirst.

Common Misspellings: Tepe Garwa