Graves

For a long time the tell was favoured as a burial ground for the neighbouring village of Tell Hammam et-Turkman. In fact until we began our excavations, as witnessed by some recent burials on the hill. Now the modern burial ground has been moved to a hill in the neighbourhood.

The dead were interred in different ways: on their backs in extended position, with raised knees, or in a foetal position. In one mass grave we found five individuals buried at the same time. The bodies seemed to have been thrown into the pit unceremoniously. Were they the victims of an execution or of a disease?

We have found funerary gifts with part of the burials. They are mainly personal ornaments, like bronze bracelets, anklets, rings, earrings and necklaces with beads of various kinds of material.

One of the graves held another earthenware dish beside the burial jar; another grave contained a fine bowl of faience.

Besides inhumations we have found some cremation burials, which probably date at about 1100 BC. In these graves the remains of the cremation had been interred in a large jar which was then placed in a pit. A characteristic find in many of the cremations are the ram skulls, which must have been placed in the flesh in the graves. Are these skulls perhaps the remains of funeral meals?

An extraordinary cremation was found in the ruins of the Assyrian fortress. An urn stood in a deep pit. The urn was originally covered with a cloth tied with a sealed cord. The impression of the rope and the cloth can still be seen in the seal. The vessel contained the burnt remains of two young adults - a man and a woman, both between 20-30 years old. The urn also contained a large collection of necklaces, rings, pendants, earrings, gem settings and other jewellery made of gold, bronze, iron, stone and bone.

Unfortunately we do not know who was buried here. It is the richest grave we have excavated so far at Tell Sabi Abyad.