Tell Sabi Abyad
 
 
 
 
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Tell Damishliyya

CLXIMGtelldamishliyya1.jpg_telldamishliyyaNot far from the excavation site at Tell Sabi Abyad we find the small mound of Tell Damishliyya. Excavations in 1984 have uncovered a small Neolithic village, dating in the 7th millennium BC. During this period Tell Sabi Abyad was occupied as well.
CLXIMGtelldamishliyya2.jpg_telldamishliyyaArchaeologists have found the remains of a large rectangular building consisting of several small rooms. Probably the structure functioned as a warehouse. The building was made of sun-dried mud bricks and some floors were covered with a chalk plaster.

Around 6400/6300 BC the inhabitants of Tell Damishliyya abandoned the mound. For almost a thousand years the mound remained unoccupied. From the Halaf period, around 5500 BC, we have found a small settlement on Tell Damishliyya that was occupied for a short period of time.

CLXIMGtelldamishliyya3.jpg_telldamishliyyaThe beautiful Halaf pottery from this settlement has geometrical painted decoration in a glossy, dark paint. After the Halaf period the mound was abandoned for good. Then around 700 BC the site was used as a burial ground for a short while.

Tell Damishliyya lies close to the impressive mound of Tell Hammam al Turkman. Since the beginning of the 1980s Dutch archaeologists have been excavating at Tell Hammam et-Turkman. Today this is done under the flag of Leiden University.

CLXIMGtelldamishliyya4.jpg_telldamishliyya 

 

 

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