The Finds of Hasanlu - The Art of the Manneans(Part 1.)

The period of grey pottery is preceded by an earlier stage of grey button-base pottery, Period V. Instead of spouted vessels, goblets like the one in Plate 27 [above right] were placed in the grave with the last drink for the deceased. They were accompanied by small storage jars and bowls and, as in the later graves, a quarter or two of goat or sheep. The light grey pottery of this period is related to that of central Iran both in its grey colouring and in its goblet shapes, which are similar to pottery from Sialk V, Giyan I and I Khurvin, a necropolis near Teheran. At the same time the shapes of associated painted buff-coloured pottery, also with tiny bases, connect the entire cultural layer of Period V at Hasanlu with levels in northern Mesopotamia which are dated about 1500-1200 B.C., the period during which the Hurrians were a dominant ethnic element. The painted vessels are, however, rare in Period V and appear to be a carry-over from the preceding level in which they are characteristic and the grey pottery is completely absent.

These ceramic comparisons indicate approximately the dating of the levels at Hasanlu, which has now been given greater precision through radio-carbon measurements. The time of the button-base pottery of Period V is given by four samples which range in date from 1217 � 122 B.C. For the period of the grey ware eight samples have been assayed, mainly using fragments of wooden beams and columns of poplar wood from the buildings. The dates obtained should determine, therefore, the time of the cutting of the wood and the construction of the buildings. These dates range in time from 1033 � 51 B.C. to 950 � 55 B.C. [p. 108] [P-424] with an average of 1001 � 20 B.C. The beginning of the period should thus fall around 1000 B.C. Only two samples of material which may be considered contemporary with the destruction of the citadel have as yet been measured: one, a sample of grapes [hence the fire took place in August or September of the year], measured 912 � 69 B.C. [P-577], and the other, a sample of charred wheat, 811 � 69 B.C. [P-576]. More samples must be assayed, but the present evidence provides an average date of 862 � 49 B.C. for the general time of the destruction--a date which is significantly different statistically from the date of the construction. [1] A date in the late ninth century is also supported by a comparison of the artifacts found in the burned buildings at Hasanlu and those discovered elsewhere.

The description of the pottery of these two periods provides an indication of historical conditions in the area to which Hasanlu belongs. There is a major break around 1200 B.C. with the end of the painted buff ware and the abrupt appearance of the button-base grey ware. There is no break in the development of the grey ware between the late second and early first millennium B.C., although new forms probably reflect new influences. The spouted jar, which is a large container, replaces the goblet of earlier times; moreover, the concept of a spouted jar appears to occur in Sialk V earlier than at Hasanlu and probably indicates influence from central Iran at the latter site. Non-ceramic finds at Hasanlu show that in the ninth century B.C. strong Assyrian influence was also felt.

Assyrian military reports and administrative documents of the ninth century indicate that the area from Lake Urmia and its vicinity in southern Azerbaijan to the mountains of Kurdistan was called Mannai. Tentatively, therefore, we have called Hasanlu IV, with its characteristic grey pottery dated to the tenth and ninth centuries B.C., 'Mannean', assuming at the same time that the Manneans of that period were partly descended from Hurrians or a relative people of the second millennium. Such an assumption is supported by the place-names and personal names of the Manneans recorded in the Assyrian and Urartian annals. At the same time we recognize the possibility that other ethnic elements such as the Indo-European also may have been included by this time within the Mannean area. In the north and north-west the Manneans were neighbours of the powerful Urartians, whose centre was situated on Lake Van about 800 B.C. To the west of the Manneans were the Assyrians, separated from them by the Zagros mountains. In the south-east the Medes began to occupy the plain of Hamadan and emerged in the seventh century as a third power bordering Mannai.

The Manneans are first mentioned in the reports of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III [858-824 B.C.], who made allies into the neighbouring countries in the east and west in order to secure his frontiers and to collect booty. At the time of the Urartian expansion under King Menua [810-781 B.C.] the Manneans are also mentioned in Urartian inscriptions. This is roughly the time of the destruction of the citadel of Period IV at Hasanlu.

