Tall Bazi Explained

Tall Bazi
Map Type:	Syria
Relief:	yes
Coordinates:	36.4273°N 38.2765°W
Map Size:	200
Location:	Raqqa Governorate, Syria
Type:	settlement
Built:
Abandoned:	1200
Epochs:	Bronze Age
Cultures:	Mitanni, Early Dynastic
Excavations:	1993-2010
Archaeologists:	B. Einwag, A. Otto
Condition:	Ruined
Ownership:	Public
Public Access:	Yes

Tall Bazi, is an ancient Near East archaeological site in Raqqa Governorate of Syria in the same general area as Mari and Ebla. It is located on the east bank of Euphrates river in upper Syria, about 60 kilometers south of Turkey border. It is considered a twin site to the adjacent Tell Banat Complex. Both were occupied in the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC with Banat being the focus in the early part and Bazi in the later. Tall Bazi has been proposed as the location of Armanum, known from texts of Sargon and Naram-Sin in the Akkadian period, during the reign of Naram-Sin of Akkad.^{[1] [2] [3]} It was occupied into the Mitanni period, with an occupational gap after c. 2300 BC, at which time it was destroyed. In the Late Roman Empire a large building was constructed at the top of the main mound, using the remaining Late Bronze Age fortification walls.

Location

In ancient times, the site consisted of a large lower town and the high citadel. Also nearby, about one half a kilometer to the south, the large Tell Banat Complex was located on the lower ground. It consisted of several tells and the lower town. Around 1999, because of the construction of the Tishrin Dam nearby, the whole area was flooded, and only the Tall Bazi citadel still remains above water.^[4]

History

Early Bronze

Both Tall Bazi and Tall Banat were located along the Euphrates river. During the Early Bronze Age, a massive town wall protected this whole settlement area away from the river. This Banat-Bazi complex started about 2600 B.C., and continued during the Early Bronze Age III and IV.^[5]

An Early Bronze palace was found beneath the Middle Bronze temple. The earlier occupation of the Citadel dates back to the Late Early Dynastic period and Akkadian period. Numerous clay bi-conical sling shots as well as leaf shaped flint arrowheads were found especially around a fortified wall gate.^{[6] [7] [8]} The citadel, along with occupation on Tell Bannat, was destroyed c. 2300 BC and a gap in occupation ensued.

Middle Bronze

The Northern Town of the lower area was occupied beginning in the Middle Bronze Age and was destroyed at the same time as the Western Town, in the Late Bronze Age. A geomagnetic prospection followed by excavation at four locations showed that the original portion was a grown settlement with later construction matching the planned houses of the Western Town.^[9]

The main mound has been dubbed the "Citadel". It contained a large (37.6 meter long by 15.8 meter wide) temple built in the Middle Bronze Age (on top of an Early Bronze Age palace) still in use when it was destroyed at the same time as the 200 meter by 250 meter lower town in the Late Bronze Age.^[10]

In the Middle Bronze II, Tall Bazi would have been in between larger powers like Carchemish (north), Aleppo (west; Yamhad), and Mari (southeast).

Late Bronze

Mitanni Period

In this period the 18 hectare city was probably named Baṣīru. The two cuneiform tablets found at the site indicate that, in the Mittani period, the city did not have a king, but was governed by the city elders.^[11]

In the remains of the temple on the main mound were found evidence of significant production and ritual consumption of beer as well as two cuneiform land grant tablets of the Mitanni period one (Bz 51) sealed by ruler Saushtatar which gave the town of Baidali to the people of Baṣīru, one (Bz 50) by ruler Artatama I, and an Old Babylonian cylinder seal.^{[12] [13]} When the settlement was destroyed the temple was looted and equipment smashed, then burned like the lower town. More post destruction looting then occurred.

The Western Town (Weststadt, 1 hectare) is a single period area of the Late Bronze Age. It represents a later expansion of the city, and it lasted up to a century before being violently destroyed.^[14] It contained about 100 houses with a central market area and planned 6 meter wide main roads with spurs into residential areas. Houses were built to a standard design with little variation.^[15] Destruction appears to have come quickly as most material was still in place. Each house had its own oven for baking and vats for the production of beer.^[16] Most houses had a table-like installation on the short wall opposite the door associated with vessels, bones, and other objects leading the excavator to consider them to be for domestic cult practices.^[17] In one house a large number of weight stones belonging to different weight systems were found, suggesting it was an office of merchants.^[18] The Northern Town and Citadel were destroyed at the same time.^[19] No human remains were found.^{[20] [21]} Due to the sketchy nature of radiocarbon dating for this period dates radiocarbon samples have reported dates ranging from 1400 BC down to 1200 BC for the destruction layer. A Mitanni period cylinder seal was found.^{[22] [23]} A few geometrically-shaped faience tokens, generally called "gaming tokens" were found as well beads and pendants fashioned from ostrich shells.^{[24] [25]}

