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Tell Barri

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Tell Barri (ancient Kahat ) is a tell , or archaeological settlement mound, in north-eastern Syria in the Al-Hasakah Governorate . Its ancient name was Kahat as proven by a threshold found on the south-western slope of the mound. Tell Barri is situated along the Wadi Jaghjagh , a tributary of the Khabur River .

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24-502: It lies 22 kilometers away from the site Tell Arbid and 8 kilometers north of the ancient city of Nagar ( Tell Brak ). The earliest layers discovered at Tell Barri date to the Halaf period. Barri was in the fertile crescent and could benefit from winter rains as well as the river water. This developed the early agriculture of the area. The site of Tell Barri was inhabited since the fourth millennium BC . Ninevite 5 period pottery from

48-514: A few sites in Turkey and Iran . Archaeologists associate the pottery with the cuneiform texts dated to the reign of Shamshi-Adad I , although it is not clear how much earlier it was manufactured. Four main Khabur ware phases are established, 1-4. While the starting date for phase 1 is inconclusive, a tentative date of ca. 1900 BC is suggested based on evidence from Tell Brak . The beginning of

72-561: A rich assemblage of 577 zoomorphic and 67 anthropomorphic clay figurines, dated to the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC. The 3rd millennium figures, about 40 in number, are smaller and more crudely made and fired compared to the later figures, from the Khabur Ware period. Stone beads (made of carnelian and lapis lazuli, among others), cylinder seals, and stone tools were also found. An interesting group of objects consists of 40 terracotta chariot models, preserved whole or in fragments, dating from

96-467: A team of Italian archaeologists from the University of Florence , led by Paolo Emilio Pecorella and Mirjo Salvini. From 2006 until 2010, the dig was conducted by a team from University of Naples Federico II led by Raffaella Pierobon-Benoit. The town was walled in the second millennium BC, with an acropolis at its centre. Tombs were found at the site. Many ceramics were discovered, which have helped

120-739: A vassal of the Hittites, and a buffer-state between Hatti in the west and Assyria in the east. Shortly afterwards the town fell into the hands of the Middle Assyrian Empire . A large palace was built dated to the time of Assyrian ruler Adad-Nirari I (c. 1305 to 1274 BC). In the Neo-Assyrian Empire period a palace was built by the Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta II (891-884 BC) in Kahat. The town lived on after

144-546: Is equivalent to the Early Jezirah I–II period. The ruins of an extensive city dated to the Ninevite 5 period cover almost the entire site. It was located between the largest centers of the region in the 3rd millennium BC: Tell Brak (ancient Nagar) and Tell Mozan (ancient Urkish). Other contemporary sites in this area of Khabur River basin are Hamoukar and Chagar Bazar . The site was occupied only sporadically in

168-652: Is specifically mentioned in the Shattiwaza treaty of the fourteenth century BC. In 1345 BC, Suppiluliuma I of Hatti defeated the Mitanni stronghold of Carchemish , which led to the defeat of Tushratta of Mitanni. Tushratta was assassinated and the Mitanni Empire entered a civil war. Suppiluliuma entered a treaty with Shattiwaza (r. 1330-1305 BC), son of Tushratta, making the remnants of the Kingdom of Mitanni

192-515: Is wheel-made and decorated with monochrome designs in red, brown or black. The designs found on the pottery are combinations of simple motifs, usually geometric with horizontal bands, triangles and others. Naturalistic designs become more common in its later phases. Its final phase manifests jars with button bases and tall vertical necks, a form characteristic of the painted Nuzi ware, of the Late Bronze Age , which indicates an overlap between

216-551: The Akkadian , Mitanni , Neo-Babylonian and the Hellenistic period. The site consists of a large main tell and four smaller mounds, together covering about 38 hectares with a height of around 30 meters. The main tell (with an area if around 12 hectares) consists primarily of Mittanni, Akkadian, Early Dynastic, and Ninevite 5 layers with the latter two including monumental buildings. The initial excavation of Tell Arbid

240-650: The Khabur River Basin region of Al-Hasakah Governorate , Syria , about 50 kilometers north northeast of modern Al-Hasakah . It is located 45 kilometers south of Tell Mozan, the site of ancient Urkesh and about 15 kilometers from the site of Chagar Bazar . The Halafian site of Tell Arbid Abyad is a short distance away. The site was heavily occupied in the 3rd Millennium BC during the Early Dynastic period that started c. 2900 BC, primarily during Ninevite 5 (2900-2600 BC). In northern Mesopotamia this

264-840: The National Museum of Aleppo in Syria (325 of which were later moved to a museum in Deir ez-Zor) A survey was done at the site in the 1990s by Bertille Lyonnet of the Centre National de Recherches Scientifiques in Paris. For 15 seasons beginning in 1996 the site was excavated by a Polish-Syrian team led by Piotr Bieliński from the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology University of Warsaw and Dr. Ahmad Serriyeh from Damascus University . This work has continued through

