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Two carbon-14 dates lying between 2-100 Fig. 7. Stamp seals of steatite found in the
and 2,000 B.C. have been obtained on wood and basin of the third temple.
charcoal found in layers accumulated when the
third temple was in use. ^
In conclusion, then, it can be stated that played an important role in the rituals.
the first temple at Barbar was built in the In its general plan as well as in many
beginning of the third millennium, and hardly details the Barbar temple is closely related to
later than ca. 2,700 B.C. The construction of the contemporary Sumerian temples at Kha-
the second temple, which at the same time is fajah and Ubaid.
the first oval temple, cannot be dated with 1 W. W. Hallo and Briggs Buckanan, “A*
certanty, but it is likely that the building Persian Gulf’Seal on an Old Babylonian
derives from the middle of the third millennium. Mercantile Agreement,” Studies in Honor
On account of the Egyptian and Mesopotamian of Benno Landsberger (Oriental Institute,
parallels to objects from the foundation deposit, Univ. of Chicago, Assyriological Studies 16,
the third temple can scarecly be put back later 1965), pp. 199ff.
than around 2,200'B.C.., and stamp seals and 2. The two dates have been obtained from the
C-14 dates suggest that the temple was still in C-14 Laboratory of the National Museum in
use towards 2,000 B.C. Copenhagen. Calculated with the Libby
In trying to interpret the temple at Barbar half life of 5570. they run at 1650 100 B.C.
we are left without any helpful inscriptions. (K-1575) and 1680 100 B.C. (K-1576). In
From the architectural remains it is clear that order to compensate for the error caused by
the temple was in continous use through more influence of the geomagnetic field of the
than 500 years, and it is also evident that fresh earth, about 400 years have been added to
these dates.
water, accessible at the well and in the pool,
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