Samarra is an ancient town on the east bank of the middle Tigris just north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. At the time of its early existence, Samarra expanded to an occupied area of 57 km2. It was considered one of the largest cities of ancient times. Archaeological work at Samarra was started by the French architect Henri Viollet in 1907-1909, which was mainly a survey of the region. The first large-scale work at Samarra took place in from 1911 to 1913. The person to head up the excavation of the city was Ernst Herzfeld.
Samarra dated back to 5500-4800 BC and that Samarra showed the first significant irrigation. The finding of irrigation at Samarra suggests that there was more investment in the land as far as farming for crops. The setting up of irrigation also showed that the city was a very permanent settlement and that the settlement prospered as a result of the advances that they made.
Prior to excavating the ancient city, the remains of the collapsed brick walls were still largely visible. Not only were remains of the historical city found, Herzfeld found traces of prehistoric artifacts. He found fine painted pottery decorated in dark colored backgrounds with figures of animals, birds, and people and complicated looking geometric designs. The pottery was later named Samarra ware by Herzfeld, after the site he had excavated. However, aside from finding ancient pottery at the site, Herzfeld was unable to establish very much about the nature or date of the settlement.
Sources
http://maxpages.com/ribbentop/Samarra_(wysiwyg://374http://maxpages.com/ribbent
The Samarra Archaeological Survey http://www.dur.ac.uk/~drk0dk/samarra.htm
By Steven Neutz