Proceedings

of the 6th International Congress

on the Archaeology
of the Ancient Near East
May, 5th-10th 2008, “Sapienza” - Università di Roma

Volume 2
Excavations, Surveys and Restorations:
Reports on Recent Field Archaeology in the Near East

Edited by
Paolo Matthiae, Frances Pinnock, Lorenzo Nigro
and Nicolò Marchetti
with the collaboration of Licia Romano

2010
Harrassowitz Verlag · Wiesbaden
 TELL AMARNA ON THE EUPHRATES:
NEW ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH

CARMEN VALDÉS PEREIRO

ABSTRACT

This paper is devoted to introduce +the new research that is currently taking place
at the Syrian site of Tell Amarna, carried out by a team of the Institute of the Ancient
Near East of the University of Barcelona. The site, some 10 km south of the Turkish
border, on the Syrian Euphrates Valley, was previously cited by Leonard Woolley in the
1920s, and was partially excavating by a Belgian team in the 1990s. Its chronological
framework ranges from the Halaf period to the Islamic times.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS
The aim of this paper is the presentation of the last archaeological research project
of the Institute of the Ancient Near East of the University of Barcelona in Syria. Our
current project is taking place at Tell Amarna, a small site located in the Euphrates
valley in Northern Syria. The first season of excavation has just finished last summer,
during the months of July and August 2008. Not being able to give the first results
yet, as the study of the documentation is still in progress, nevertheless we will use the
opportunity to present here a general and preliminary view of the aims and basis of
our research.

THE WORK OF THE IPOA IN SYRIA

The global research project of the Archaeological Section of the Institute of the
Ancient Near East of the University of Barcelona is devoted to the study of the Middle
Euphrates Valley in Northern Syria during the Bronze Age Period. We are dealing
with an area that was almost outside of the scientific area of interest until late, as the
world in general was more interested in the Mesopotamian field.
The IPOA has been involved in such a task since 1989, carrying out almost
uninterruptedly works of excavation, surveys and restauration on different sites in
the area (Tell Qara Quzaq, Tell Hamis, Qalat Najm...). The section of University of
Barcelona has linked itself more specifically to the research of the Early and Middle
Bronze Age, 3rd and first half of the 2nd millennium BC.
These previous tasks had already been fruitful, as numerous publications,
conferences, and thesis have appeared, along with the publication of two monographs
744 Carmen Valdés Pereiro

and the next appearance of the third one. These publications are devoted mainly to
the archaeological research and the study of the material retrieved from the site of
Tell Qara Quzaq. We are also engaged in the study and publication of the Middle
Bronze materials from Tell Hamis. Naturally, when the opportunity arise to continue
our archaeological research in Syria, we were greatly indebted to the Directorate of
Antiquities and Museums of the Syrian Arab Republic to give us the permission to be
able to manage the savage excavation of Tell Amarna, a site within the same region
and with a similar cultural evolution as the sites cited above, but at the same time
presenting a stratigraphy of periods that would cover the gaps and complement our
previous studies.1

TELL AMARNA
Previous Research
The name of the site was first mentioned by Leonard Woolley when, during the
archaeological field work at Karkemish (1911-1914), he bought the contents of a
handful of tombs of the Early Bronze Age, that were reported to come from Amarna.
As far as we know there were not excavations at all.2
More recently, the site was visited during the research of two surveys carried out
in the region in 1977 (Moore) and 1979 (Copeland).3 Sanlaville gives chronologies of
Early Bronze I-III, IV, Middle Bronze, Late Bronze, Roman-Byzantine and Islamic
Periods for the site.
In the 1990s the site was excavated by the Université de Liège (Mission
Archéologique de l’Université de Liège en Syrie), directed by Prof. Dr Öhnan Tunca.
The work was carried out under the frame of the salvage excavation project in the
Euphrates Valley due to the construction of the Tishrin Dam. Up till now the only
publications appeared on the works of the site are devoted to the works done in the
area surrounding the tell, not in the tell itself. Both pertain to the most ancient and the
more recent periods of the site, the Halaf and the Byzantine periods.
A team of the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (working in the nearby Neolithic
site of Tell Halula) joined the Belgian expedition to dig in the Halaf period area, that
was not in the same tell but in a wadi some meters southward. The results of this
research have been recently published.4 Also, in the vicinity of the modern village
of Amarna, an interesting Byzantine church with magnificent mosaics was brought
to light. A Polish team was devoted to the restoration and lifting of the mosaics and,
apart of been presented in various exhibitions, the work can be looked up in a web
page with the three-dimensional computer restoration (Tell Amarna in Syria. Colours

1 The project is co-directed by Adelina Millet Albà and myself, funded by the Generalitat de Catalunya
(D.U.R.S.I).
2 Woolley 1914.
3 Sanlaville (ed.) 1985.
4 See Tunca, Molist (eds) 2004.
Tell Amarna on the Euphrates 745

of Christendom).

