Al-Mastumah or Al Mastoume ( ar, المسطومة) is a village in northern Syria, administratively part of Idlib Governorate, located 7 kilometers south of Idlib and 60 kilometers southwest of Aleppo. Nearby localities include Faylun to the west, Qmenas to the northeast,

al-Nayrab Al-Nayrab ( ar, النيرب) is a town in Syria, to the south-east of the city of Aleppo in northern Syria. With the urban development, the village was gradually absorbed by the city of Aleppo thus becoming part of it as a district. Al-Nayra ...

to the east and Ariha to the south. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, al-Mastumah had a population of 6,243 in the 2004 census.General Census of Population and Housing 2004
. Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Idlib Governorate.

History

Excavations of the tell have identified humans living here in the Bronze and neolithic ages, however the area is principally known as an Iron Age settlement. The tell at Mastuma is 18 metres high and 200 metres in diameter. It was excavated by a Japanese archaeological team between 1980 and 1995.Bryce, 2013, pp. 459-460.

Iron Age

Al-Mastumah is near the site of the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

I settlement of Astamaku (also known as Tell Mastuma). Astamaku is five kilometres south of the town of Idlib. Of the roughly 90 cities Assyrian king

Shalmaneser III Shalmaneser III (''Šulmānu-ašarēdu'', "the god Shulmanu is pre-eminent") was king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from the death of his father Ashurnasirpal II in 859 BC to his own death in 824 BC. His long reign was a constant series of campai ...

claimed to have conquered in the

Aramaean The Arameans ( oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; syc, ܐܪ̈ܡܝܐ, Ārāmāyē) were an ancient Semitic-speaking people in the Near East, first recorded in historical sources from the late 12th century BCE. The Aramean ...

kingdom of

Hamath , timezone = EET , utc_offset = +2 , timezone_DST = EEST , utc_offset_DST = +3 , postal_code_type = , postal_code = , ar ...

, Astamaku was the only one mentioned by name on the

Balawat Gates The Balawat Gates are three sets of decorated bronze bands that had adorned the main doors of several buildings at Balawat (ancient Imgur-Enlil), dating to the reigns of Ashurnasirpal II (r. 883–859 BC) and Shalmaneser III (r. 859–824 BC). Th ...

. The city was fortified and was taken over in 848 BCE by a force of Assyrian archers according to the images on the gates. It was also the farthest city in Hamath that Shalmaneser conquered during his military campaign. The border settlement had streets and small dwellings that suggest that the town had a governor but mostly housed the small families of members of the garrison.

Modern era

Al-Mastumah was described as "a village in green surroundings" by author Robert Boulanger in the 1960s. He also noted the village's "mound-shaped houses", then a common feature of north Syrian localities. The houses were made of

mud brick A mudbrick or mud-brick is an air-dried brick, made of a mixture of loam, mud, sand and water mixed with a binding material such as rice husks or straw. Mudbricks are known from 9000 BCE, though since 4000 BCE, bricks have also been f ...

and had cone-shaped roofs. During the ongoing Syrian civil war, in January 2013, heavy fighting took place between opposition rebels and pro-government forces in al-Mastumah. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), an unknown number of people were killed during the clashes or executed. The village's Ba'ath Party camp was reportedly converted to a detention center in 2011 and contains a weapons arsenal and tanks. The pro-opposition

Local Coordination Committees The Local Coordination Committees of Syria ( ar, لجان التنسيق المحلية في سوريا: ''LCCSyria'' or ''LCCs'') are a network of local groups that organise and report on protests as part of the Syrian uprising. In June 2011, t ...

(LCC) claimed that 70 people were killed in the Idlib region whilst forces fought for control of al-Mastumah. Revenge attacks by al-Nusra of two suicide attacks and a bombing on government military targets identified the number of people killed by the Syrian government in Al-Mustumah as 100. On 19 May 2015, after several days of violent clashes, an Islamist rebel alliance called the Army of Conquest captured Al-Mastumah, after Syrian military forces were forced to withdraw.

References

Bibliography

* * * * {{Idlib Governorate, idlib Populated places in Idlib District Archaeological sites in Idlib Governorate