 Tepe Gawra contains material relating to the Halaf-Ubaid Transitional period c. 5,500–5,000 BC.A brief exploratory dig was performed by Austen Layard before 1850.The site was formally excavated in 1927, 1931, and 1932 for a total of 8 months by archaeologists from a joint expedition of the University of Pennsylvania and the American Schools of Oriental Research, led by Ephraim Avigdor Speiser.