The Upper Tigris Archaeological Research Project (UTARP)

Abstract

Introduction During the summer of 2005 members of the Upper Tigris Archaeological Research Project (UTARP) undertook a sixth season of archaeological field work at the site of Kenan Tepe in the Upper Tigris River region of southeastern Turkey. This research took place between May 13 and July 4, 2005. Research was funded by generous grants from the Curtiss T. and Mary G. Brennan Foundation in collaboration with the University of Utah and the United States National Endowment for the Humanities. Funding from NEH covered the project infrastructure (including rent for the project dighouse, the cost of the project van and driver and the project cook) and costs associated with the excavation of trenches where we expected to discover remains dating to the Late Chalcolithic period. Funds from the Brennan Foundation and the University of Utah were directed exclusively to trenches that we expected to yield data from the Ubaid period. In this report to the Curtiss T. and Mary G. Brennan Foundation and the College of Humanities at the University of Utah, I will briefly outline the Ubaid research conducted during the 2005 field season. After a short introduction I will discuss each of the Ubaid excavation units. I will conclude with a few preliminary observations about the nature of Ubaid occupation at Kenan Tepe. First I would like to make a few remarks about the both the research and the logistics of UTARP’s 2005 field season. In archaeological terms the 2005 field season was perhaps our most productive and most interesting season yet. We excavated two superimposed domestic structures, found part