A line of barefoot girls in headscarves and long patterned skirts carry large clay water jars on their backs past a brick wall. Newton & Co lantern slide no. 50 from the series "The Persians, Kurds, and Nestorians, their manners and customs", attributed by the Nelson Collection to Ernest Hoeltzer, late 19th century; published in The Living Races of Mankind (1901) as "Armenians water-carrying (Nestorians)" and by D'Allemagne (1911) as "Jeunes filles Nestoriennes faisant le métier de porteuses d'eau" (young Nestorian women working as water carriers).

Nestorian (Assyrian) girls carrying water jars

Men drive ox teams pulling wagons piled high with brushwood and belongings along a steppe track, captioned as Assyrian refugees moving to a new village; photographed near Tel Tamar on John D. Whiting's April 1939 trip.

Assyrian refugees moving to a new village, Jazira, 1939

Two white bell tents and a brushwood shelter pitched on the open steppe, with people and belongings around them, captioned as an Assyrian shepherd camp near Tel Tamar; photographed on John D. Whiting's April 1939 trip through the Jazira.

Assyrian shepherd camp near Tel Tamer, 1939

A tall steel irrigation wheel and aqueduct on the bank of the Khabur, captioned as erected by the League of Nations for the Assyrian refugee villages near Tel Tamer, 21 July 1938.

League of Nations irrigation wheel on the Khabur, 1938

A row of large wooden irrigation wheels turning in a channel off the Khabur, captioned as "primitive irrigating water-wheels erected by Assyrians" at the refugee villages near Tel Tamer, 21 July 1938.

Water wheels built by Assyrian settlers on the Khabur, 1938

Five men in embroidered Assyrian costume and felt caps sit and stand under a vine-covered arbour; the caption notes that the national costume had disappeared except for special occasions. Tel Tamer on the Khabur, 21 July 1938.

Group of Assyrian men in traditional dress at Tel Tamer, 1938

A barefoot woman in a headscarf and patterned blouse spins wool yarn in front of a domed mud-brick doorway, beside a wooden ladder; the caption notes the women still spun yarn and knitted socks from it. Tel Tamer on the Khabur, 21 July 1938.

Assyrian woman spinning wool at Tel Tamer, 1938

A woman with long braids crouches beside a large copper pot on an outdoor hearth against a mud-brick wall, with a second woman standing nearby, in what the caption calls an "out-door kitchen." Tel Tamer on the Khabur, 21 July 1938.

Assyrian women at an outdoor kitchen, Tel Tamer, 1938

A woman in a head wrap and patterned dress pounds burghul in a stone mortar in a mud-brick lane while children watch from behind a wall. Tel Tamer on the Khabur, 21 July 1938.

Assyrian woman pounding burghul at Tel Tamer, 1938

An elderly man with a large moustache and a cap, in a striped and embroidered shirt, sits in a doorway with a finger raised to his lips; the caption calls him "one of the old cronies." Tel Tamer on the Khabur, 21 July 1938.

Elderly Assyrian man at Tel Tamer, 1938

A white-bearded priest in a white robe and dark stole sits outside a mud-brick wall with crosses above its arched doorway, reading a large manuscript Bible open on a low wooden stand. Tel Tamer on the Khabur, 21 July 1938.

Assyrian priest with his manuscript Bible at Tel Tamer, 1938

A woman stands in a mud-brick archway wearing a coin-covered headdress topped with white feathers, a broad beaded collar and a silver belt; the caption notes that only the jewellery remained of the women's national costume. Tel Tamer on the Khabur, 21 July 1938.

Assyrian woman in traditional jewellery at Tel Tamer, 1938

A man in a feathered felt cap and the patterned Assyrian "national costume" of fine goat-hair weaving steps out of a mud-brick doorway at Tel Tamer on the Khabur, 21 July 1938.

Assyrian man in national costume at Tel Tamer, 1938

The Khabur river curving past the mound and village of Tel Tamer, photographed by John D. Whiting on 21 July 1938 among the Assyrian refugee villages the League of Nations built along the river.

Faces, places & memories of the Assyrian people.