Til Barsip or Til Barsib ( Hittite Masuwari, modern Tell Ahmar; ) is an ancient site situated in

Aleppo Governorate Aleppo Governorate ( / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Ḥalab'' ) is one of the fourteen Governorates of Syria, governorates of Syria. It is the most populous governorate in Syria with a population of more than 4,867,000 (2011 Est.), almost 23% of the t ...

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 ...

by the

Euphrates The Euphrates ( ; see #Etymology, below) is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of West Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia (). Originati ...

river about 20 kilometers south of ancient

Carchemish Carchemish ( or ), also spelled Karkemish (), was an important ancient capital in the northern part of the region of Syria. At times during its history the city was independent, but it was also part of the Mitanni, Hittite and Neo-Assyrian ...

History

The site was inhabited as early as the

Neolithic period The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wid ...

with an important city, then called Abarsal, arising in Early Bronze III and being completely destroyed in EBIV. It is the remains of the

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

city which is the most important settlement at Tell Ahmar. It was known in Hittite as Masuwari.Hawkins, John D.
Inscriptions of the Iron Age
'' Retrieved 7 Dec. 2010. The city remained largely Neo-Hittite up to its conquest by the

Neo-Assyrian Empire The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the fourth and penultimate stage of ancient Assyrian history. Beginning with the accession of Adad-nirari II in 911 BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire grew to dominate the ancient Near East and parts of South Caucasus, Nort ...

in the 856 BC and the

Luwian Luwian (), sometimes known as Luvian or Luish, is an ancient language, or group of languages, within the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. The ethnonym Luwian comes from ''Luwiya'' (also spelled ''Luwia'' or ''Luvia'') – ...

language was used even after that.Fred C. Woudhuizen
The Recently Discovered Luwian Hieroglyphic Inscription from Tell Ahmar.
Ancient West & East, vol. 9, pp. 1-19, 2010 Til Barsip was the capital of the

Aramean The Arameans, or Aramaeans (; ; , ), were a tribal Semitic people in the ancient Near East, first documented in historical sources from the late 12th century BCE. Their homeland, often referred to as the land of Aram, originally covered ce ...

-speaking Syro-Hittite state of Bît Adini. After being captured by the

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...

ns from its previous king Ahuni, the city was then renamed as Kar-Šulmānu-ašarēdu, after the Assyrian king

Shalmaneser III Shalmaneser III (''Šulmānu-ašarēdu'', "the god Shulmanu is pre-eminent") was king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 859 BC to 824 BC. His long reign was a constant series of campaigns against the eastern tribes, the Babylonians, the nations o ...

, though its original name continued in use. It became a prominent center for the Assyrian administration of the region due to its strategic location at a crossing of the

river.

Til Barsip and Carchemish

After Til Barsip was occupied by Shalmaneser III, the important nearby city of Karkamish (Carchemish), only 20 km upstream the Euphrates river, remained under the rule of local kings of the House of Suhi. The Assyrian sources appear mostly silent about Karkamish until the mid-8th century BC. The only exception was a brief mention by Samši-Adad V (824–811 BC). The Assyrians may have left Karkamish alone either because of its strength, or because they profited from the extensive trade that the city conducted with many locations. Probably around 848 BC, the change of dynasty at Carchemish took place, and the House of Astiruwa started to rule. Carchemish was finally conquered by

Sargon II Sargon II (, meaning "the faithful king" or "the legitimate king") was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 722 BC to his death in battle in 705. Probably the son of Tiglath-Pileser III (745–727), Sargon is generally believed to have be ...

in 717 BC.

Archaeology

The tell was first excavated and examined by David George Hogarth, who proposed the identification as Til Barsip. Other than this research Hogarth was less interested with Tell Ahmar and Til Barsib and his only other discussion of the site is in a paper written in 1909 where it is only mentioned in name alone. The site was visited in 1909 by Gertrude Lowthian Bell who wrote about the town and also took photographs squeezes from some of the inscriptions and other finds there. The site of Tell Ahmar was excavated by the French archaeologist François Thureau-Dangin from 1929 to 1931. He uncovered the Iron Age city and an

Early Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

hypogeum A hypogeum or hypogaeum ( ; plural hypogea or hypogaea; literally meaning "underground") is an underground temple or tomb. Hypogea will often contain niches for cremated human remains or loculi for buried remains. Occasionally tombs of th ...