Hasanlu, whose ancient name we do not know, was one of the small towns of the region, crowned by a high citadel. In the citadel, which was surrounded by a powerful fortification wall of mud brick set upon a stone foundation, were probably housed the religious centres of the town and the seat of the local lord or administrator. The scattered houses of the outer town, which were inhabited by craftsmen and probably also by merchants and farmers, and the cemetery [p. 110] which belonged to the town had no protection. In case of war the inhabitants fled to the citadel. The walls of the citadel were probably about nine metres high and were over three metres thick. Every thirty metres there was a fortification tower. Evenly spaced between the towers was a pair of piers which reinforced the mud-brick wall. This type of fortification wall is very similar to that of the Urartians. The main gate was on the western side of the citadel but has not yet been excavated. Within the fortification wall three major buildings have been unearthed: two in the south-western quarter and one in the north-west. The three buildings all share a common general plan consisting of an entry portico leading into a long, narrow reception room, behind which lies a columned hall. Either the portico or the reception room is flanked by a stairway leading to an upper floor. The columned hall is flanked by storage-rooms on both sides. These halls may be the prototypes of the later columned halls of the Achaemenid period. Only the column-bases remain. Each consists of a stone slab under a mud-plaster socle which preserves the original round shape of the wooden column. Charred fragments of the columns show that they were of poplar wood. The columned halls of all three buildings were roofed with poles, small pieces of timber, small wooden slats, mud plaster and probably reeds. In Buildings I and II a small rectangular area of paving with a sunken pithos drain suggests the possibility that there may have been an open area in the roof for purposes of light and ventilation. On the other hand these paved areas might also have been used for some ritual or more practical purpose. A bench ran along the walls, and in Building I there were three hearths.

Building I consisted of two wings, east and west, lying across an open court. Building I East has a portico leading to a large square room on the entrance wall of which a flat stone forms a platform. One is reminded here of similar raised daises in Assyrian throne-rooms and may assume that here, too, a reception room was intended. The entrances of the two wings of the building which face the court, as well as the entrances to Buildings II and III, are reminiscent in the position of the portico and the reception room lying behind it--both parallel to the fa�ade--of the frontal section of northern Syrian places called bit hilani by the Assyrians. The joining of this architectural plan with the local columned hall is interesting. Building II is considered tentatively to be a temple. Such an identification is suggested by the stone platform set in the centre of the portico entrance, some of the small objects found in the building, and the tragic evidence of some forty skeletons, mostly very young women, who apparently were killed just inside the entrance to the columned hall in which they had sought refuge. In the storage-rooms, on either side of the columned hall in all three buildings, were large pottery containers and pottery funnels, probably for wine [crushed wine grapes have been identified among the plant remains], which is still made in this region.

Between Buildings I and II lies a two-room structure called the Bead House by the excavator because so many beads of white paste, carnelian and sea-shells were found in it. Many of the shells were brought back from the area of the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean and indicate trade with the south. Broken bone cosmetic containers decorated with patterns of incised circles and shattered tripod bowls of grey basalt were also found. Together with these objects was a tiny fragment of gold foil bearing the figure of a winged Assyrian genius. This motif points to a connection of this small building with the religious installations of Hasanlu. In a single-roomed structure nearby, called South House by the [p. 112] excavator, a hearth and a large number of small grey-brown pottery bowls with pointed bases were found. These vessels may also have had a ritual use.

The ground-floor rooms which have been discussed may not have been the most important at Hasanlu. On the second floor, over the rooms around the columned hall, indicated by the stairways, the volume of collapsed brickwork, a section of collapsed wall six metres in height, and the scatter of objects in the debris above burned ceiling beams and plaster, there may quite possibly have been the most important rooms, just as they are in modern buildings near the site. At any rate, an important second-floor room must have been in the southeast corner of Building I above a little refuse room, for it was into this area with its fill of broken shallow black bowls and sheep and goat bones that the three soldiers and the golden bowl discussed above had fallen. In a similar manner a mass of objects including a bronze stand with figured decoration and a silver and electrum beaker had fallen from above the doorway at the rear of the portico of the west wing of the building.

The silver beaker was wrapped inside and out in a piece of material which may be seen in the impression of the weave on the partially corroded surface. The simplest explanation is that this material was meant to protect the beaker from [p. 113] tarnishing by oxidization. Since leather fills this purpose better than cloth, an alternative suggestion might be that the bowl was in a bundle of loot being readied for removal from the building.

The shape of the beaker is reminiscent of the beaker with concave sides from Marlik, of vessels from Luristan, and also of tall beakers found in Georgian excavations. [2] The decoration of the beaker, however, is unique.