Tell Hadidi

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Tell Hadidi
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Alternative nameAzu
LocationSyria
Coordinates 36°16′27″N38°15′10″E / 36.27417°N 38.25278°E / 36.27417; 38.25278
Typesettlement
History
Foundedc. 2300 BC
Periods Bronze Age, Roman
CulturesMitanni
Site notes
Excavation dates1973 to 1977
ArchaeologistsHenk Frankel, Rudolph H. Dornemann
ConditionRuined
OwnershipPublic
Public accessYes

Tell Hadidi, ancient Azu, is an ancient Near East archaeological site in Syria about 30 kilometers north of Emar and 5 kilometers north of Ekalte. It lies on the west bank of the Euphrates River on the opposite bank from Tell es-Sweyhat. It is thought to be a paired city with Tell es-Sweyhat controlling a Euphrates river crossing. There are prominent hollow ways between the site and Tell es-Sweyhat, Tell Othman, and Tell Jouweif. [1] The site was occupied from the Early Bronze Age period to the Late Bronze Age and again to a lesser extent in Roman times. It was one of several rescue excavations sparked by the construction of the Tabqa Dam and the resulting Lake Assad. The town's primary god was Dagan.

Contents

Archaeology

The site of Tell Hadidi has an extent of around 135 hectares. It has an upper and lower tell. The upper tell, lying to the west and with an area of around 55 hectares, has Middle Bronze Age remains on the surface with Early Bronze Age underneath. The lower tell, lying to the east, is primarily Early Bronze Age, in the late 3rd Millennium BC, and was at least partially protected by a fortification wall at that time. Looted out shaft-and-chamber graves from this period were found there. Some remains from the Late Bronze Age were also found there including an undisturbed tomb. It was 12 meters long and contained 6 chambers. [2]

Tell Hadidi was visited by Abdul Rihaoui in 1963 and Maurits van Loon in 1964 as part of preparation for the dam rescue efforts. [3] [4]

The site was excavated in between 1973 and 1977. In 1972-74 Tell Hadidi was worked by Henk Frankel for Leiden University of the Netherlands. [5] From 1974 to 1977 Rudolph H. Dornemann excavated there under the auspices of the Milwaukee Public Museum. Some of those excavation reports are still unpublished. [6] [7] [8] [9] Along with a few cuneiform tablets a number of small finds were recovered including about 200 Early Bronze clay figurines, an inscribed stone plaque, and a toy chariot front. [10] [11]

History

The site was first occupied at the beginning of the Early Bronze Age EB I (circa 3300 BC) about the Uruk Period. There are nine EB I architectural levels. The city developed to its maximum extent of about 135 hectares in the later part of the Early Bronze Age EB III (circa 2300 BC) and was destroyed around 2000 BC. Occupation continued, on a much reduced scale and only on the upper tell, into the Late Bronze Age (IA and IB), ending circa 1200 BC. There are also significant Roman Empire remains, circa 1st to 3rd century, and some Islamic remains, circa 12th to 14th century. For a time in the Late Bronze Age, circa 1500 BC, the city was under the control of the Mitanni Empire. [12] It may have also been under the control of the Hittite Empire at one point. [1]

Tablets

The most significant element discovered was a 15th century BC (Late Bronze Age) building ("Tablet Building" in Area H, Stratum 6) that was violently destroyed by fire. In it were found a few cuneiform tablets. Along with them were a number of large storage jars, vats, cups, jars, and cooking pots. [13] The tablets identified the building as the residence of "Yaya, son of Huziru, son of Dagan" and the cities name as Azu (otherwise known only from records of the city of Alalakh). There were eleven complete cuneiform tablets (eight found in a jar), three almost complete tablets, and three tablet fragments. They are held in the National Museum of Aleppo in Syria. [14] [15] [16]

