The Excavations in Area C (original) (raw)

A Short Account of the Excavation in Tell Bdēri 1985 (1986/87)

in: Les Annales Archeologiques Arabes Syriennes 36/37, 1986/1987, p. 276-291, 1987

Following an international appeal by the Direc torate General of Antiquities and Museums of Syria to rescue the antiquities along the Lower Habur River the Free University of Berlin is spon soring and financing an excavation in tell Bderi under the direction of professor Hartmut Kuhne. 1 The local responsibilities are met by Mr . Peter Pfalzner, M.A. ,as field director 2. Within a large irrigation project for the Habur River a dam is planned about 35 Km south of the provincial capital Hasaka . The lake created by this dam will submerge about 30 archaeological sites within the Habur valley. Tell Bderi is. one of the major sites in this area . 3 It lies about 15 Km south of Hasaka on the eastern bank of the river. The extension of the large mound is about 310 meters from N orth to South and 245 meters from East to West. The tell, which raises twelve meters above surrounding flood plain, has a «cake-like» shape with a flat plateau (plan 1 ; fig 1). This is due to the fact that is no occupation of the site later than the Bronze Age . The aim of the first season was twofold: first, to achieve a stratigraphic sequence of all occupation levels represented in the tell and second, to exca vate one architectural level on a larger scale. For this purpose two areas were chosen : the southern slope and the northern plateau of the tell . 1. The southern slope area : A step trench was dug down in the areas 2945, 2943 and 2941 (fig 2). 26 levels were distinguished out of which levels 2 to 7 should be dated to the Late Bronze Age. In level 4 and 5 architectural remains of dwelling houses were discovered , which are dated by N uzi-Ware and the so called Younger Habur Ware to the mid second millen nium B.C. The building in level 4 yielded five suceeding floors. There are no traces at all of a Mid dle-Assyrian occupation. This shows that site was abandoned after the Hurri-mitannian period . With level 8 through level 26 an uninterrupted sequence of Early Bronze Age layers was unco vered. Altogether they are eleven meters thick. Judging from the complete lack of Middle Bronze Age material there is a hiatus between the Early and Late Bronze Age occupation. The most prom inent architectural remains of the Early Bronze Age were excavated in the levels 9, 20, 23, 24 and 25 .

3. RESEARCH ON THE C-IV TRENCH IN A BROADER CONTEXT OF THE EXCAVATIONS CONDUCTED AT TELL FEKHERIYE, WITH AN EMPHASIS ON THE MIDDLE ASSYRIAN PERIOD.

In: D. Hulínek/D. Bonatz/M. Kováč (eds.): Archeology on three continents 2006 – 2011 (5 years of the Slovak Archeological and Historical Institute SAHI). Bratislava 2015, 39-57.

Excavations in Trench C-IV at Tell Fekheriye were carried out in 2009 and 2010, and yielded promising results pointing out a considerable importance of the site‘s occupation during the Syrian Late Bronze Age. The evidence for this stems primarily from the discovered graves and is linked also to architectural remains dating back to the Middle Assyrian period. Last but not least, various finds dating back to the Roman-Byzantine period were also made.