Tell eṣ-Ṣaliḥiyeh
Coordinates: 33 ° 30 ′ 31 ″ N , 36 ° 28 ′ 11 ″ E
Tell eṣ-Ṣaliḥiyeh , also Tell es-Salihiye; is an ancient settlement mound ( Tell ) in the east of ghouta -Oase of Damascus in Syria . The fortified place reached its greatest extent between the beginning of the 2nd millennium and around the 12th century BC. When it served to protect the settlements in the oasis from attacks from the eastern Syrian desert. In 1953, the sequence of layers of the city structures built from adobe bricks was determined in a part of the hill .
location
Tell eṣ-Ṣaliḥiyeh is located at an altitude of about 630 meters 15 kilometers east of the center of Damascus in the transition zone between the irrigated farmland of the Ghouta oasis and the rain-fed agricultural area and pastureland that is connected to the east, which is called Merj and still belongs to the area around Damascus. Extensive outskirts of the city with quickly built, simple housing developments have expanded to this point. The flat hollow of the oasis, filled with alluvial land, is traversed in a west-east direction by the Barada , which rises in Anti-Lebanon and has been used for irrigation for thousands of years. It flows canalized through the middle of the state capital, leaves it in the north of the Jebel Qassiun and disappears east of the Tell eṣ-Ṣaliḥiyeh behind the volcanic threshold of the Diret et-Tloūl in the tabular country of the Syrian desert steppe. The settlement hill is on the north bank of the poplar-lined river. The Barada flows past about 100 meters to the south and in the southeast comes up to 20 meters from the base of the hill. The surrounding farmland is criss-crossed by irrigation ditches.
The Islamic founding of Salihiye, now a district of Damascus, located below the Jebel Qassiun, should not be confused with Tell.
Tell eṣ-Ṣaliḥiyeh rises 25 meters above the plain, making it the largest settlement mound of the Ghouta that has existed since prehistoric times. It formed the most strongly fortified post of a defensive ring around the oasis to the eastern desert, the natural border of which was formed in the south by the Nahr el-Awaj (Nahr el-Aaouaj). Its river course in a west-east rift valley leads along a volcanic ridge. The local, smaller fortified settlement Deir Khabiye , 15 kilometers southwest of Damascus, was the corresponding protective fortress for attacks from the south. Tell Sakka, excavated by the Syrian Antiquities Service from 1989 onwards, may have played a similar strategic role. It is five kilometers northwest of the airport . The end of the oasis in the west is formed by the foothills of the Anti-Lebanon, from which small chains of hills in the north advance into the plain.
Research history
The earliest description of the hill comes from Joseph Leslie Porter, a missionary working in Damascus. In 1855, in his two-volume travelogue, he published a woodcut showing a hemispherical central hill, on the south side of which the Barada flows directly below an abrupt edge. Porter believed that the steep drop had been washed away by the river; in fact, the mud brick remains found there point to an external fortification. The tomb of the Islamic saint Ferzad, which later disappeared, can still be seen as a domed structure on the top of the hill. The hill bears the local name of Tell Ferzad or Tell Firzat after him . A stone relief found by Porter is dated between 900 and 700 BC. Estimated. It shows a half-side view of an Aramaic king holding a short object in his right hand and a staff in his outstretched left. The relief came into the possession of the British Museum before 1870 .
In May 1866, ET Rogers, the British consul of Damascus, had initially ten and later 24 workers dig on the hill for about two weeks without making any significant discoveries. In 1869 he published his results in a magazine. Around 1900 a trench was dug on the southern slope. The fragments of a sarcophagus discovered in the process have disappeared. Judging by the shape of the surface, predatory graves must have been active on the slopes on all sides with the exception of the northern slope.
The only systematic excavation was carried out by Hans Henning von der Osten (1899–1960) from January to May 1953. On behalf of the Swedish University of Uppsala , the team of about twelve workers investigated the unscathed eastern part of the northern slope and raised one in a north-south direction an average of five meters wide trench. A rough idea of the chronological order of the twelve construction periods examined, of the respective appearance and the extent of the settlement was obtained. Since only a small area of the hill was exposed, little pot shards from the individual periods came to light. Most of the pottery finds, including completely preserved vessels, come from graves of the lowest uncovered (XII.) Period. In the upper layers there were some basalt objects, especially hand mills, as well as jewelry made of bones, shells and fries . Metal finds were very rare in all layers.
