Tell Brak
Coordinates: 36 ° 40 ′ 0 ″ N , 41 ° 3 ′ 30 ″ E
Tell Brak is an ancient settlement mound in northeast Syria . It was an important urban settlement of the cultures of the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC. BC, especially the Akkadian and later the Hurrian times as well as the Mitanni empire in northern Mesopotamia . The ancient name was due to cuneiform panels in the Sumerian language as Nagar identified. Tell Brak is one of the world's oldest settlements with urban structures dating from the early 4th millennium BC. Chr. Passed.
location
Tell Brak is located in the Jazira plain on the Jaghjagh (ancient Mygdonios), an eastern tributary of the Chabur , near the confluence of the Wadi ar-Radd. From today's town of Tell Brak on the road 45 kilometers northeast of al-Hasakah in the direction of Qamishli , the hill can be seen two kilometers away in the east.
Names
In the more than a thousand clay tablets found in Ebla from 1975 onwards , which mainly depict ancient Syrian history in the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. Illuminate the city of Nagar , which today is identified with Tell Brak. The name Nagar can also be found in texts by Mari , Tell Beydar and in inscriptions by Tell Brak itself. The Hurrian city of Taidu is no longer associated with Tell Brak, but with Tell Hamidiya .
history
The settlement period extends from the 6th millennium to the early Iron Age at the end of the 2nd millennium. Until the Roman, Byzantine and early Islamic times, evidence of settlement was discovered on the edges. The earliest, so far excavated finds in the south (area CH) date from the late Obed period in the middle of the 5th millennium. The supposed larger buildings of this time have been completely destroyed by later overbuilding. Remains were found somewhat better preserved on a slope further to the north (area TW) with a settlement continuity from the end of the 5th to the beginning of the 3rd millennium and signs that indicate a settlement from Uruk . From around 3800 BC. Large buildings apparently serving religious and secular purposes suggest that Tell Brak was a functional city.
In the 3rd millennium, Tell Brak was one of the most important cities in northern Mesopotamia and controlled the trade route from the Tigris to Anatolia . At that time there was probably a dynasty that was linked to Ebla, 400 kilometers to the west, in a dynastic marriage. Texts from Ebla provide information about Tagri-Damu, a princess from Ebla, whose marriage to the Crown Prince of Nagar, Ultum-huhu, was arranged by Ijar-Damu, the last king of Ebla. The 42 vessels with wine mentioned, which were supposed to have been sent to Nagar for the wedding from Ebla, have not yet been excavated in Tell Brak.
So far, no cuneiform tablets have been found in Tell Brak, but about 40 km west of Tell Beydar , cuneiform tablets and seals were found in 1993. Tell Beydar, the ancient Nabada appears around 2300 BC To have stood under the predominance of Tell Brak. An early Bronze Age palace with several sanctuaries on the Acropolis was uncovered there. The over 1,400 unrolled seals and clay seals indicate brisk trade with the regional center of Tell Brak. While Beydar / Nabada sank into insignificance during the Akkade period, Tell Brak / Nagar retained its regional importance even under Sargon of Akkad and his successors. For example, Naram-Sin of Akkad built a fortified palace, which also contained large magazines, as name stamps in walled mud bricks show. Remnants of grain were found in some rooms, gold, silver and precious stones in others.
By comparing it with the other East Syrian sites such as Tell Beydar, Tell Chuera and Tell Bi'a , it was possible to establish a uniform urban system typical of the area of the Chabur and the upper Euphrates . According to a uniform scheme, a palace and several integrated or connected temples were located on the Acropolis in the middle of the city. In Tell Beydar there were several catacombs with tombs below the palace, in which the ruling dynasty of Nadar is believed. The pattern of the Ante temple , which was otherwise widespread in early Bronze Age Syria , was unknown here.
Around 2200 or around 2000 BC There was a settlement interruption, the cause of which is still debatable. The Akkadian period ended, possibly caused by the arrival of the initially nomadic Amurrites . In addition, a climate change is assumed that led to a period of drought. To date, the place is only just within the limit of 250 millimeters of annual precipitation, at which rain-fed agriculture is still possible. Almost all of the tells excavated so far in the Chabur region have been abandoned. There are no ceramic finds from this period.
Only from 1900 to around 1400 BC The so-called Chabur pottery appears. The later repopulation up to the 13th century took place only partially on the northern part of the hill, which became the highest point today. In this area, where the Mitanni palace from the middle of the 2nd millennium was uncovered in the 1980s, Mallowan houses were already excavating from the same period (area HH). The south, on the other hand, remained uninhabited, which meant that archaeologists who started working in the 1970s had direct access to layers of the 3rd millennium.
Cityscape
With a height of 40 meters, Tell Brak is the largest settlement hill in northern Mesopotamia and Syria; it extends 800 meters from east to west and 600 meters from north to south. Only Uruk in southern Mesopotamia was bigger. In the middle of the 4th millennium, the settlement covered an area of 110 hectares, including a few smaller tells in the vicinity. The Tell visible today covers 60 hectares. Studies on urban development published in 2007 speak of a gradual merging of the early village settlements in the area. The city is likely to have developed from the edge to the still unpopulated interior. From this, conclusions were drawn about the possible political form of organization of the city. Instead of a central planning authority as in Uruk, it is assumed here, at least in the initial phase, that the settlers will organize themselves.