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288-578: The 2010 season. During 2000 they were assisted by a joint American/Austrian team from the Oriental Institute of the University of Vienna and Archeos Inc led by Gebhard Seltz and David Nelson Gimbel which focused on the North slope. From 2008 to 2010 a team led by Rafal Kolinski excavated a cemetery area on the Eastern slope of the site. In the cemetery, dating from Middle Bronze II, a skeleton

312-607: The Great Circuit Wall that surrounds the tell and dates to the Parthian period. Scant traces of Roman occupation have been found in many areas of the site. Recently, Islamic occupation (houses' quarter) has been attested on the northern slope of the mound. The site has suffered significant looting during the Syrian Civil War. Tell Arbid Tell Arbid is an ancient Near East archaeological site in

336-555: The Mitanni period (1500–1300 BC) One of the graves was of a high status individual and contained numerous pottery, bronze and gold grave goods as well as two cylinder seals and two faience scarabs. The city was in its heyday in the first half of the 3rd millennium BC. Residential and economic quarters, as well as official and sacral buildings, date to this period. The finds from the Akkadian period are fewer and include whole vessels and architectural remains. Traces of settlement dating to

360-523: The Ninevite 5 culture to the Khabur culture. Khabur ware Khabur ware is a specific type of pottery named after the Khabur River region, in northeastern Syria , where large quantities of it were found by the archaeologist Max Mallowan at the site of Chagar Bazar . The pottery's distribution is not confined to the Khabur region, but spreads across northern Iraq and is also found at

384-563: The archaeologists to determine the different strata of occupation of the mound. Artifacts from Tell Barri, including cuneiform tablets, have been taken to the museum of Aleppo . Significant discoveries include a sacred complex in Area G (third millennium BC). Twenty graves from the Khabur period in the early 2nd millennium BC were excavated there. Also found were the remains of the royal palace of Neo-Assyrian ruler Tukulti-Ninurta II (Area J), and

408-494: The beginning of the 2nd millennium BC were found only in some parts of the site. The Mitanni-period layers yielded residential houses and graves. After a settlement hiatus, which lasted until the Neo-Babylonian period, domestic structures reappeared; finds from this period include cylinder seals. The excavators also discovered the remains of a caravanserai from the 3rd millennium BC. The excavations at Tell Arbid yielded

432-512: The early 3rd millennium BC was found at the site. Tell Barri came under Akkadian cultural influence. The large urban centre at Tell Brak was nearby. In the Middle Bronze IIA, the eighteenth century BC, the city now known as Kahat is attested from the palace archives of Mari . Kahat seems to have been ruled by semi-independent kings. The town then came under the rule of the Kingdom of Upper Mesopotamia, whose capital, Shubat-Enlil ,

456-459: The end of the Assyrian empire in the seventh century BC as a part of Achaemenid Assyria . Babylonians , Persians , Seleucids , Romans , Byzantine , and Parthians left their trace. The site was inhabited into the Arab period. The height of the town mound is 32 meters (105 feet), and its base covers 37 hectares (90 acres). There is also a 7 hectare lower town. In 1980 excavations were begun by

480-411: The second, and the main, phase of Khabur ware is dated to the reign of Shamshi-Adad I (ca. 1813 BC), based on evidence from Chagar Bazar , Tell al-Rimah , Tell Taya and Tell Leilan . The third phase of Khabur ware is dated to ca. 1750, and lasts until ca. 1550. The fourth and last phase, is a period shared between Khabur ware and Nuzi ware , and ends with its disappearance ca. 1400 BC. The pottery

504-531: The throne of Mari and eventually conquered Kabiya of Kahat. One of the year names of Zimri-Lim was "Year in which Zimri-Lim seized Kahat". Mari retained control over this region until its fall to Hammurabi of Babylon (r. 1792-1750 BC). By the 15th century BC, the town emerged as a religious centre when the Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni established itself in the region. The temple to the Storm god Teshub in Kahat

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528-470: Was found showing hallmarks from a lifetime of grain grinding labor. The most important features include a Ninevite 5 temple (the so-called Southern Temple) with a ramp leading to it, uncovered in 2008. Another sacral building, the so-called Southwestern Temple, was found on the western side of the tell. The excavators also identified graves from different periods – Ninevite 5 culture, Khabur culture (1950–1500 BC), and two richly-furnished women's graves from

552-434: Was northeast of Kahat. A seal of a ruler of Kahat, Iamsi-Hadnu (contemporary of Tilabnu of Sehna) was found on a treaty at Tell Leilan. Another treaty found at Leilan was signed by Sūmum, a ruler of Kahat and Ḫaya-abum, the ruler of Šehna. When the empire collapsed, the harem of its king Shamshi-Adad I (r. 1809-1775 BC) sought refuge at Kahat. Following the death of Shamshi-Adad I, Zimri-Lim of Mari (r. 1775-1761 BC) regain

576-650: Was performed by a British Museum team led by M.E.L. Mallowan , opening 8 trenches and investigating a number of graves. The operation ran from 1934 to 1936. Items collected, including a Halafian duck bead and Uruk period pottery sherds, during the excavations ended up in the British Museum, the Institute of Archaeology Collections at University College London , the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, and at

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