The Tell Hadidi text are primarily of a legal nature and include five sale documents, three administrative lists of names, two legal documents, a letter, and a will (Had-9) of Yaya the owner of the home. Four of the individuals listed in the tablets are also known from tablets recovered at Ekalte. The most common divine name used is that of Dagan, followed by various forms of the Storm God including Tessup the Hurrian version. [17] The tablets have not been formally published but Robert Whiting of the Oriental Institute of Chicago made preliminary transcriptions and translations available online. [18] One tablet (Had-9), and official Mitanni leter order, is significant because it set a chronology synchronism between Azu, Ekalte, and Emar. [19]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 T. J. Wilkinson, "On the Margin of the Euphrates: Settlement and Land Use at Tell es-Sweyhat and in the Upper Lake Assad Area, Syria.", Vol. 124. Oriental Institute Publications. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2004
  2. ↑ Chaves Yates and Caitlin Jane, "Beyond the mound: locating complexity in Northern Mesopotamia during the 'Second Urban Revolution'", Dissertation, Boston University Graduate School Of Arts And Sciences, 2006
  3. ↑ Abdul Kader Rihaoui, "Étude préliminaire sur la sauvegarde des monuments dans la région du barrage de l’Euphrate.", Les Annales Archéologiques de Syrie 15, pp. 99–111, 1965
  4. ↑ Maurits N. van Loon, "The Tabqa Reservoir Survey 1964.", Damascus: Direction Générale des Antiquités et des Musées. 1967
  5. ↑ Sander Ernst van der Leeuw, "Sondages à Ta’as, Hadidi et Jebel ‘Aruda.", In Antiquités de l’Euphrate: Exposition des découvertes de la campagne internationale de sauvegarde des antiquités de l’Euphrate, edited by Adnan Bounni, pp. 76 – 82. Damascus: Direction Générale des Antiquités et des Musées, 1974
  6. ↑ Rudolph H. Dornemann, "Salvage Excavations at Tell Hadidi in the Euphrates River Valley." The Biblical Archaeologist, vol. 48, no. 1, pp. 49–59, 1985
  7. ↑ Rudolph H. Dornemann, "Completion of Salvage Excavations at Tell Hadidi, Syria.", National Geographic Society Research Reports 18, pp. 267-277, 1985
  8. ↑ Rudolph H. Dornemann, "Tell Hadidi: A Bronze Age City on the Euphrates.", Archaeology, vol. 31, no. 6, pp. 20–26, 1978
  9. ↑ Rudolph H. Dornemann, "Tell Hadidi: One Bronze Age Site among Many in the Tabqa Dam Salvage Area." Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 270, pp. 13–42, 1988
  10. ↑ Rudolph H. Dornemann, "Comments on Small Finds and Items of Artistic Significance from Tell Hadidi and Nearby Sites in the Euphrates Valley", Syria in Essays in Ancient Civilizations presented to H.J. Kantor, Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 47), pp. 59–75, 1989
  11. ↑ Rudolph H. Dornemann, "Tell Hadidi: a millennium of Bronze Age city occupation.", Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research 44, pp. 113-151, 1979
  12. ↑ Rudolph H. Dornemann and Jean Margueron, "Tell Hadidi: an important center of the Mitannian period and earlier.", Le Moyen Euphrate. Zone de contacts et d'échanges. Actes du Colloque de Strasbourg 10-12 mars 1977. Univ. des Sciences Humaines, 1977
  13. ↑ Rudolph H. Dornemann, "The Late Bronze Age Pottery Tradition at Tell Hadidi, Syria.", Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 241, pp. 29–47, 1981
  14. ↑ Robert Whiting, "Brief Discussion of Tablets from Area H", In “Tell Hadidi: A Millennium of Bronze Age City Occupation,” by Rudolph H Dornemann. In Archaeological Reports from the Tabqa Dam Project, Euphrates Valley, Syria, edited by David Noel Freedman, pp. 113–51. Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research 44. Cambridge: American Schools of Oriental Research, pp. 145–46, 1979
  15. ↑ Robert Whiting, "Catalogue of Tablets Excavated at Tell Hadidi", In "Tell Hadidi: A Millennium of Bronze Age City Occupation," by Rudolph H Dornemann. In Archaeological Reports from the Tabqa Dam Project, Euphrates Valley, Syria, edited by David Noel Freedman, pp. 113–51. Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research 44. Cambridge: American Schools of Oriental Research, pp. 146– 49, 1979
  16. ↑ Eduardo Torrecilla, "The Dwellers of Azû: A Study on the Tall Ḥadīdī Society and Chronology", Altorientalische Forschungen, vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 33-50, 2019
  17. ↑ Eduardo Torrecilla, "Divine Names in the Tell Hadidi/Azû Texts", KASKAL. Rivista di storia, ambienti e culture del Vicino Oriente Antico, vol. 14, pp. 1-14, 2017
  18. ↑ "Catalog of Tell Hadidi Texts". June 12, 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-06-12.
  19. ↑ Eduardo Torrecilla and Yoram Cohen. "A Mittani Letter Order from Azu (Had 8) and its Implications for the Chronology and History of the Middle Euphrates Region in the Late Bronze Age", Revue d’Assyriologie et d’archéologie Orientale, vol. 112, pp. 149–58, 2018

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