al-Rawda
Coordinates: 35 ° 10 ′ 51.6 ″ N , 37 ° 37 ′ 58.8 ″ E
Al-Rawda ( Arabic الروضة, DMG ar-Rauḍa ) was a Bronze Age settlement with an area of 12 hectares intra muros in the now dry Syrian steppe. The excavation site is about 100 km east of Hama and about 70 km northeast of Qatna (Tell Mishrife).
The settlement period amounts to the last third of the 3rd millennium to the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. On the surface, layers from the Early Bronze Age IV can be found. The settlement was discovered in 1996 and examined more closely by the Mission archéologique franco-syrienne . Excavations took place in 2002 and the following years. The mission also carried out surveys in the al-Rawdas microregion (within 100 km²). Al-Rawda has been studied using several methods, including aerial photography and satellite imagery.
The settlement, built in a circular shape, appears to have a fortification (city wall), a necropolis at the western end of the tell and a two to three hectare lower town in the east. Around 97 graves were discovered in the necropolis by 2004. These included 54 shaft graves, circular graves and 25 stone box graves, as well as a tumulus that had been looted.
Ceramic types
In comparison with ceramics from Qatna, Hama and Ebla , one can conclude that al-Rawdas was settled in the second third of the 3rd millennium.
literature
- Corinne Castel : Al-Rawda, a Town in the Steppe (Central Syria, Early Bronze Age IV). In: ICAANE (International Congress of the Archeology of the Ancient Near East) 4 (2004), 301-313.
- Corinne Castel, Edgar Peltenburg : Urbanism on the margins: Third millennium BC Al-Rawda in the arid zone of Syria. Antiquity, 81: 601-616 (2007).
- Corinne Castel et al. (Ed.): Rapport préliminaire sur les activités de la mission archéologique franco-syrienne dans la mirco-région d'Al-Rawda (Shamiyeh): deuxième et troisième campagnes (2003 et 2004) . In: Akkadica 126 (2005), 51-95.
- Corinne Castel et al. (Ed.): Rapport préliminaire sur les activités de la mission archéologique franco-syrienne dans la mirco-région d'Al-Rawda (Syrie intérieure): la campagne de 2002 . In: Akkadica 124 (2004), 27-77.