The Site
Tell Amarna is located some 10 km south of Djerablus (Karkemish), and the Turkish
border. It is an oval mount, some 20 m. high, surrounded by the wadi Amarna on its
north and western sides. Its dimensions are 250 x 100 m.
The archaeological remains are not just limited to the main mound (the ‘tell’)
but they also extent over the Holocene terraces around it. In 1992, around a small
wadi that go down the plateau, some 600 m southeast of the tell, a site of the Halaf
period was identified (Chantier L). Also, apart from the Byzantine church found near
the village, west and east of the main mound the remains of the lower city from
the Roman-Byzantine period had also been located. Those remains, cut down in the
west by wadi Amarna, spread some 350 m towards the east of the tell, reaching a
drop created by some recent years terracing.5 Nowadays, apart from the Early Bronze
age buildings remaining in the western slope, the only other structure that we have
been able to identify from the old excavations was a Hellenistic wall, made of large
rectangular stones, located just at the section of the modern wadi.6

The Tell: ‘Area A’

The excavations carried out by the Belgian team organized the field work through the
use of chantiers, each operation designated by a capital letter. They began the digging
with some 1 x 5 m soundings, their location decided following the lie of the land,
without taking into account the grid. Bearing in mind their results, some soundings
were opened and expanded, others were closed.
In 1997 (Tunca 1999), 11 chantiers had been opened, 6 of them expanded later:
- Chantier A: all the excavated surface on the tell;
- Chantier D: west of the tell, running along wadi Amarna;
- Chantier F: opened in the same wadi, west of the tell;
- Chantier H: NE of the tell, at the bottom of the wadi against the terraces;
- Chantier L: some 600 m southeast of the tell;
- Chantier N: immediately east of the tell.
Having into account the sherds found in the chantiers as well as the surface finds,
Tunca gave us an occupation reaching from the Neolithic period through the Islamic
times. Nevertheless, not all this periods have been detected in the excavated chantiers.7
The Byzantine, Roman and Hellenistic periods were found in soundings opened in

5 All the information relative to the previous Belgian excavation is to be found in the preliminary
reports published by Ö. Tunca, specially the ones in Akkadica (Tunca 1992). The excavator is now
working in the final publication of the results, that will appear in the series Publications de la Mission
archéologique de l’Université de Liège en Syrie. They are organized by periods and are soon to be
appeared (pers.comm.).
6 Chantier D, Tunca 1993.
7 The state of the excavation in 1997 was presented with a table (Fig. 3) in Tunca 1999.
746 Carmen Valdés Pereiro

the plain surrounding the tell, and at least the Byzantine period was dug at the top
of the tell. The Iron Age is reported but not excavated, the same happening with the
Late Bronze period. So, it is just the Middle Bronze period and the Early Bronze IV
that were excavated at the tell. Nothing older is reported on the mound, opening a
chronological gap until the Halaf period discovered in the nearby wadi.
All this considered, our interest in the development of the Bronze Age settlement
in the area draw us to devote the first efforts of our research to the pursuit of the
Bronze Age stratigraphy of the tell, even if, given time and funding, we will be open
to explore the complete archaeological sequence of the site. Thus, we decided to begin
in the area most adequate to reach the Bronze Age levels, the Western Slope (Fig. 2).
Here we draw a grid of 40 x 30 meters, in which we aim to reach three main goals: the
opening of a North-South section in the Eastern part, in search of a complete sequence
of the Bronze Age; to clean and identify an impressive group of EB IV structures
left in situ from the previous excavations; and, following the formers, to prepare an
adequate working area to attack the deeper Early Bronze Age levels.
Therefore, within this Area A, the work was divided into three main operations
(Fig. 3):

Northeaster Sector
In the North Sector of the eastern section, just at some centimetres of the surface, a
stone made building was found. The material dates it to the Late Bronze Age. It seems
to be just the area of the entry, the rest of the building being still under the section
(Fig. 4). After digging a series of external and pisé floors, the building seems to be
composed of at least two rooms, the main one with the base of a column, some sockets,
some storage vessels more or less in situ, and a big Incense Burner (or Fenestrated
Stand, Fig. 5) found almost complete and in situ. It is possible that the building has
some cultic use.
Another interesting feature in this area was the existence of an extrusive dump pit
full of Chalcolithic (Late Obeid and Late Uruk) material (Figs 6-7). This unexpected,
and quite difficult to explain, circumstance, was altogether very interesting. It is the
first notice of the existence of these periods within the tell, they were not recorded in
previous surveys and excavations. This open us a complete new field of research in our
site, creating also new questions about the possibilities existing in the deeper layers
of the mound. Apart of the almost certainty of the existence of 5th and 4th millennium
periods, the scattered appearance through the excavation of sherds belonging to the
Euphrates variety (Red-banded or Ring-burnished) of ‘Metallic Ware’, hint to an
occupation at the Early Bronze III period.
Tell Amarna on the Euphrates 747

