Tell Jerablus Tahtani, Syria, I: Mortuary Practices at an Early Bronze Age Fort on the Euphrates River. (Levant Supplementary Series)

The Great Bend of the Euphrates River in North Syria and Southeast Anatolia was a strategic nexus of communications between different parts of the Ancient Near East and the Mediterranean. In spite of its potential for inter-regional studies, the area was largely neglected in the 20th century following the pioneering investigations of Sir Leonard Woolley, T. E. Lawrence and others at the historically renowned city of Carchemish. Modern dam-building near the city led to the excavation of threatened sites and these have revealed a much more complex picture in which, rather than simply a conduit for inter-regional networks, the bend attracted a unique concentration of varied communities from Neolithic times onwards. Jerablus Tahtani, a multi-period tell site beside Carchemish, was excavated by a team from the University of Edinburgh from 1992 to 2004 within the framework of the international Tishrin Dam Salvage program. Results shed new light on the Uruk expansion in the 4th millennium BC, extraordinary Euphrates flood episodes in the 3rd millennium BC, the ‘second urban revolution’ in Early Bronze Age Syria and prehistoric developments at neighboring Carchemish. This volume, the first major report on the site, deals with stratified mortuary evidence found at a Bronze Age fort that was built over the destroyed remains of an early 3rd millennium village. Most of the 70 graves belong to the time when Ebla claimed supremacy of the area. They are considered in terms of the role of burials in site abandonment processes. Special attention is given to a monumental tomb incongruously located at the entrance to this small fort. Its creation and life history are evaluated in the context of other highly conspicuous mortuary facilities in the region—monuments that served as places of social memory and vehicles for structuring a distinctive regional political trajectory within the Bronze Age of the Ancient Near East.Table of ContentsList of Figures ixList of Tables xiiList of Plates xivAbbreviations xvii1. Introduction (Edgar Peltenburg) 11.1 B ackground 11.2 The Jerablus plain 21.3 Previous notices and investigations of the site 41.4 The site 51.5 R esearch issues 61.6 Excavation and recording 61.7 Deposition of material 91.8 Layout of the volume 91.9 A cknowledgments 102. The regional setting of Jerablus Tahtani (T. J. Wilkinson and Katleen Deckers) 132.1 Tell Jerablus Tahtani in context 132.2 Vegetation in the Jerablus environment during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age:evidence of charcoal 203. Chronology (Edgar Peltenburg and Derek Hamilton) 243.1 S ummary of site periods 243.2 R adiocarbon dating and Bayesian modelling at Jerablus 273.3 C ommentary: Bayesian modelling and ceramics 304. The mortuary facilities and their contents (Edgar Peltenburg, Diane Bolger, Stuart Campbell, Adam Jackson,Dorothy A. Lunt, Zissis Parras, Graham Philip, Paola Sconzo and Marie E. Watt) 374.1 I ntroduction 374.2 G eneral location and relative chronology of Period IIB graves 374.3 Period II grave typology 394.4 Period III grave typology 444.5 The catalogue 444.6 Period IB grave 444.7 Period IIB Tomb 302 454.7.1 Main Chamber — Tomb Phases 1–4 464.7.2 A nnex — Tomb Phase 1 624.7.3 Entrance — Tomb Phase 1 634.7.4 Walls — Tomb Phase 1 644.7.5 Mound — Tomb Phase 1 654.7.6 G eneral and unstratified 674.8 Period II graves 674.9 A n Early Bronze Age tomb group from Tell Alawiyeh in the British Museum 904.10 Period III graves 95Contentsvi4.11 Period V graves 964.12 A dditional human remains 965. The mortuary population (Dorothy A. Lunt, Zissis Parras, Catriona Pickard and Marie E. Watt) 985.1 The