Tell Beydar is a village and ancient site in the modern
Al-Hasakah Governorate
Al-Hasakah Governorate ( ar, محافظة الحسكة, Muḥāfaẓat al-Ḥasakah, ku, Parêzgeha Hesekê}, syc, ܗܘܦܪܟܝܐ ܕܚܣܟܗ, Huparkiyo d'Ḥasake, also known as syc, ܓܙܪܬܐ, Gozarto) is one of the fourteen governorates (pro ...
,
Syria. It was the
Ancient Near Eastern
city of Nabada. It is connected by road to
Al-Darbasiyah on the Turkish border in the north.
History
Nabada was first settled during the
Early Dynastic Period circa 2600 BC. By around 2500 BC a medium sized independent city-state had developed. At that point, it became a provincial capital under the kingdom centered at
Nagar, now Tell Brak. After the
Jezirah region was conquered by the
Akkadians
The Akkadian Empire () was the first ancient empire of Mesopotamia after the long-lived civilization of Sumer. It was centered in the city of Akkad () and its surrounding region. The empire united Akkadian and Sumerian speakers under one rul ...
, Nabada became an outpost of that empire. The city was then abandoned until
re-occupied for a time circa 1400 BC by the
Hurrians and again in the
Neo-Assyrian
The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the fourth and penultimate stage of ancient Assyrian history and the final and greatest phase of Assyria as an independent state. Beginning with the accession of Adad-nirari II in 911 BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire grew t ...
and
Hellenistic
In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...
periods.
Archaeology
The central site of Tell Beydar covers about . A much later Hurrian/Neo-Assyrian site lies at the base of the tell. At the top of the tell there is a Hellenistic settlement. Tell Beydar was excavated for 17 seasons, beginning in 1992 and ending in 2010, by a joint Syrian and European team made up of the European Centre for Upper Mesopotamian Studies and the
Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums
The Directorate-General for Antiquities and Museums (DGAM; ar, المديرية العامة للآثار والمتاحف, french: La Direction Générale des Antiquités et des Musées) is a Syrian government owned agency that is responsible fo ...
of Syria. There were also several restoration seasons. The team leads are Marc Lebeau and Antoine Suleiman.
A number of other institutions, including the
Oriental Institute of the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
have also participated. Besides the architectural and pottery findings from the excavation, almost 250 early cuneiform tablets and fragments were recovered, dating from the pre-sargonic period. The tablets are agricultural records for the most part, but do establish some synchronisms with
Tell Brak
Tell Brak (Nagar, Nawar) was an ancient city in Syria; its remains constitute a tell located in the Upper Khabur region, near the modern village of Tell Brak, 50 kilometers north-east of Al-Hasaka city, Al-Hasakah Governorate. The city' ...
. The language used in the tablets is a variant of the Semitic
Akkadian language
Akkadian (, Akkadian: )John Huehnergard & Christopher Woods, "Akkadian and Eblaite", ''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages''. Ed. Roger D. Woodard (2004, Cambridge) Pages 218-280 is an extinct East Semitic language th ...
and the personal names referred to were also Semitic.
A number of clay sealings have also been recovered.
[G. Jans, J. Bretschneider, Seals and Sealings from Tell Beydar/Nabada (Seasons 1995 - 2001). A Progress Report, Beydar Monographs, vol. 1, (Subartu XXVII), Brepols, Turnhout, ] Finds from Tell Beydar are on display in the
Deir ez-Zor Museum
The Deir ez-Zor Museum ( ar, متحف دير الزور) is a museum devoted to the archaeology and history of northeastern Syria, an area more commonly known as the Jezirah, or Upper Mesopotamia. The museum is located in Deir ez-Zor, the capita ...
.
See also
*
Cities of the ancient Near East
The earliest cities in history were in the ancient Near East, an area covering roughly that of the modern Middle East: its history began in the 4th millennium BC and ended, depending on the interpretation of the term, either with the conquest by ...
*
Tell Chuera
Tell Chuera is an ancient Near Eastern tell site in Raqqa Governorate, northern Syria. It lies between the Balikh and Khabur rivers.
Archaeological research
The site was first described by Max von Oppenheim in 1913. Excavations were begun in 1 ...
Notes
Further reading
*Peter M. M. G. Akkermans, Glenn M. Schwartz, The Archaeology of Syria: From Complex Hunter-Gatherers to Early Urban Societies (c.16,000-300 BC), Cambridge University Press, 2004,
*F. Ismail, W. Sallaberger, P. Talon, K. Van Lerberghe, Administrative Documents from Tell Beydar, Seasons 1993-1995, Brepols Publishers, 1997,
*L. Milano, W. Sallaberger, P. Talon, K. Van Lerberghe, Third Millennium Cuneiform Texts from Tell Beydar, Seasons 1996-2002, Brepols Publishers, 2004,
*Joachim Bretschneider, Nabada: The Buried City, Scientific American, vol. 283, pp 74–81, 2000
*K. Van Lerberghe and G. Voet, Tell Beydar: Environmental and Technical Studies, Brepols, 2001,
External links
Tell Beydar excavation web site
* ttp://oi.uchicago.edu/research/pubs/ar/98-99/beydar.html Oriental Institute Tell Beydar survey note from 98-99 season
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beydar
26th-century BC establishments
Populated places established in the 3rd millennium BC
Bronze Age sites in Syria
Former populated places in Syria
Archaeological sites in al-Hasakah Governorate
Tells (archaeology)
Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia)
City-states