The Middle Islamic horizon at Tell Zeyd: settlement, material culture and crops within a radiocarbon-dated sequence

This paper presents the earliest Islamic phases so far excavated in Area 1 at Tell Zeyd, a rural settlement in the Mosul hinterland of northern Iraq. Excavations at the site have produced, for the first time in the region, a stratified sequence extending from the Middle Islamic period to the early twentieth century. The present study focuses on Period E, attributed to the late Middle Islamic-early Ottoman periods, and Periods F and G, assigned to the Middle Islamic horizon. It discusses the occupational sequence and radiocarbon chronology, reconstructing patterns of settlement at the site; it offers an overview of the pottery from Periods F and G, contributing to the definition of the material culture of the period and to the construction of a regional chronotypology; it presents archaeobotanical data for Periods E-G that shed light on land use, crops and agricultural practices. Together, these data illuminate the development of a rural community and its agricultural landscape between the Middle Islamic and the early Ottoman periods.