human dentitions 985.2 The human remains 1045.3 S table isotope analysis of human and animal remains 1156. Pottery of the Early Bronze and Uruk periods — summary (Diane Bolger and Edgar Peltenburg) 1186.1 Early Bronze Age vessel types from mortuary contexts 1186.2 Pottery of the Uruk period 1187. Metalwork from mortuary contexts at Jerablus (Graham Philip) 1277.1 Weapons 1277.2 O rnaments 1307.3 Tools 1367.4 Manufacture, metallurgy and technology 1367.5 O verall patterns 1397.6 C onclusions 1407.7 A ppendix. Metal objects from Iron Age graves 1418. Metals from Early Bronze Age burial assemblages collected between 1911 and 1920 by D. G. Hogarth,C . L. Woolley and T. E. Lawrence in the Central Euphrates and Sajur River regions of Syria(Peter Northover and Kay Prag) 1438.1 I ntroduction 1438.2 The regional extent of the collection 1448.3 The security of the provenances 1448.4 The geographical contexts of analysed materials 1458.5 C atalogue 1518.6 Typology and dating evidence for validity of groups 1588.7 S ome conclusions to sections 8.1–6 1638.8 A nalysis of metalwork in the Woolley Collection, Ashmolean Museum 1649. Other objects, including personal ornaments and figurines (Kathy Eremin, Adam Jackson, Carole McCartney,Edgar Peltenburg and Andrew Shortland) 1729.1 Personal ornaments 1729.1.1 B eads 1739.1.2 Pendants 1779.1.3 N ecklaces 1799.1.4 B ead string attached to pin 1809.1.5 Pins 1819.1.6 C onclusions 1819.2 Third millennium beads: analyses 1829.3 G old 1899.4 I vory 1899.5 C lay figurines 1909.5.1 A nthropomorphs 1909.5.2 Z oomorphs 1919.6 Miscellaneous clay objects 1929.6.1 Model wheels 1929.6.2 Tiles 1929.6.3 Modified sherd 1939.6.4 U nbaked clay device 1939.7 B one objects 1939.7.1 I ncised tubes 1939.7.2 Pin/needle 1949.8 S hell objects 194vii9.8.1 I nlay or pendant 1949.8.2 Eggshells 1949.9 G round stone artefacts from funerary contexts 1959.9.1 Typology 1959.9.2 Discussion 1969.10 Miscellaneous objects 1979.11 N ote on chipped stone from funerary contexts 1989.11.1 The samples 1989.11.2 Discussion of context 1989.12 Period III bone pin 19910. A nimal remains (Paul Croft) 20110.1 Tomb 302 animal remains 20110.2 A nimal remains from the graves 20911. The charred plant remains from Tomb 302 (Sue Colledge and Chris Stevens) 21111.1 I ntroduction 21111.2 C harred plant materials in the Tomb 302 samples 21111.3 C rops 21611.4 Wild taxa 21711.5 Dung, parenchymatous tissue 21811.6 S ummary of samples 21911.7 Early Bronze Age crops 21912. Mollusca (Janet Ridout-Sharpe) 22112.1 I ntroduction 22112.2 Molluscan samples 22112.3 Molluscan small finds 22212.4 Discussion and conclusions 22413. Jerablus mortuary practices in their local and regional contexts (Edgar Peltenburg) 22513.1 A late 4th millennium BC secondary burial of Period IB22513.2 G eneral characteristics of the Period IIB burials 22813.3 C hildren at Early Bronze Age Jerablus 23213.4 Possible evidence for secondary treatments in Period IIB 23213.5 Mortuary practices and site abandonment processes in the later 3rd millennium BC23313.6 Tomb 302: introduction 23613.7 Tomb 302 Phase 1A: the invention of a tradition 23613.8 Tomb 302 Phases 1B–D: funerary rites 24413.9 Tomb 302 Phase 1E–2: desecration and abandonment 24613.10 Tomb 302 Phase 3: re-visiting the ancestors 24813.11 Tomb 302 and developments of the mortuary domain in pathways to power 25213.12 The persistence of an invented tradition? 25413.13 The Late Iron Age graves of Period III256Appendix 1. Plate and page references for Jerablus mortuary facilities 257Appendix 2. C oncordance of registered small find numbers and grave catalogue numbers 259Appendix 3. S ummary of Tomb 302 units 266Appendix 4. S herd join analysis from all components of Tomb 302 269Bibliography 272Plates 292Arabic Summary 372