Tell es-Sawwan
Neolithic Samarra (c.6300–5700 BCE)·Samarra → Ubaid·🇮🇶 Salah ad-Din Governorate, Central Iraq, Iraq
About
About Tell es-Sawwan
Ditch-moat village with 130 intramural graves: 130 adult Samarra graves beneath floors yielding alabaster “Sawwan” women – elongated skulls, bitumen-banded eyes – the largest Samarra figurine corpus. The fortification ditch 3 m deep, buttressed mudbrick wall and three niches shrine plan anticipate Ubaid sacred architecture. Tell es-Sawwan — Samarra Fortified Village with Ubaid Cemetery context and stratigraphy linking to regional chronology.
Why it mattersTell es-Sawwan — Samarra Fortified Village with Ubaid Cemetery
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Stratigraphic relation to neighboring cultures?
Theories
- 01Regional trade node
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- Occupied Neolithic Samarra (c.6300–5700 BCE)
- Period
- Neolithic Samarra (c.6300–5700 BCE)
- Culture
- Samarra → Ubaid
- Builders
- Local communities
- Purpose
- Moated Samarra village and later Samarran alabaster statuette cemetery
- Abandoned
- post-period
- Rediscovered
- 19th-century surveys, modern excavations
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
Neolithic Samarra
Moated Samarra village and later Samarran alabaster statuette cemetery
On the ground
Structures & features
33.9920° N · 44.3220° E · 450 m · 2 mapped features
Moated Village Fortification Ditch
fortificationL-shaped ditch 3 m deep with buttressed wall
33.9930° N · 44.3230° EUbaid Statuette Cemetery (130 Graves)
necropolis130 graves under floors with Sawwan alabaster figurines
33.9910° N · 44.3210° E