The Tell Brak Eye Temple excavation and chronology

Record summary

The early postwar excavations led by Max Mallowan at Tell Brak exposed monumental architecture and deposits containing distinctive eye-shaped figurines, often associated with the so-called Eye Temple. The material became important in discussions of fourth-millennium urban development, temple institutions and long-distance cultural connections in northern Mesopotamia. The designation Eye Temple and the reconstruction of its phases are scholarly interpretations based on incomplete architecture and mixed deposits. Chronological comparisons with southern Mesopotamia have changed as ceramic sequences and radiocarbon evidence were refined.