Jerablus Tahtani

Jerablus Tahtani
Jerablus Tahtani
Shown within Syria
LocationSyria
Coordinates36°48′00″N 38°01′00″E / 36.80000°N 38.01667°E / 36.80000; 38.01667
Typesettlement
History
Founded4th millennium BC
PeriodsLate Chalcolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age
Site notes
Excavation dates1992-1999
ArchaeologistsEdgar Peltenburg
ConditionRuined
OwnershipPublic
Public accessYes

Jerablus Tahtani (formerly Tell Alawiyeh) is a small tell on the right bank of the Euphrates River four kilometers south of Carchemish in present-day Syria.

Archaeology

The mound has an area of 1 hectare with a surrounding lower town covering about 12 hectares. The mound has been somewhat eroded on the east side by the Euphrates and currently is 180 by 220 meters in extent and rises 16 meters above the plain.[1][2] A 300 square meter Early Bronze age (3rd Millennium BC) fort, built on the ashes of a burnt village, stood on the mound. The c. 2700 BC defensive wall exceeded 12 meters in height, is preserved to a height of 6 meters, and included a later added 12 meter wide white plastered glacis. A number of monumental tombs were found. One tomb (Tomb 302), 15 meters by 10 meters by 2.5 meters built with large transversely laid, undressed limestone blocks and with two chambers, eastward oriented and sited just outside the wall of the fort, contained, ivory dagger pommels, a large number of "champagne vessels" and animal bones which were interpreted as evidence of mortuary feasting. It was topped by a 8 meter by 10 meter by 2 meter mound. The main chamber measured 6.6 meters by 2 meters and was built with corbelled walls. The tomb had been looted at some point.[3][4] In a later period, c. 2500 BC, metal weapons were deposited in the tomb including three spearheads, twelve daggers, and two axes.[5] Several stone lined cist graves and a pit grave were also found. Finds in those included "figurines, decorated bone, pins, daggers, silver earrings, and beads and pendants made of gold, carnelian rock crystal and shell".[6]

The site was first noted by Leonard Woolley early the 1920s while he was excavating at nearby Carchemish.[7] It was examined and mapped during a regional survey in the late 1970s.[8] It was excavated from 1992 to 2000 by a University of Edinburgh and British Institute at Amman for Archaeology and History team led by Edgar Peltenburg as part of the Syrian government's Tishrin Dam rescue project. Finds included beveled rim bowls, diagnostic pottery of the Uruk period.[9] As of 2000 the site was still not underwater.[10][1][11][12][13] This project successively developed into the Land of Carchemish project.

History

The site was occupied from the late Uruk period through the middle 3rd Millennium BC. Then, after a hiatus, it was occupied from the Iron Age through the Islamic period. Specifically, there were 5 occupation periods:[14][15]

  • Period 1 - Late Chalcolithic - Mostly under EBAIII overburden and unexcavated in time available.
  • Period 2 - Early Bronze Age III
  • Period 3 - Late Iron Age
  • Period 4 - Hellenistic/Roman
  • Period 5 - Islamic

See also

References

  1. ^ a b E. Peltenburg, S. Campbell, P. Croft, D. Lunt, M. Murray & M. Watt, Jerablus-Tahtani, Syria, 1992-4: Preliminary Report, Levant, vol. 27, pp. 1-28, 1995
  2. ^ Ur, Jason A., "Cycles of Civilization in Northern Mesopotamia, 4400—2000 BC", Journal of Archaeological Research, vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 387–431, 2010
  3. ^ Weiss, Harvey, "Archaeology in Syria", American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 101, no. 1, pp. 97–148, 1997
  4. ^ [1] Calabrese, Agata Maria Catena, "The ancestor worship in the third millennium BCE", EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, 2020
  5. ^ Peltenburg, Edgar, "Conflict and Exclusivity in Early Bronze Age Societies of the Middle Euphrates Valley", Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol. 72, no. 2, 2013, pp. 233–52, 2013
  6. ^ Porter, Anne, "The Dynamics of Death: Ancestors, Pastoralism, and the Origins of a Third-Millennium City in Syria", Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 325, pp. 1–36, 2002
  7. ^ [2]Woolley, C.L., "Carchemish II: The Town Defences", British Museum: London, 1921
  8. ^ Sanlaville, P. ed., "Holocene Settlement in North Syria", BAR S238, Oxford, 1985
  9. ^ Weiss, Harvey, "Archaeology in Syria", American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 98, no. 1, pp. 101–58, 1994
  10. ^ E. Peltenburg, Jerablus-Tahtani, American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 98, pp. 106-7, 1994
  11. ^ E. Peltenburg, D. Bolger, S. Campbell, M. Murray and R. Tipping, Jerablus-Tahtani, Syria, 1995: Preliminary Report, Levant, vol. 28, pp. 1-25, 1996
  12. ^ E. Peltenburg, Report on Jerablus Tahtani 1998, Levant, vol. 31, pp. 315-316, 1999
  13. ^ Peltenburg, E. et al., "Jerablustahton, Syria, 1998-99: Preliminary Report", Levant, XXXII, pp. 53-76, 2000
  14. ^ [3] Ceren Kabukcu, "Early Agriculture in Northern Syria: Botanical Remains from Jerablus Tahtani", Masters Thesis, Trent University, May 2012
  15. ^ Ur, Jason A., "Cycles of Civilization in Northern Mesopotamia, 4400—2000 BC", Journal of Archaeological Research, vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 387–431, 2010

Further reading

  • E. Peltenburg, "Jerablus-Tahtani", American Journal of Archaeology 101, pp. 122–123, 1997
  • E. Peltenburg, "Tell Jerablus Tahtani, Syria, I. Mortuary Practices at an Early Bronze Age Fort on the Euphrates River", Oxford: Oxbow Books, Levant Supplementary Series 17, 2015 ISBN 9781785701436
  • Peltenburg, E., "Tell Jerablus Tahtani 1992-1996: A summary", In del Olmo Lete, G., and Montero Fenollos, J.-L. (eds.), Archaeology of the Upper Syrian Euphrates: The Tishrin Dam Area, Editorial Ausa, Barcelona, pp. 97–105, 1999
  • Peltenburg, E., "The living and the ancestors: Early Bronze Age mortuary practices at Jerablus Tahtani", In del Olmo Lete, G., and Montero Fenollos, J.-L. (eds.), Archaeology of the Upper Syrian Euphrates: The Tishrin Dam Area, Editorial Ausa, Barcelona, pp. 427–442, 1999
  • [4]Edgar Peltenburg, "Diverse Settlement Pattern Changes in the Middle Euphrates Valley in the Later Third Millennium BC: The Contribution of Jerablus Tahtani", in Sociétés humaines, ed. Kuzucuoğlu and Marro, pp. 254–55, 2007
  • [5] Sang, Li, "Burial practices of the third millennium BCE in the Middle Euphrates Region: an interpretation of funerary rituals", Unpublished PhD. Thesis, Tübingen, 2010
  • [6]Andrew J. Shortland, "An Antimony Bead from Jerablus Tahtani", Journal of the Historical Metallurgy Society 36/1, pp. 1–5, 2002
  • Wilkinson, T. J., Peltenburg, E., McCarthy, A., Wilkinson, E., and Brown, M., "Archaeology in the land of Carchemish: Landscape surveys in the area of Jerablus Tahtani, 2006", Levant 39, pp. 213–247, 2007
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