Been to Jemdet Nasr, or dreaming of it?
Join BucketList to rate it, put it on your bucket list, and see where your friends have been. It's free.
22,000+ places in 198 countries to rate and rank
Photo: Jastrow · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Archaeological site in Iraq
Jemdet Nasr is a tell or settlement mound in Babil Governorate, Iraq that is best known as the eponymous type site for the Jemdet Nasr period, under an alternate periodization system termed the Uruk III period, and was one of the oldest Sumerian cities. It is adjacent to the much larger Neo-Babylonian and Sassanian site of Tell Barguthiat to the northeast. The site was first excavated in 1926 by Stephen Langdon, who found Proto-Cuneiform clay tablets in a large mudbrick building thought to be the ancient administrative centre of the site. A second season took place in 1928, but this season was very poorly recorded. Subsequent excavations in the 1980s under British archaeologist Roger Matthews were, among other things, undertaken to relocate the building excavated by Langdon. These excavations have shown that the site was also occupied during the Ubaid, Uruk and Early Dynastic I periods. Based on texts found there mentioning an ensi of NI.RU that is thought to be its ancient name. During ancient times the city was on a canal linking it to other major Sumerian centers.