The walls of the buildings consisted mostly of adobe bricks, which, after they are excavated, gradually crumble beyond recognition. From the Mitanni palace in the HH area up to 3.5 meters standing walls and partially well-preserved stone slab floors were found. About 200 meters to the south are the remains of the Naram Sin Palace excavated by Mallowan around 2200, in a lower area , actually a fortified warehouse of the Akkadian king. The “ Temple of a Thousand Eyes ” stood at this point . The building of Naram-Sin was almost square with about 100 meters side length, the outer walls were 9 meters thick. To be able to build such a gigantic complex on a temple is seen as a sign of the power of the king. Naram-Sin had his name stamped on some of the clay bricks. This is the only reliable dating of an excavation horizon from the 3rd millennium in northern Mesopotamia to this day.
In the SS area in the southwest, a 60 × 100 meter large Akkadian building complex was built in the 23rd century, which contained a temple, several courtyards, workshops with large kilns and, in particular, a southern courtyard with a limestone throne and five meter wide, column-supported portals.
Layer 2 in area FS in the northeast included residential buildings from the end of the 3rd millennium; Layer 5 there a similar temple, several large courtyards and “official” buildings came to light.
Almost 100 meters west of it, layers from the 5th to the beginning of the 3rd millennium have been explored in a deep cut since 1997 (area TW). The most important find here in layer 20 (end of the 5th millennium) is a monumental building with a previously unknown function with a doorstep made of a basalt stone with the extraordinary dimensions of 1.85 × 1.52 meters and 29 centimeters thick.
Research history
The discoverer of the tell is the British archaeologist Max Mallowan (1904–1978). He found the mound on a survey in northern Syria in November 1934 . In 1937 and 1938 he led the first excavations during the summer months. His wife Agatha Christie was responsible for the photo documentation, cleaning and registration of the finds. A sensational find at the time were hundreds of small eye idols in the foundations of what Mallowan called the “ eye temple ” from the Jemdet-Nasr period around 2800 BC. These idols are now exhibited in the National Museum in Aleppo .
In 1976 excavations were resumed by the University of London under the direction of David Oates (1924-2003). From 1985 to 1987 he exposed the Mitanni Palace and a temple next to it on the highest point of the hill. From 1998 to 2002 the excavations were under the direction of Geoff Emberling of the University of Michigan . His focus was the 4th and 3rd millennium in the TC area. Since around the year 2000, occasional excavations have concentrated on the time of Uruk (4100–3100) and the archaeologically little explored time of the middle of the 3rd millennium. From 2002 to 2006, Henry Wright carried out a survey of the surrounding area in a radius of up to 20 kilometers as head. Augusta McMahon from the University of Cambridge has been leading the project since 2006 . Your program continues the excavation activities in the settlement layers of the 5th millennium in the TW area. In 2008, mass graves and several hundred clay stamps showing animal figures from the end of the 5th millennium were found in a small hill about 500 meters northwest at a depth of five meters.
literature
- A. Berlejung, Joachim Bretschneider: Death in Mesopotamia. in: Spectrum of Science . Heidelberg 2003, 9, pp. 68-74, illus. P. 73. ISSN 0170-2971
- K. Kessler, Nilabshinu and the ancient oriental name of Tell Brak. in: Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici. Roma 24, 1984, 21-31. ISSN 1126-6651
- Geoff Emberling et al. a .: Excavations at Tell Brak 1998: Preliminary Report. Iraq 61, 1999, pp. 1-41
- Max Mallowan : Excavations at Brak and Chagar Bazar. Iraq 9 (1-2), 1947, pp. 1-266.
- David Oates, Joan Oates: Tell Brak: A Stratigraphic Summary, 1976-1993. Iraq 56, 1994, pp. 167-176.
- David Oates, Joan Oates, Helen McDonald: Excavations at Tell Brak - Vol. 1: The Mitanni and Old Babylonian periods. British School of Archeology in Iraq / Cambridge, McDonald, London 1998, ISBN 0951942050
- David Oates, Joan Oates, Helen McDonald: Excavations at Tell Brak - Vol. 2: Nagar in the Third Millennium BC. British School of Archeology in Iraq / Cambridge, McDonald, Institute for Archaeological Research, London 2002, ISBN 0951942093
Web links
- Tell Brak. Tell Brak Project, Girton College & McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research
Individual evidence
- ↑ Walther Sallaberger : Early city history (s). In: Insights. Munich 2003, online ( memento from July 25, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) on the LMU website
- ↑ L. Ristvet, H. Weiss: The Habur region in the late third and early second millennium BC In: Winfried Orthmann (ed.): The History and Archeology of Syria. Vo. 1. Saarbrücken Verlag, Saarbrücken 2005, pp. 1–26 (PDF; 3.4 MB)
- ^ Burial clue to early urban strife. BBC, August 30, 2007
- ↑ David Biello: Ancient Squatters May Have Been the World's First Suburbanites. Scientific American, August 30, 2007
- ^ Anton Moortgat : The Art of Ancient Mesopotamia I. Sumer and Akkad. DuMont, Cologne 1982, p. 88
- ^ Joan Oates: Archeology in Mesopotamia: Digging Deeper at Tell Brak. Albert Reckitt Archaeological Lecture, British Academy, 2004
- ^ Area TW: Archaeological Details. ( Memento of May 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Tell Brak Project
- ^ Augusta McMahon: Report on the Excavations at Tell Brak, 2008. In: Newsletter No. 22. British Institute for the Study of Iraq, 2008, pp. 6-12