Description of the tell
The settlement hill is oval and measures 250 × 300 meters, the longitudinal axis lies in a west-east direction. The mausoleum on the hilltop was replaced by a smaller grave at the time of the excavation. The road continues to the east (direction ad-Dumair ) through an old settlement area that is now covered with dry bushes ( Salsola rigida Pall). There were also Arabic graves, pot shards and clay brick remains on numerous smaller elevations.
The highest elevation of the tell is in the north-west; to the west, the hilltop drops off in an artificially created heel, which was probably part of an enclosure wall that secured the edge of the hill for almost the entire period of settlement. Towards the south and east, the terrain is flatter and sloping in waves to a low terrace. In 1953 the hill was surrounded on all sides by small irrigation canals and farmland. The location of the enclosing walls could only be determined in a small area through the individual excavation. In all twelve layers examined, the walls were made of adobe bricks, in the case of the deeper layers that were not excavated they were possibly also made of rammed earth.
1953 excavation
The sequence of layers only provides information about the exposed area on the north side. Most of the construction periods were separated from each other by layers of ash, which indicates wooden superstructures / roof constructions and in each case a catastrophe or a fall by foreign conquerors. The foundations of the youngest settlement layer, consisting of partially collapsed mud brick walls, came to light at a depth of 1.15 meters. On the tamped clay soil there were some pottery shards, stone foundations and the remains of charred beams.
In layer II at an average depth of 2.1 to 2.4 meters, a distinction was made between two residential layers , both of which were located within a strong surrounding wall. This wall was 1.2 meters wide and consisted of gray and yellowish mud bricks with the dimensions 35 × 35 × 10 centimeters. Here, too, the floor consisted of firm, smooth rammed earth. A bread oven, fragments of several large vessels and some coins were found.
The construction period III from 3.6 to 3.8 meters deep was divided in triplicate. Between the residential layers with adobe bricks measuring 40 × 40 × 12 centimeters, some of which were on stone foundations, there were layers of gravel and fire a few centimeters thick. The peculiarity was an ash hole sunk into the lower layers, from which abundant and partially completely preserved pottery was recovered. The broken brooches found in the ash hole provide a clue for the dating. They were in the Middle East from the 9th to the 6th century BC. Widespread; from the east this stratum is estimated to be a little older than the 6th century. Only in the first and third layers were there some stone foundations.
Layer IV at 4.1 meters below the surface was only visible on the east side of the excavated trench and contained adobe walls up to 30 centimeters high. The place should have been much smaller than during layer V, which was 5.8 meters deep. The walls recognized here either sat on layer VI or consisted of recycled material from the lower layer. An 80 centimeter thick widening and pillar-like stiffeners were built in front of the surrounding wall on the outside. The outer gray mud bricks could be distinguished from the yellowish ones of the wall foundation. Like Layer V, the strong fortification of VI is dated to the time of the Aramaic rule . Presumably there was a palace on the wide terrace on the south side of the castle hill, from which the relief found by Porter could have come.
In Layer VII no outer wall was visible, but there was probably an older protective wall that was used. Later the urban area was reduced considerably. The demise of this construction period must have been violent, because above it was a layer of ash and fire about 1.2 meters thick, which indicates complete destruction by fire.
The upper limit of Layer VIII was found at a depth of 8.3 meters. During the excavations, a mighty surrounding wall from this period could be recognized as a 4-meter-wide, light-colored band that emerged on the outer embankments, especially after rainfall. This fortification was already in the IX. Layer applied and subsequently used as a foundation or repaired and reinforced. The wall was 1.9 meters thick and was still up to 3.5 meters high when it was excavated. On the inside of the wall one meter high rubble had been filled, outside there was probably a smaller front wall. The city of this time could have been founded by Amurri , the subsequent destruction of layers VIII and VII would have been caused by the invasion of the sea peoples .
Layer X lies at a depth of 12.2 to 12.6 meters , with its 3.2 meter thick surrounding wall resting on an older wall. It is unusual that the outer wall was underlaid at least in one place with a single-row stone foundation. The floor of layer XI was about 50 centimeters lower. Here, too, the outer wall of the older layer was built over or restored. In one building there was a large clay pot next to a fireplace.
Layer XII is the oldest investigated and the most important layer of the hill of ruins. The two earliest periods investigated are dated to the first half of the 2nd millennium, the few ceramic finds from these layers date from the 19th to the end of the 17th century. They can be compared typologically with the finds by Ugarit Moyen 2 (around 1900–1750) and Hama H (20th century - 1750). When the surrounding walls were built, the settlement hill must have been five to six meters higher than the plain. The older fortification walls below were either amorphously pressed together by the pressure or made of rammed earth. Building rubble had been filled in several times within the walls, which gradually resulted in a higher settlement profile for the younger strata.