Modern times

As a result of the Syrian Civil War the top of the mound was turned into a military emplacement with much of the remains, including the temple, being destroyed by bulldozer activity. Archaeological finds still being held at the site were robbed away by ISIS.^{[26] [27] [28]}

Tell Banat Complex

In ancient times, Tall Bazi was possibly part of the Tell Banat Settlement Complex (Tell Banat, Tell Banat North, and Tell Kabir). The area was excavated as part of the Euphrates Salvage Project. The site of Tell Saghir, adjacent to the north, was not excavated. Some differences in dating between excavators of Tall Bazi and the Complex cause difficulty in aligning them chronologically.^{[29] [30] [31] [32]}

• Tell Kabir (also Tall Kabir) - Lies 1 kilometer southwest of Tell Banat. A low mound covers an area of about 2.3 hectares with a 13 meter by 22 meter 3rd millennium BC temple in antis having two meter thick stone walls at the summit. Occupation began in Banat Period III though virgin soil was not reached in the excavation and there were indications of earlier occupation. The temple was abandoned at the end of the Late Bronze Age and was replaced by domestic occupation until the Middle Bronze Age.^{[33] [34] [35]}
• Tell Banat - The mound has an area of about 25 hectares encircled by a massive stone wall on the south and east. One building, built on a 3 meter deep gravel base and thought to be a palace, contained a 3rd millennium BC monumental tomb with 5 chambers. The tomb was constructed with dressed stone walls, a bitumen coated baked brick floor, and a ceiling of one ton limestone slabs.^{[36] [37] [38]}
• Tell Banat North - Used as a mortuary site in the 3rd millennium BC Banat Periods IV and III and holds the structure known as the White Monument. The mound is 22 meters high and 100 meters in diameter. Large quanities of clay bi-conical sling shots were found. Tell Banat North was excavated from 1988 to 1999 by McClellan and Porter.^[39]

Four periods of occupation are defined for the Tell Banat Complex:^[40]

• Banat Period IV (2700/2600 – 2450 BC)
• Banat Period III (2450 – 2300 BC)
• Banat Period II (2300 - 2100 BC) - abandoned though nearby Tell Bazi appears to have remained occupied
• Banat Period I (2100 BC - Late Bronze Age) - Tell Kabir only, with modest domestic activity on Tell Banat

Archaeology

The fortified main mound rose 60 meters above the plain with the unfortified lower town portion, to the west, being only 7 meters high. The fortification walls around the main mound were constructed of large limestone block. The lower town area was divided into a Western Town and Northern Town.

The site was excavated by German archaeologists in 1993–1997, in 1999, in 2001–2005, and then in 2007–2009. At this point local conditions became too difficult to continue work. The excavations were under the auspices of the German Research Foundation and later the Institute of Near Eastern Archaeology.^{[41] [42] [43] [44] [45] [46] [47]}

Due to the Tishrin Dam construction, the lower town of Tall Bazi is now under water. The main mound (the Citadel) is still above water. The adjacent third millennium BC archaeological complex at Tall Banat was entirely flooded.^[48]

