A Kassite Settlement in southern Babylonia: Investigations at Tell Khaiber 2 Stuart Campbell, Jane Moon and Robert Killick (Ur Region Archaeology Project) Abstract Limited soundings at the second mound of Tell Khaiber reveal significant occupation from the second half of the 2 nd millennium BC. At this time a canal probably linked Tell Khaiber 2 to Tell Khaiber 1, where most of our work has been focussed. A very large building in the northern part of the site can be dated to the Late Kassite period, with the outer wall having a distinctive and unexpectedly early dragon-tooth façade. Introduction The University of Manchester’s Ur Region Archaeology Project (URAP) is conducting annual excavations at Tell Khaiber, which lies 13 km west of Nasiriyah and 6 km south east of Bat’ha (Fig. 1). In reference to the ancient geography, it is approximately 19 km from Ur to the southeast, and 25 km from Larsa to the north. The toponym ‘Tell Khaiber’ in fact applies to two separate mounds, both part of the same archaeological landscape. 1 Both mounds are of similar size, approximately c.300x250m in extent. The main focus of excavation since 2013 has been Tell Khaiber 1, investigating a fortified public building dating to the time of the Sealand Dynasty. 2 The other mound,Tell Khaiber 2, lies about 1 km to the northwest. A contour survey and surface collection were made in 2014, and preliminary soundings in February 2015. 3 Surface indications Generally low-lying, Tell Khaiber 2 consists of one higher mound and two smaller ones (Fig. 2). There was remarkably little pottery on the surface that could be used to date it, except on the very highest part, in the south east, which is markedly different to the rest of the site, having a dense scatter of baked bricks. Mixed amongst them are sherds, often with green glaze, and fragments of glass, indicating a late occupation. A silver Ottoman coin was found on the surface in 2015 suggesting that this component could not be more than a few centuries old. A second, small mound lies adjacent to a modern irrigation canal to the south west of the site. It has a scattering of pottery, most of it undiagnostic. The most notable visible feature on the site is on the low, northern mound. Here a large rectangular building is visible in satellite images (Fig. 3), measuring at least 60m by 40m, but possibly significantly 1 As the mounds have been given multiple and sometimes contradictory names in the recent past, the project has adopted the simple designations ‘Tell Khaiber (1)’ and ‘Tell Khaiber 2’. Both mounds were first documented by Henry Wright in the Eridu-Ur regional survey in 1965-66 (Wright 1981), in which Tell Khaiber is site 60, named Ishan Khaiber, while Tell Khaiber 2 is site 61, named Tell Gurra. In the Atlas of the Archaeological Sites of Iraq, Directorate General of Antiquities, Ministry of Information, Iraq 1976, both sites are called Ishan Khaiber (Map 73: Site 108 Ishan Khaiber = Tell Khaiber ; Site 107 Ishan Khaiber = Tell Khaiber 2). 2 Campbell et al, forthcoming 3 We are grateful for the support of the Gerald Averay Wainwright Fund for Near Eastern Archaeology for funding this work, and, as ever, to our colleagues from the State Board for Antiquities and Heritage for all their assistance. We also had significant help from a set of satellite images provided by the Digital Globe Foundation.