burial with a large amount of pottery. Three important

stele A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...

s were also discovered at the site. These record how the 8th century BC Aramean king Bar Ga'yah, who may be identical with the Assyrian governor Shamshi-ilu, made a treaty with the city of Arpad. Recent excavations at Tell Ahmar were conducted by Guy Bunnens from the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

in the late 1980s and through to the present. Excavations ended in 2010. Many ivory carvings of outstanding quality were discovered and these were published in 1997. Current excavations are under the auspices of the

University of Liège The University of Liège (), or ULiège, is a major public university of the French Community of Belgium founded in 1817 and based in Liège, Wallonia, Belgium. Its official language is French (language), French. History The university was foun ...

, Belgium.

Ahmar/Qubbah stele (Tell Ahmar 6)

Among the early Iron Age monuments discovered in the area was a particularly well-preserved stele known as the Ahmar/Qubbah stele, inscribed in

, which commemorates a military campaign by king :de:Hamiyata of Masuwari around 900 BC. The stele also attests to the continued cult of the deity ' Tarhunzas of the Army', whom Hamiyatas is thought to have linked with Tarhunzas of Heaven and with the Storm-God of Aleppo. This stele also indicates that the first king of Masuwari was named Hapatila, which may represent an old Hurrian name Hepa- tilla. According to Woudhuizen, the name Hamiatas could also be understood as a Luwian reflection of Semitic ''Ammi-Ad(d)a'' (‘Hadad is my paternal uncle'), and Hapatilas as ''Abd-Ila'' ('servant of El'). Hamiatas also set up some other Luwian hieroglyphic inscriptions. These are known as Tell Ahmar 2, 4 and 5, and Borowski 3. Hamiatas is also mentioned in an inscription Tell Ahmar 1 by one of his successors referred to as "Ariahinas’ son", as well as in the inscription Aleppo 2 by a confederate named Arpas.

Kings of Masuwari

* Hapatilla * Hamiyatas * Bar Ga'yah * Shamshi-ilu (governor)

Notes

References

* Guy Bunnens, "Carved ivories from Til Barsib", ''American Journal of Archaeology'', vol. 101, no.3, pp. 435–450, (July 1997)
Online version by JSTOR
*BUNNENS, Guy, "A STELA OF THE MOON GOD FROM TELL AHMAR/TIL BARSIB. CONTRIBUTION TO THE ICONOGRAPHY OF THE MOON GOD IN THE NEO-ASSYRIAN PERIOD", in Travels through the Orient and the Mediterranean World: Essays Presented to Eric Gubel, pp. 99–110, 2021 * Arlette Roobaert, "A Neo-Assyrian Statue from Til Barsib", ''Iraq'', vol. 58, pp. 79–87, 1996 *

Stephanie Dalley Stephanie Mary Dalley FSA (''née'' Page; March 1943) is a British Assyriologist and scholar of the Ancient Near East. Prior to her retirement, she was a teaching Fellow at the Oriental Institute, Oxford. She is known for her publications of ...

, "Neo-Assyrian Tablets from Til Barsib", ''Abr-Nahrain'', vol. 34, pp. 66–99, 1996–1997 * Pierre Bordreuil and Françoise Briquel-Chatonnet, "Aramaic Documents from Til Barsip", ''Abr-Nahrain'', vol. 34, pp. 100–107, 1996–1997

Sang, Li, "Burial practices of the third millennium BCE in the Middle Euphrates Region: an interpretation of funerary rituals", Unpublished PhD. Thesis, Tübingen, 2010 * R. Campbell Thompson, "Til-Barsip and Its Cuneiform Inscriptions", PSBA, vol. 34, pp. 66–74, 1912. * Arlette Roobaert, "The Middle Bronze Age Funerary Evidence from Tell Ahmar (Syria)", ''Ancient Near Eastern Studies'', vol. 35, pp. 97–105, 1998 * Max E.L. Mallowan, "The Syrian City of Til-Barsib", ''Antiquity'', vol. 11, pp. 328–39, 1937

External links

Geophysical Survey of Til Barsip - Archaeo-Physics

Painting from Til Barsip at the Louvre
{{Authority control Bronze Age sites in Syria Aramean cities Syro-Hittite states Ancient Assyrian cities Former populated places in Syria Neolithic sites in Syria Iron Age sites in Syria Archaeological sites in Aleppo Governorate