Southeaster Sector
Unlike the northern half of the mound, the SE Sector shows a lack of human occupations
during the later periods, presenting a long sequence of natural layers. Within this
stratigraphy of mainly sterile layers, one was found with a curious aspect. Over a
rough surface of what seems to be an exterior area with irregularly distributed pebbles,
a large quantity of human remains, small fragments with no visible connection, was
found scattered all over the area (Fig. 8). A detailed study of the distribution and
dispersion of the bones is in progress.
Just at the end of this seasons, the beginning of the buildings of the Middle Bronze
Age period began to appear. Just the foundations remain, made of irregular middle
sized stones.

Western Sector (EBIV Buildings)

Our task here consisted in recovering the III millennium buildings dug by the previous
mission, still standing but completely covered by a huge amount of dirt coming from
the old sections and the rather sharp slope of the tell (Fig. 9). The old sections were
completely lost and we had to clean them carefully, as they were dangerous to work
with -large stones and piles of dirt were falling constantly.
At the end of our season we have recovered at least 5 rooms of the III millennium
structures, all of them inside the retaining wall. The rooms were almost completely
excavated by the previous team, and we just check the layers existing under the level
of the foundations of the walls. One of the rooms (Room 5) has yet some furniture
left, a bench of stones, an oven with a cooking pot and a small stone hatchet, and a
socket in situ (Fig. 10).
The long Easter section of the old trench was extended some meters eastward,
in order to enlarge our excavation area. Due to the presence of a large pile of dirt,
remaining from the old excavations, in the southeast of the trench, we had to forget
our initial intention of a large straight N-S section, and were compelled to create a
step. The south half of the trench (20 x 4,5 m) is then smaller than the north half of it
(20 x 6,5 m).

FUTURE RESEARCH
Following the results of this short first season, next year the work is going to be
deepened and extended. We will excavate again the 3 sectors of Area A explored this
year, opening a new extension (20 x 20 m), already set within the grid, at the NW
slope of the tell. We are deeply interested in explore the eastern slope of the tell as
well, so we are going to set a new grid there, not at the foot of the tell but at the lower
eastern slope, on elevations parallel with those in our western Bronze Age buildings.
As we have stated, this is just a preliminary view to show the beginning of our
research. All the work is, in fact, still to be done.
748 Carmen Valdés Pereiro

Bibliography
Sanlaville, P. (ed.)
1985 Holocene Settlement in North Syria. Résultats de deux prospections
archéologiques effectuées dans la région du nahr Sajour et sur le haut
Euphrate syrien (= BAR S 238), Oxford.
Tunca, Ö.
1992 Rapport préliminaire sur la 1ère campagne de fouille à Tell Amarna (Syrie) :
in Akkadica 79-80, pp. 14-46.
1993 Rapport préliminaire sur la 2ème campagne de fouille a Tell Amarna (Syrie):
in Akkadica 83, pp. 29-45.
1999 Tell Amarna. Présentation sommaire de sept campagnes de fouilles (1991-
1997): in G. del Olmo Lete, J.-L. Montero Fenollós (eds), Archaeology of
the Upper Syrian Euphrates. The Tishrin Dam Area (= Aula Orientalis,
Suppl. 15), Sabadell.
Tunca, Ö., Molist, M. (eds) (avec la collaboration de Walter Cruells)
2004 Tell Amarna (Syrie) I. La période de Halaf, Louvain.
Woolley, L.
1914 Hittite Burial Customs: in Liverpool Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology
6, pp. 87-98.
Tell Amarna on the Euphrates 749

Fig. 1: View of the tell from the south.

Fig. 2: Western slope seen from the wadi.

750 Carmen Valdés Pereiro

Fig. 3: From the south, view of the excavation (Sectors W, NE and SE) in the
Western slope.

Fig. 4: Western slope, NE Sector, detail of the Late Bronze building.

Tell Amarna on the Euphrates 751

Fig. 5: Detail of the fenestrated stand from the Late Bronze building in Str. NE.

Fig. 6: Western slope, SE Sector, layer full of scattered human remains.

752 Carmen Valdés Pereiro

Fig. 7: Western slope, W Sector, cleaning of the buildings remaining from the old
excavations.

Fig. 8: Western slope, W Sector, kitchen .

Tell Amarna on the Euphrates 753

Fig. 9: Some Bevelled-rim Bowls and Obeid Painted sherds from the “Chalcoli-
thic dump”.

Fig. 10: Seal-amulet pendant from the “Chalcolithic dump”.