Tell Hassuna
Neolithic Hassuna-Samarra (c.6000–5600 BCE)·Hassuna·🇮🇶 Nineveh Governorate, Northern Iraq, Iraq
About
About Tell Hassuna
Type site 1939–44 excavation by Seton Lloyd that defined the Hassuna painted pottery tradition of northern Iraq. Levels I-VI show evolution from incised Halaf-precursor to Samarra-interlocked ceramics, pisé architecture, grain silos, and the first stamp seals in Mesopotamia. Bone sickles, bovid figurines and burials under floors document sedentary wheat farming before Ubaid. Tell Hassuna — Type Site of the Hassuna Culture context and stratigraphy linking to regional chronology.
Why it mattersTell Hassuna — Type Site of the Hassuna Culture
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 Hassuna-Samarra (c.6000–5600 BCE)
- Period
- Neolithic Hassuna-Samarra (c.6000–5600 BCE)
- Culture
- Hassuna
- Builders
- Local communities
- Purpose
- Earliest true village farming with painted Hassuna-ware and tholos huts
- Abandoned
- post-period
- Rediscovered
- 19th-century surveys, modern excavations
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
Neolithic Hassuna-Samarra
Earliest true village farming with painted Hassuna-ware and tholos huts
On the ground
Structures & features
35.9500° N · 43.1500° E · 450 m · 2 mapped features
Hassuna Painted Level III Houses
villageRectilinear pisé houses with painted sherd layers
35.9510° N · 43.1510° ESilo Quarter and Stamp Seal Horizon
storageFour-cell silos with Hassuna progressive ware seals
35.9490° N · 43.1490° E