Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c10.14

c10.14

Not far from Mosul a site has recently been excavated which has revealed the most ancient agricultural community yet known in Mesopotamia. In the earliest level, on the original ground surface below the mound known as Tell Hassuna, were found what seem to be camping sites of a not wholly settled people, with hearths and indications that any habitations are likely to have been tents. But these people were already mixed farmers, for not only were abundant bones of cattle and sheep found, but stone hoes, still retaining traces of the bitumen that fastened them in their handles, and stone rubbers and pestles and mortars for grinding or pounding corn into flour. The people were using stone tools and making a rough but quite good pottery ornamented with incised lines.