See also

• Cities of the ancient Near East
• Tell Hadidi
• Mumbaqat
• Emar

Further reading

• Einwag, Berthold and Otto, Adelheid, "Tall Bazi (1993–2010)", 50 Jahre Vorderasiatische Archäologie in München, hrsg. v. Adelheid Otto, Kai Kaniuth (Münchener Abhandlungen zum Alten Orient 7), pp.239-250, 2022
• Fink, Christoph, "Gewichte oder bloße Kiesel? Untersuchungen zu Eisenoxidgesteinen aus Tall Bazi, Syrien", Stories of Long Ago. Festschrift für Michael D. Roaf, hrsg. v. Heather D. Baker, Kai Kaniuth, Adelheid Otto (Alter Orient und Altes Testament 397), pp. 141-160, 2012
• T. L. McClellan, "Banat", In: H. Weiss (ed.), Archaeology in Syria, AJA, vol. 95, pp. 700–70, 1991
• McClellan, T., and A. Porter, "Survey of Excavations at Tell Banat: Funerary Practices", in Archaeology of the Upper Syrian Euphrates, the Tishrin Dam Area, ed. G. Del Olmo Lete and J. -L. Montero. Aula Orientalis-Supplementa, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, pp. 107–61, 1999
• https://www.vorderas-archaeologie.uni-muenchen.de/personen/professoren/otto/publikationen/ii-83_otto-einwag_fs_autorski.pdf Otto, Adelheid and Berthold Einwag, "Three ritual vessels from the Mittani-period temple at Tell Bazi", Stories told around the fountain. Papers offered to Piotr Bieliński on the occasion of his 70th birthday, pp. 503–518, 2019
• A. Otto and M. G. Biga, "Thoughts about the Identification of Tall Bazi with Armi of the Ebla Texts", in: P. Matthiae – F. Pinnock – L.Nigro – N. Marchetti (eds.), Proceedings of the 6th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, vol. 1, Wiesbaden, pp. 481–494, 2010
• Otto, Adelheid, and Berthold Einwag, "Wettlauf mit der Zeit. Rettungsgrabungen in Tall Bazi", Welt und Umwelt der Bibel 31.1, pp. 64–69, 2004
• Adelheid Otto, "Ritual Drinking in Syria: New Insights from the Decorated Terracotta Basin from Tall Bazi and the Funerary Talisman from Ebla: Pearls of the Past. Studies on Near Eastern Art and Archaeology in Honour of Frances Pinnock, hrsg. v. D'Andrea, Marta (marru 8).", IJBF Online: Internationale Jahresbibliographie der Festschriften. Berlin, Boston: K. G. Saur, pp. 709-722, 2009
• https://www.persee.fr/doc/anatv_1013-9559_2007_act_19_1_1092Porter, Anne, "You say potato, I say... Typology, chronology and the origins of the Amorites", Publications de l'Institut Français d'Études Anatoliennes 19.1, pp. 69-115, 2007
• https://journals.openedition.org/syria/2121Prévalet, Romain, "Étude technique d'une perle en or de Tell Banat (Syrie) et réflexion sur la diffusion des savoirs au IIIe millénaire av. J.-C.", Syria 91, pp. 247–260, 2014
• Lauren Ristvet, "Travel and the Making of North Mesopotamian Polities", Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 361, pp. 1–31, 2011
• Sachs, Frances, "Die Gefäßzeichen aus der Weststadt von Tall Bazi (Syrien)", Stories of Long Ago. Festschrift für Michael D. Roaf, hrsg. v. Heather D. Baker, Kai Kaniuth, Adelheid Otto (Alter Orient und Altes Testament 397), pp. 543-566, 2012
• https://bibliographie.uni-tuebingen.de/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10900/46766/pdf/Diss_sang_li.pdf?sequence=1 Sang, Li, "Burial practices of the third millennium BCE in the Middle Euphrates Region: an interpretation of funerary rituals", Unpublished PhD. Thesis, Tübingen, 2010
• Szeląg, D., "Tell Bazi in der Mittleren Bronzezeit: Die Untersuchungen am Nordhang", MDOG, 144, pp. 133–160, 2012
• Wilhelm, S., "Ancestral bones: Early Bronze Age human skeletal remains from Tell Banat, Syria", Baghdader Mitteilungen 37, pp. 359–80, 2006
• M. Zarnkow and A. Otto and B. Einwag, "Interdisciplinary Investigations into the Brewing Technology of the Ancient Near East and the Potential of the Cold Mashing Process", in: W. Schiefenhövel and H. Macbeth (Hrsg.), Liquid bread: beer and brewing in cross-cultural perspective, New York – Oxford, pp. 47–54, 2011
• Zarnkow, Martin, et al., "Interdisziplinäre Untersuchungen zum altorientalischen Bierbrauen in der Siedlung von Tall Bazi/Nordsyrien vor rund 3200 Jahren", TG Technikgeschichte 73.1, pp. 3-26, 2006

External links

• Tall Bazi excavation site at the Institute for Near Eastern Archaeology
• Banat Publication Project at University of Toronto
• Archaeologists Propose 4,500-Year-Old Burial Mound Was World's First Military Memorial - Smithsonian Magazine - June 21, 2021
• Pyramid-shaped mound holding 30 corpses may be world's oldest war monument - LiveScience - 31 May 2021

