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Grai Resh is an ancient Near East archaeological site in the Nineveh Governorate of northwestern Iraq just south of the Sinjar Mountains. It was first occupied at the beginning of the 5th millennium BC in the Ubaid period. It then became part of the Uruk Expansion. Beveled rim bowls, diagnostic of the Uruk period, were found at the site. Grai Resh may have been occupied as late as the Jemdat Nasr or Early Dynastic I period before being abandoned. It has been suggested that site may have been, in the early 2nd millennium BC, the location of small Amorite kingdom of Kurda. Finds showed that the site participated in widespread trade.McMahon, Augusta, "Early Urbanism in Northern Mesopotamia", Journal of Archaeological Research, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 289–337, 2020
The Level II private home, of large rectangular mudbricks, was roughly 12 meters by 8 meters holding a long central room with white painted walls, several side rooms, and an entrance way. A large storage jar contained wheat and barley carbonized by the fire and others the remains of meat. There was evidence of small scale lithic manufacturing in flint and obsidian producing mainly sickle blades. Small finds included the horns of a water buffalo, baked clay animals, figurines, spindle whorls, and sling pellets, purple marble macehead, copper drill bit, and beads of stone clay and obsidian. A stamp seal and one sealing were also found.
In 2001 a French team led by Christine Kepinski conducted a topographic survey of the site. A large number of surface pottery shards showed that the site actually extended out to an area of about 32 hectares. In many places that area is occupied by modern farms and in others the soil has been removed for agricultural projects. A new road now passes across the south and the old road through the mound has gone out of use though farmers have been removing soil and archaeological remains from that area to enrich their fields. There was no surface collection due to the crops being high at that season but in disturbed spots abundant 4th and 5th millennium BC shards were noted. A significant amount of 2nd millennium BC shards were also seen prompting speculation that Grai Rash was the location of the small Amorite kingdom of Kurda.Kepinski C., "New data from Grai Resh and Tell Khoshi (South Sinjar, Iraq) collected in 2001 and 2002", in Córdoba J. et al. (ed.), Proceedings of the 5th ICAANE. Madrid. April 3–8, 2006, Madrid, pp. 285-298, 2008
In 2002 an excavation season was conducted. Work occurred in the old road cut area that was examined by the 1939 excavation (Area AB) and along the new road in the south. In area A, in extending the early work, a mudbrick burial vault was found on Level IV. It contained the remains of a child with 19 beads around the wrist (16 carnelian, 2 lapis lazuli, 1 gold). In area B enough soil had been removed by bulldozers that it was not possible to identify the 1939 excavation. Six 10 meter by 10 meter trenches were opened there. At this point they subdivided Level II into IIA and IIB. On Level IIA A tripartite building and a terracotta eye-idol were found. On Level IB they found several tripartite buildings. In one was a bead workshop with hundreds of calcite, bone, obsidian and shell beads, a black stone seal with geometric design, and an amulet in the shape of a human head in profile were found. A number of ovens were found in and associated with buildings and some of buildings contained, spindle whorls, Canaanean blade and other flint and obsidian tools, and possible sling bullets. A few possible clay tokens rested on floors. Subsequent work at the site was curtailed due to the 2003 war in Iraq.Frederic Dessene, "Grai Resh et Tell Khoshi, vers la relance de l'archéologie française en Iraq", Orient-Express, Paris, pp. 76-79, 2002/3Kepinski C., "Grai Resh et la haute-Mésopotamie de 4200 à 3600 av. J.-C. : des contacts lointains aux stratégies territoriales", In: Butterlin P. (ed.), À propos de Tepe Gawra. Le monde proto-urbain de Mésopotamie, Turnhout: Brepols, Subartu 23, pp. 121-134, 2009
In general, the most recent excavators in 2002 proposed an earlier chronology with the large enclosure wall dating to the end of the Late Chalcolithic 2 5th millennium BC Ubaid period and with the site being abandoned by 3600 BC at the end of the Late Chalcolithic 3 period, reflecting the divergences in view on the chronology of the Uruk Period. Coba bowl, a Late Chacolithic 2 Ubaid period pottery proposed as the predecessor of beveled rim bowls. were found at the site.[4]Baldi J. S., "Coba bowls, mass-production and social change in Post-Ubaid times", in Marro, Catherine (ed),After the Ubaid: Interpreting Change from the Caucasus to Mesopotamia at the dawn of Urban Civilization (4500-35—BC), Papers from the Post-Ubaid Horizon in the Fertile Crescent and Beyound International Workshop held at Fosseuse, 29th June -1st July 2009, Varia Anatolica 27, De Boccard Edition-Diffusion: Paris, pp. 393-416, 2012
In 1963 two samples taken in 1955, one from each mound taken from the surface of the road cut, were radiocarbon dated to 5169 ±64 CYBP or 3219 BC and 4939 ±75 CYBP or 2989 BC.[5] Stuckenrath, Robert, "University of Pennsylvania radiocarbon dates VI", Radiocarbon 5, pp. 82-103, 1963 In 2002 six samples were taken for radiocarbon dating (OxCal 4.1.7 - calibration curve: IntCal09). Three samples were from Level IIB and two from Level IV (all Area AB) and one from an oven on Level IIA (Area B). From these the excavators developed a chronology of Level IV (4250–4150 BC), Level III (4150–4050 BC) and Level IIB (4050–3850 BC), and Level IIA (3850–3600 BC).[6] Kepinski-Lecomte, Christine, Frédéric Dessène, and Linda Herveux, "New evidence from Grai Resh, Northern Iraq-the 2001 and 2002 seasons: a Pre-Uruk expansion site from the Late Chalcolithic period", Zeitschrift für Orient Archäologie 4, pp. 26-81, 2011
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