The results of the 2005 excavation campaign

Please note: for a complete picture of the project it is essential that you also visit the pages on our website featuring the results of the previous seasons of excavation at Tell Sabi Abyad.

In 2005 it was the 16th time that excavations were conducted on the mound known as Tell Sabi Abyad (Arabic for “Mound of the White Boy”) in northern Syria. For more than two months – from August 27th to November 2nd – the archaeologists of the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities and Leiden University were digging at the tell.

This year the team consisted of 30 people: archaeologists, specialists in all kinds of fields and especially many students, from the Netherlands, Syria, Germany, Poland, France and Sweden (see the photograph of the team). In the field the team of excavators was assisted by more than 80 workmen from the nearby village of Hammam et-Turkman.

In 2005, as in the years before, we concentrated on excavating occupation layers several metres thick from two completely different periods. On the one hand this was the period we call the Late Neolithic, dated roughly between 6900 and 6200 BC. And on the other hand it was the period known as the Late Bronze Age, to be dated at around 1230-1150 BC. This is the period when the Assyrians came to Tell Sabi Abyad and built a fortress on the top of the the mound.

Both periods are characterized by far-reaching changes in the nature and the organization of society, the structure of the settlements, the elements of material culture, burial customs, etc. Tell Sabi Abyad offers an excellent chance of gaining a detailed insight into this distant past. Since the occupation layers from the two periods overlap only partially, it is possible to excavate them alongside each other.

So far archaeologists have barely or not at all investigated Late Neolithic occupation layers, dated to around 6900-6200 BC, in Syria and neighbouring regions. Until recently we had no idea at all of the structure of villages at the time or of the nature of the architecture, the material culture assemblage, burial customs, etc. The results of our work at Tell Sabi Abyad are therefore simply unique. In 2002 we came upon occupational remains from this period for the first time. In the following years we have expanded our digging enormously. The large-scale excavation has yielded a wealth of information on what happened here many thousands of years ago.

Around 5900/5800 BC Tell Sabi Abyad was abandoned. For thousands of years nobody lived here. It was not until the late 13th century BC that people returned to this place and built a fortress. Especially in the Middle-Assyrian period, around 1200 BC, the fortress seems to have played an important role in the administration and the protection of the far western boundary of the Assyrian kingdom.

An Assyrian garrison was quartered at Tell Sabi Abyad; a custom-house on the road to the Assyrian capital Assur (in present-day northern Iraq) was established here; and the regional Assyrian administration had its seat here as well. The fortress also functioned as a large estate, employing hundreds of men and women. All kinds of craftsmen had their workshops here: smiths, potters, seal cutters, beer brewers, carpet weavers, etc.

The more than 400 clay tablets with cuneiform inscriptions which we have found at Tell Sabi Abyad in all these years show that the Assyrian fortress of Tell Sabi Abyad was in the hands of Ili-pada – one of the most powerful men of Assyria around 1200-1185 BC. Ili-pada was grand vizier of Assyria and was entitled to call himself ‘king of Hanigalbat’. The palace was Ili-pada’s country property; here he made the fortune he needed to live in great state in the capital Assur, where the constant power struggle took place.

By now a large part of the Assyrian palace has been excavated and within the foreseeable future the whole fortress may be exposed. Never before has an Assyrian fortress with all that goes with it been so completely investigated.

The map gives an overview of our excavations so far. At the top of the mound you see the large area where the Assyrian fortress from the 12th century BC can be found.

The remains of the prehistoric occupation are being exposed in several places on the mound: operations I to V. This year we worked in operation III, where we have found the villages from the period between 6900 and 6200 BC.

In 2005 we have also made a start with the excavation of what we have called Tell Sabi Abyad III, a small mound at a distance of no more than a few hundred metres from Tell Sabi Abyad I, our main area of investigation. Our work at Tell Sabi Abyad III showed that this place was occupied around 6900-6800 BC. But we have not yet reached virgin soil and we know that under the oldest architecture we have exposed so far there are several metres of layers with remains of earlier settlements.

Excavating is a matter of much patience and perseverance. Every year we find a number of pieces of the large jigsaw puzzle of the past. Each season helps us to restore the face of the people who lived and died here thousands of years ago. This certainly holds true for our 2005 campaign. Use the link at the bottom of this page for the results of this year’s excavation (but do not omit to take a look at the excavation results of the years before!).

We owe many thanks to our sponsors for making the excavations at Tell Sabi Abyad possible year after year. We have received financial and / or other support from the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden University, Amsterdam Free University, Groningen University, the Foundation Dutch Museum of Anthropology and Prehistory, the Dutch Embassy in Syria, the Dutch Institute for Academic Studies in Damascus, and, of course, our own society of Friends of Sabi Abyad. We also deeply acknowledge the advice and support in the field of the Syrian Directorate of Antiquities. Thank you all very much.

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It will not surprise you to hear that the summers in Syria are hot, dry and dusty....

In August and September temperatures rise to 40-45 degrees C in the shade. The strong wind, which often rises in the morning, drives the dust over the trenches and does not make the job any easier.

For the romantics among us: what is more beautiful than sitting among the ruins of a far and distant past, looking at the incredible beauty of the sunset over Tell Sabi Abyad?

Nobly, nobly Cape Saint Vincent to the North-West
died away;
Sunset ran, one glorious blood-red, reeking into
Cadiz Bay

Robert Browning, Home-Thoughts, from the Sea (1845)

   The very oldest pottery of Tell Sabi Abyad (and of Syria)
   A prehistoric burial field
   Assyrian cuneiform texts