Notes and References

1. https://www.vorderas-archaeologie.uni-muenchen.de/personen/professoren/otto/publikationen/ii-38_otto_armanum_jcs-58.pdf
2. Nashat Alkhafaji and Gianni Marchesi, "Naram-Sin's War against Armanum and Ebla in a Newly-Discovered Inscription from Tulul al-Baqarat", Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol. 79, no. 1, pp. 1-20, 2020
3. Alfonso Archi, "In Search of Armi", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 63, 2011, pp. 5–34, 2011
4. https://www.en.vorderas-archaeologie.uni-muenchen.de/research/projekt_syrien/lage-und-beschreibung1/index.html Tall Bazi - Location and Description.
5. Adelheid Otto, Berthold Einwag 2016, Tell Bazi (Aleppo). -- academia.edu
6. Anne Porter, "Victims of Violence: Healing Social Ills through Mesopotamian Mortuary Practice", Near Eastern Archaeology, vol. 78, no. 4, pp. 252–62, 2015
7. Paz, Yitzhak, "The Existence of Archery in Early Bronze Age Southern Levant Warfare: A Note", Journal of Conflict Archaeology, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 3–11, 2018
8. B. Einwag, "Fortified Citadels in the Early Bronze Age? New Evidence from Tall Bazi (Syria)", in: J. Cordoba (Hrsg.), Proceedings of the Fifth International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Madrid 2006, Madrid, pp. 741–53, 2008
9. B. Einwag and A. Otto, "Tall Bazi 2000 und 2001 – Die Untersuchungen auf der Zitadelle und in der Nordstadt", DaM 15, pp. 105–130, 2006
10. Otto, Adelheid, "Archaeological Evidence for Collective Governance along the Upper Syrian Euphrates during the Late and Middle Bronze Age", Organization, Representation, and Symbols of Power in the Ancient Near East: Proceedings of the 54th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale at Würzburg 20–25 Jul, edited by Gernot Wilhelm, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 87–100, 2012
11. Adelheid Otto, Berthold Einwag 2016, Tell Bazi (Aleppo). -- academia.edu
12. Martino, Stefano de, "The Mittanian Cuneiform Documents: The Interplay between Content, Language, Material, Format, and Sealing Practices", The Ancient World Revisited: Material Dimensions of Written Artefacts, edited by Marilina Betrò, Michael Friedrich and Cécile Michel, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 207-220, 2024
13. https://www.cairn.info/revue-d-assyriologie-2018-1-page-149.htm
14. Adelheid Otto, Berthold Einwag 2016, Tell Bazi (Aleppo). -- academia.edu
15. Adelheid Otto, "The Organization of Residential Space in the Mittani Kingdom as a Mirror of Different Models of Governance", in: Eva Cancik-Kirschbaum, Nicole Brisch and Jesper Eidem (Eds.), Constituent, Confederate, and Conquered Space in Upper Mesopotamia. The Emergence of the Mitanni State, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 33–60, 2014
16. Paulette, Tate, "Archaeological perspectives on beer in Mesopotamia: Brewing ingredients", After the harvest: Storage practices and food processing in Bronze Age Mesopotamia (= Subartu 43), pp. 65-89, 2020
17. Schmitt, Rüdiger, "Elements of Domestic Cult in Ancient Israel", Family and Household Religion in Ancient Israel and the Levant, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 57-219, 2012
18. Zaccagnini, Carlo, "Capital Investment, Weight Standards and Overland Trade at Emar", Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie, vol. 108, no. 1, pp. 43-62, 2018
19. https://refubium.fu-berlin.de/bitstream/handle/fub188/18234/101.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y&save=y
20. B. Einwag and A. Otto, "Tall Bazi 1998 und 1999 - Die letzten Untersuchungen in der Weststadt", DaM 13, pp. 65–88, 2001
21. A. Otto, "Alltag und Gesellschaft zur Spätbronzezeit: Eine Fallstudie aus Tall Bazi (Syrien)", Subartu 19, Turnhout 2006
22. A. Otto, "The Late Bronze Age Pottery of the Weststadt of Tall Bazi (North Syria)", in: M. Luciani, A. Hausleitner (Eds.), Recent Trends in the Study of Late Bronze Age Ceramics in Syro-Mesopotamia and Neighbouring Regions. Proceedings of the International Workshop in Berlin, 2 – 5 November 2006, OrA 32, Rahden/Westf., pp. 85-117, 2014