Historical meaning
There is evidence of a small early settlement of the Ghouta along the Barada from around 9000 BC. In the 4th and 3rd millennia, there were no settlement mounds south of the Homs line , the size and number of which could have been compared with those of northern Syria. Damascus was probably just a small village in the Bronze Age . At that time the Ghouta was probably a swamp or forest area, which was used for hunting and from which water was diverted into the Merj, today's peripheral areas, for field irrigation. The agricultural settlements that had to be defended must have been in this area. If at Tell eṣ-Ṣaliḥiyeh, which was a good five meters high at the beginning of the 2nd millennium, an enclosure wall estimated at the same height is added, the result is a position from which it was possible to monitor the paths to the oasis and several on the plain Send out fire signals hours before attacks.
The fortifications, which were built in the Middle Bronze Age, initially consisted of a three meter high wall, which raised the then seven to eight meter high embankment on the outside in a natural angle of repose. Inside the wall was straightened more steeply. Later, a gravel bed was poured onto this earth wall, which served as the foundation for a fortification wall. Behind the front wall there was a stronger wall made of adobe bricks. The embankment created a glacis with a shallow angle of incline, which gave the defenders the opportunity to fire at attackers without leaning out as far as would have been necessary with a vertical wall. At the same time, the embankment made it difficult for the attackers to bring heavy siege equipment close. Such external fortifications, consisting of a combination of ramparts and walls, with the wall forming the main obstacle, were typical of settlements that were enlarged by adding a lower town. They occurred in northern Syrian cities, including Karkemiš and Ugarit , as well as Deir Khabiye , which was part of the defensive ring around the Ghouta. The mud brick defensive walls, which had to be dried, were more time-consuming to erect than a heaped wall. In the places mentioned there was therefore a fortified, relatively large, older town center, to which the population could withdraw in case of danger.
The ever higher and more massive fortifications during the first half of the 2nd millennium (beginning with layer XII) can be explained by the unsafe situation caused by invaders from the east and north. Thus, the penetrated Hurriter of the region Jazeera from Syria before and probably forced other nations to migrate south. The various inhabitants of Syria and Palestine arrived as the Hyksos group around 1700 BC. To Egypt . In addition, around this time there was an improvement in weapon technology and the use of new weapons introduced from Mesopotamia . These included the horse-drawn chariots and archers who used a bow with greater reach. The improvements in the fortifications and the numerous layers of fire in Tell eṣ-Ṣaliḥiyeh are related to the constant attacks, but not to a change in population.
When the place in the middle of the 1st millennium BC BC was within the Achaemenid Empire , the massive fortifications were no longer necessary. Damascus now developed into the capital of the Ghouta. A Hellenistic layer was not found on the hill. The remains of a fort are known from Roman times. The hill served the Romans as a signal station within their defense system ( Limes Arabicus ). A semicircular foundation could possibly have belonged to the apse of a church from early Byzantine times.
literature
- Hans Henning von der Osten : The excavation of Tell eṣ-Ṣaliḥiyeh. Gleerup, Lund 1956 ( Svenska Syria Expedition 1952–1953. 1 = Skrifter utgivna av Svenska Institutet i Athens 4 °. 4).
- Johannes Lepiksaar: The animal remains from Tell es-Salihiyeh in southern Syria. In: Jörg Schibler, Jürg Sedlmeier, Hans-Peter Spycher (eds.): Festschrift for Hans R. Stampfli. Contributions to archeozoology, archeology, anthropology, geology and paleontology. Helbing & Lichtenhahn, Basel 1990, ISBN 3-7190-1068-6 , pp. 115-120.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hawsh as Salihiyah, Syria Page. fallingrain.com
- ^ Joseph Leslie Porter: Five years in Damascus, with travels and researches in Palestine, Lebanon and the Hauran. 2 vols., John Murray, London 1855
- ↑ Stone stela showing an Aramaean king. British Museum
- ↑ Von der Osten, pp. 18-20
- ↑ Von der Osten, pp. 23–26
- ↑ Von der Osten, pp. 26 f, 88
- ↑ Von der Osten, pp. 27–30, 87
- ↑ Von der Osten, pp. 31–35, 87
- ↑ Ross Burns: Damascus: A History. Routledge, London 2007, p. 2 f
- ↑ Von der Osten, pp. 80–85
- ↑ Von der Osten, p. 89