Tell Brak, ancient Nagar, was one of the most important cities in northern Mesopotamia in the third millennium BC and a focus of long-distance trade. It was also, for about a century, a provincial capital of the Akkadian Empire founded by Sargon of Agade. This is the second of four volumes on the 1976-93 excavations at Tell Brak. The construction level of Naram-Sin's Palace, discovered by Mallowan in the 1930s, has been used as a point of chronological reference to provide the first well-dated corpus of archaeological material in northern Mesopotamia belonging to the second half of the third millennium. The major Akkadian buildings at Tell Brak are the first well-preserved examples to be discovered at any site, and include a great ceremonial complex and a unique caravanserai that housed the donkey caravans bringing metals from Anatolia. During the ritual closure of these buildings beautiful silver jewellery was deposited, along with numerous copper/bronze tools and the skeletons of some of the caravan donkeys. Specialist reports provide detailed historical, geomorphological, ceramic, faunal, botanical, microstratigraphic and other data.

The site of Tell al Rimah lies at the northern edge of the Iraqi Jazirah. It is noted in particular for its elaborately ornamented Old Babylonian temple and its unique evidence for third millennium BC vaulting techniques. The site was occupied throughout the second and third millennia BC and, briefly, during Late Assyrian times. This volume presents the complete repertoire of second and first millennium pottery, together with a summary of the history and stratigraphy of the site. This material, which is both extensive and unusually well dated owing to its association with cuneiform evidence, constitutes by far the largest publication of Middle and Late Bronze Age (Old Babylonian, Mitanni and Middle Assyrian) pottery from Northern Mesopotamia. The book will be a valuable resource of information for sites throughout the region.