Assyrian burials

In previous years we have found dozens of graves from the late 13th and 12th century BC at Tell Sabi Abyad. In 2003, too, a number of Assyrian graves were excavated. The skeletal remains are being examined by specialists now. They tell us something about the age of the dead person and whether it was a man or a woman. The presence of skeletal deformations gives information about people’s health conditions more than 3000 years ago.

The grave shown here  - probably belonging to a heavily built woman – was sunk into the debris of a dilapidated building. The woman was lying on her left side, the head facing the wall and legs raised. She was probably buried in full state, in view of the personal ornaments we found on the skeleton: a gold earring, a colourful necklace and bronze rings on the fingers. The woman also wore bronze rings on both her big toes.

The following discovery was striking: originally a second person must have been lying next to the woman. The evidence for this is very slight but nevertheless convincing: a human mandible, a number of cervical vertebrae and various other bones that were partly lying next to the female skeleton and partly on top of it. A few ornaments, too, should be ascribed to this mysterious other person, such as a cylinder seal, a gold ring and a stone pendant.

Why is this second person’s skeleton so very poorly preserved? The explanation must be as follows: Both persons were buried in the ruins of a completely broken-down building, with considerable debris layers on the floor. Around 1195 BC the building was completely renovated, however. New walls were raised and new floors laid. It is very likely that during the renovation and the clearing away of the debris the grave was partly disturbed accidentally.

A second grave was found in the underground fire chamber of one of the potters’ ovens. The oven itself was by then of course no longer in use. The inhabitants of Tell Sabi Abyad at that time would have realised, however, that the remnants of the oven were eminently suitable as some kind of tomb. Two persons were lying in the grave, on their backs: one adult and a child. The bodies were covered with two very large sherds; only the raised legs of the adult came out. After the dead bodies had been placed inside the grave and had been covered with sherds, the remaining space was filled with mud bricks and soil.

In 2003 we have also found two cremation burials. In both cases the burnt skeletal remains of the dead persons had been placed inside an urn, which was subsequently placed in a small pit. During the years of our excavation campaign we have found a whole series of similar cremations from the late 13th and 12th century BC at Tell Sabi Abyad (compare for example the cremation burial with rich burial gifts that was excavated in 2002). It is a remarkable find, as cremations do not fit the Assyrian views about life and death. To put it simply, burning the dead was an abhorrence to the Assyrians. Are we perhaps here dealing with a custom that should be ascribed to people from a wholly different ethnical background?

   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