Tell Zeidan is an archaeological site of the
Ubaid culture in northern
Syria
Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...
, dates from between 6000 and 4000 BC. The dig consists of three large mounds on the east bank of the
Balikh River, slightly north of its confluence with the
Euphrates River, and is located about east of the modern Syrian city of
Raqqa
Raqqa (, also , Kurdish language, Kurdish: ''Reqa'') is a city in Syria on the North bank of the Euphrates River, about east of Aleppo. It is located east of the Tabqa Dam, Syria's largest dam. The Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine city and b ...
(or Raqqa). This site is included within the historical region known as
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...
and the
Tigris-Euphrates river system, often called the
Cradle of Civilization
A cradle of civilization is a location and a culture where civilization was developed independent of other civilizations in other locations. A civilization is any complex society characterized by the development of the state, social strati ...
.
Archaeology
The site, with three submounds, covers an area of about 12.5 hectares.
An international archaeological project, the Joint Syrian-American Archaeological Research Project at Tell Zeidan, were surveying and excavating the Tell Zeidan site. The project started in 2008, two seasons were completed. The third season was scheduled to start in July 2010.
Muhammad Sarhan, director of the
Raqqa Museum, and
Gil Stein, director of the
Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, are co-directors of the project.
Part of the mound appears to have been looted after the start of the
Syrian civil war in 2011.
See also
*
Cities of the ancient Near East
References
External links
The dig page at the Oriental Institute of the University of ChicagoThe approximate location at Wikimapia
*{{cite web , title=Archaeologists Uncover Land Before Wheel; Site Untouched for 6,000 Years , url=https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116636&org=NSF&from=news , date=April 6, 2010 , publisher=National Science Foundation
The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...
, access-date=2010-04-06 Press Release 10-054
Video from the dig, produced by the National Science foundation, narrated by Gil Stein of the Oriental InstituteThe Land Before the Wheel - Gil Stein discusses the mound of Tell Zeidan
Alternative repository at YouTube of the same NSF video. Better video and streaming quality.
Neolithic sites in Syria
Archaeological sites in Raqqa Governorate