From 15–19 September 2010, while conducting initial reconnaissance of major archaeological sites in southern Iraq (reported in Iraq 74) to assess suitability for long-term geoarchaological research, the author photographed stamped and inscribed bricks incidentally noted in situ. Pournelle photographed two additional examples during subsequent visits to Ur and Eridu, during filming by the National Geographic Society (2011)1 and Blink Films UK (2014).2 Our aim was not systematic documentation (for which we did not have permits); rather opportunistic recording of intra-site locations and context for inscriptions which are widely known, but often with no (or poorly recorded) provenance or contextual record.

All photography was conducted at the highest resolution possible with whatever apparatus was available and allowed, with permission from and supervision by accompanying representatives from the Iraq State Board of Antiquities and Heritage. Routes taken within sites, as well as other sites visited, but where no inscriptions were observed, are indicated on Figure 1. In total, images of fifteen bricks from five sites (Babylon, Nippur, Lagash, Ur, and Eridu) were identified, recorded, assigned publication IDs, and uploaded to CDLI (Table 1). Full listing is here.

Because of the century-long history of casual visitors and tourists displacing or randomly transporting and dropping bricks while visiting these sites, only those still embedded in architectural elements, or remaining in the context of apparently related debris, were photographed. Other inscriptions, presented for inspection by site docents and guards, but reported as recovered from locations within the sites that we did not visit, were not recorded.

Of the fifteen bricks imaged, nine were of late third millennium BCE origin, and the remaining six of mid-first millennium BCE. Four were at Babylon (Neo-Babylonian: Nebuchadnezzar, e.g., CDLI Pno. P498533), two at Nippur (one Neo-Assyrian: Assurbanipal, CDLI Composite No. Q003814; one Early Old Babylonian: Ur-Ninurta, CDLI Composite No. Q001971), three at Lagash (Tell Al-Hiba) (Lagash II: Gudea, CDLI composite No. Q000908), four at Eridu (Ur III: Amar Suen, CDLI composite No. Q000988), and two at Ur (one Neo-Babylonian: Nabonidus, CDLI Pno. P498499; one Ur III: Amar Suen, CDLI Composite No. Q000981). Exact locations, dimensions, material, and condition (whole or fragmented; unbaked, baked, or fired; and whether apparently inscribed or stamped) for all are reported in Table 1.

While all of these bricks are previously known (no doubt having been manufactured in their millions), the Gudea bricks are the first recorded in the CDLI from Lagash (Tell Al-Hiba) itself,3 rather than from Girsu (Tello) (23 examples), or of uncertain provenance (22 examples). As compared to the composite and complete inscriptions catalogued under CDLI No. Q000908), our fragments (from three separate bricks) appear to match CDLI P232761 from Girsu, comprising the top and bottom of column 1, and the top of column 2.

It is our hope that these images may prove useful to scholars who wish to compare them to counterparts with no or poor provenance.