23. https://www.vorderas-archaeologie.uni-muenchen.de/forschung/projekt_syrien/literatur_bazi/2018c_einwott_maao-bazipottery.pdf
24. Puljiz, Ivana, "Faience for the empire: A Study of Standardized Production in the Middle Assyrian State", Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie, vol. 111, no. 1, pp. 100-122, 2021
25. Herles, M., "Nachtrag zum Vogel Strauß unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Kudurrus", SB 25. Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 141, pp. 97–115, 2009
26. https://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/71890/1/Einwag-Otto_2019.Temple_Inventory_TellBazi.pdf
27. Berthold Einwag and Adelheid Otto, Die Torlöwen an Tempel 1 von Tall Bazi und ihre Stellung in der Reihe steinerner Löwenorthostaten, in: Heather Baker, Kai Kaniuth und Adelheid Otto (ed.), Stories of long ago. Festschrift für Michael D. Roaf, AOAT 397, Münster, pp. 91–115, 2012
28. https://www.vorderas-archaeologie.uni-muenchen.de/forschung/projekt_syrien/literatur_bazi/2018e_maao-1-coppini.pdf
29. https://www.vorderas-archaeologie.uni-muenchen.de/forschung/projekt_syrien/literatur_bazi/2018f_maao-1-porter.pdf
30. Porter, Anne, et al, "“Their corpses will reach the base of heaven”: a third-millennium BC war memorial in northern Mesopotamia?", Antiquity 95.382, pp. 900-918, 2021
31. Porter, Anne., "Communities in Conflict: Death and the Contest for Social Order in the Euphrates River Valley", Near Eastern Archaeology, vol. 65, no. 3, pp. 156–73, 2002
32. Porter, Anne., "The Dynamics of Death: Ancestors, Pastoralism, and the Origins of a Third-Millennium City in Syria", Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 325, pp. 1–36, 2002
33. Porter, Anne, "The Third Millennium Settlement Complex at Tell Banat: Tell Kabir", DamM 8, pp. 125–63, pl. 20, 1995
34. Cooper, E., "The EB–MB Transitional Period at Tell Kabir, Syria", in Espace naturel, espace habite en Syrie du Nord 10e-2e millénaires av. J.-C., ed. M. Fortin andO. Aurenche. Lyons: Maison de L’Orient, pp. 271–80, 1998
35. Weiss, Harvey, "Archaeology in Syria", American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 101, no. 1, pp. 97–148, 1997
36. Porter, A., "Tell Banat: Tomb 1", Damaszener Mitteilungen 8, pp. 1–50, 1995
37. https://www.academia.edu/download/30451293/Porter_McClellan_1998.pdf
38. Porter, Anne, and Thomas McClellan, "‘Royal Grave’ at Tell Banat", ASOR Newsletter 46/3, pp. 28, 1996
39. McClellan, T., "Tell Banat North: the White Monument", in M. Lebeau (ed.) About Subartu: studies devoted to Upper Mesopotamia, volume 2, Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 243–71, 1998
40. https://isac.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/uploads/shared/docs/Publications/OIS/isacs16.pdf
41. B. Einwag and A. Otto, "Tall Bazi", in: Jahresbericht 1993 des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, AA, vol. 4, pp. 662–663, 1994
42. B. Einwag and A. Otto, "Tall Bazi", in: Jahresbericht 1994 des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, AA, vol. 4, pp. 868–872, 1995
43. B. Einwag and A. Otto, "Tall Bazi", in: Jahresbericht 1995 des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, AA, vol. 4, pp. 641–643, 1996
44. A. Otto and B. Einwag, "Tall Bazi - eine Metropole des 2. Jahrtausends v.Chr." im syrischen Euphrattal, Antike Welt 27, pp. 459–71, 1996
45. B. Einwag and A. Otto, Die Ausgrabungen in Tall Bazi, in: Deutsches Archäologisches Institut (Hrsg.), 25 Jahre archäologische Forschung in Syrien 1980-2005, Damascus 2005, pp. 130–135, 2006
46. https://www.assyriologie.uni-muenchen.de/personen/professoren/sallaberger/publ_sallaberger/wasa_einwag_otto_2006.pdf
47. B. Einwag and A. Otto, "Excavations at Tall Bazi 2008", Chronique Archéologique en Syrie IV, pp. 171–174, 2010
48. A. Porter, "The dynamics of death: Ancestors, pastoralism, and the origins of a third-millennium city in Syria.", Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 325(1), pp. 1–36, 2002