of the site, to revisit the large building on Mound B that had been excavated by Langdon but very poorly published, and to explore a building that was visible on the surface of Mound A. During the 1989 season, again directed by Matthews, a dig-house was constructed on the site. Research focused on Mound B with the aim to further explore the ancient occupation in that area. No work was carried out on Mound A. Further excavation seasons, although planned, were prevented by the outbreak of the Gulf War in 1990 and no fieldwork has been carried out at the site since then. The excavation archives for this dig are still in Baghdad but field photographs have now been digitized. The importance of the findings at Jemdet Nasr were immediately recognized after the 1920s excavations. During a large conference in Baghdad in 1930, the Jemdet Nasr period was inserted into the Mesopotamian chronology between the Uruk period and the Early Dynastic period, with Jemdet Nasr being the eponymous type site. Since then, the assemblage characteristic for the Jemdet Nasr period has been attested at other sites in south–central Iraq, including Abu Salabikh, Fara, Nippur, Ur and Uruk. The period is now generally dated to 3100–2900 BC. Jemdet Nasr and its environment The name Jemdet Nasr translates as "Small mound of Nasr", named after a prominent sheikh in the early twentieth century. Jemdet Nasr is located in modern-day Babil Governorate in central Iraq, or ancient southern Mesopotamia. Before the implementation of the Musaiyib irrigation project in the 1950s, the site lay in a semi-desert area. Today, the site is located in an area that is heavily irrigated for agriculture. The tell consists of two mounds, A and B, that are located adjacent to each other. Mound A is , high and has a total area of . Mound B, located immediately to the northeast of A, measures for a total area of , reaching up to above the modern level of the plain. Occupation history Occupation is thought to have started at least in the Ubaid period and occupied until the Early Dynastic I period. The Ubaid occupation of the site has not been explored through excavation but is inferred from pottery dating to that period, and clay sickles and a fragment of a clay cone, that were found on the surface of Mound A. Both the 1920s as well as