Charax

Jan, our geomorphologist, looks as though Christmas has come. Thanks to the wonderful RSKGroup he has a 25m core which will tell us all about fluvial and climate conditions not just from the time of Charax but way before too. Happy days!

We had a visit from a local TV crew. They were making a documentary about Agatha Christie, so I'm not sure we were really the right thing for them, but we are always happy to share our work. They thought we were British archaeologists, but in fact our teams are usually multi-national. This year we are Iraqi, Italian and Dutch as well as British. Daniele gets to explain what's going on. We wonder if he is the first Roman to be at Charax since the emperor Trajan came in 116 AD?
Photos: Steffen Mierisch

Stefan and Robert plan for the day. As we are now in the last week it is crucial that everything is neatly tied up, enough time budgeted for mapping and final photos, and of course the unglamorous but essential task of back-filling to protect what remains of this vulnerable ancient city. Archaeology requires a large array of skills, and project planning is an important one of these.

Early morning, The day is just starting, It is cool and pleasant, and the light is kind.

There! We knew the doorway had to be somewhere.

As the climate crisis gets worse, we've probably all started thinking about how a world without electricity or petrol might be. The citizens of Charax had a luxurious lifestyle without these things. This little oil lamp once cast a soft background light. there is still smoke-blackening around the spout.
People also recycled things in the ancient past. The spout has broken off (probably an annoying frequent accident) and the break has been filed down so the wick could still do its job.

When Alexander ordered the building of a city at the confluence of the Tigris and the Karun, the rivers were not in the same place as today. Rivers and canals have moved a lot during Iraq's history. Trying to unravel the complicated picture they present is a great challenge, for which we need geomorphology. The brilliant RSK Iraq, a British company working in Basra, has kindly lent us their drilling crew to take some deep core samples from the earth. Analysing the sediments will help sort things out.

People have always lost small change out of their pockets. The Arsacid people of Iraq in the 2nd century AD were no different. Bad luck for them, but good for us! Now we will see if the coins can be read to tell us the exact date they were minted. We must not be too optimistic, as most are in poor condition due to centuries of salination and flooding. But with care and patience something might emerge.

It looks very barren today, but Charax was a great city with many, many fine and impressive buildings. These are the bases of two columns, part of the peristyle around an Arsacid (Parthian) mansion.

A boring old stone? Look again! For one thing there are no stones like that occurring naturally in southern Iraq This is an import of a piece of close-grained, hard, volcanic rock. It has been used as a smoothing and rubbing tool, for some process we can only guess at. It is worn almost to a shine in places The two depressions on the back make comfortable hand-holds - for a left-hander!

An ocean shell is not surprising: Charax was once a port. This one, however, comes from somewhere further south and east, and must have arrived as a trade item. When we looked at it more closely, we noticed these circular marks. We sometimes find small, very thin shell beads, so perhaps someone marked out the shell ready to make a batch of these. I wonder why he or she didn't finish the job?

Our first proper weekend and we were lucky enough to be invited to lunch in a beautiful garden, courtesy of Mr Qahtan al-Abeed, head of Basra SBAH. Then yesterday evening to supper with our neighbour Mr. Ala'a and his friends and family. Truly delicious and relaxing.
Back to work today ....

Photo: Jan Walstra