Tell Sabi Abyad in the Middle-Assyrian period, ca. 1230-1180 BC

In 2003 we have continued our investigation of the remnants of the Assyrian occupation from the late 13th and 12th century BC on a large-scale basis. In previous years the emphasis of our work was on excavating the Assyrian fortress. This year, too, we worked in the fortress, but the emphasis was mainly on the area around it, where we suspected the presence of houses and workshops.

Our activities within the walls of the large fortress were mainly focussed on gaining a detailed insight into the stratigraphy and structure of the buildings in the south-eastern corner of the fortress. We had been digging in this part of the stronghold before, but our activities had not been wound up at the time. This year we resumed our work where we had left off.

The excavations in the south-eastern quarter indicated a complicated building history. Houses were built and afterwards pulled down again or completely rebuilt. At the end of the 13th century BC large parts of the fortress must have been in a very bad condition. Some buildings had even collapsed completely and thick debris layers had built up in and around the ruins.

In the debris we came upon floors that were packed with pottery. Dozens of pots, bowls and jars were found, some of them intact, others in fragments. Apparently people did not take the trouble – or perhaps they did not have the chance – to safely store all that pottery. Pottery was a real mass product in this period. Each year we find dozens of complets pots and tens of thousands of sherds.

Besides all that pottery we have also found all kinds of other objects, like basalt grinding stones and tools, personal ornaments and weapons of bronze, including bracelets and arrow points. Arrow points and other weapons are of course to be expected in a fortress that was responsible for the defence of the western boundary of the Assyrian kingdom. We know that an Assyrian garrison was encamped on Tell Sabi Abyad and that chariots were stationed there. One of the cuneiform texts from Tell Sabi Abyad mentions the delivery of metal, intended for the production of  “100 arrow points for the chariots”.

A remarkable object is this small iron ring, hardly 3 cm in diameter. Every year we come upon a couple of these iron rings. It is not clear what they were used for. The rings from Tell Sabi Abyad belong to the oldest iron objects from the Near East. In the first millennium BC iron is generally used to make weapons and tools, but at the time when Tell Sabi Abyad was inhabited – around 1200 BC – iron is still a rare luxury product.

Another remarkable find are these three basalt statuettes. They have been roughly hewn out of stone, with little attention to detail. The human body is crudely indicated, although it was sometimes tried to give the face some expression. Probably these figurines functioned in some kind of “popular religion”, but we have no details at all. Similar coarsely-made statuettes have also been found elsewhere in Syria and Iraq. Archaeologists have named them stone spirits.

Around 1195 BC – probably coinciding with the appointment of a man named Tamitte as the new steward of the fortress – a major programme of rebuilding and renovation seems to have been started. The debris was cleared away, new floors were laid and the houses and barracks were restored to their old glory. The renovation included all kinds of organizational alterations. For example, the staircase that gave access to the upper storey and the fortress walls was shifted from the north side to the east side of the fortress. The outer walls were broadened considerably as well as strengthened.

In 2003 we have of course given ample attention to the 4 m wide and 3.5 m deep moat surrounding the fortress. It is after all a very remarkable construction, hardly or not at all known from other archaeological sites. We have dug long, narrow trenches in places where we suspected the presence of the moat. These trenches each yielded a cross-section of the moat. The moat was dug parallel to the walls of the fortress. The steep sides were partly strengthened by means of heavy mud-brick walls. The moat bounded an area of about 80 by 80 m, with the fortress proper in the centre.

The entrance to this area was in the north-west, where the moat was interrupted over a length of at least 5 m. The entrance was protected by means of a gate building with thick mud-brick walls. Unfortunately natural erosion here works against us: large parts of the walls were preserved to a height of no more than a few centimetres or had even disappeared completely.

Between the moat on the one side and the walls of the fortress on the other there were, as we had already expected, workshops and ovens. In 2003 we worked on a large scale at excavating these buildings, in order to get as complete a picture as possible of the Assyrian fortress on the top of the mound. It has become clear that the settlement as a whole (so including the fortress) is relatively small, around one hectare in all.

   Tell Sabi Abyad in the late Neolithic, ca. 6600-6000 BC
   Tell Sabi Abyad at about 6000-5900 BC
   Tell Sabi Abyad in the Middle-Assyrian period, ca. 1230-1180 BC
   Assyrian pottery kilns
   Assyrian cylinder seals
   Assyrian burials
   Assyrian cuneiform texts