The Great Bend of the Euphrates River in North Syria and Southeast
Anatolia was a strategic nexus of communications between different parts
of the Ancient Near East and the Mediterranean. In spite of its
potential for inter-regional studies, the area was largely neglected in
the 20th century following the pioneering investigations of Sir Leonard
Woolley, T. E. Lawrence and others at the historically renowned city of
Carchemish. Modern dam-building near the city led to the excavation of
threatened sites and these have revealed a much more complex picture in
which, rather than simply a conduit for inter-regional networks, the
bend attracted a unique concentration of varied communities from
Neolithic times onwards.
Jerablus Tahtani, a multi-period tell site beside Carchemish, was
excavated by a team from the University of Edinburgh from 1992 to 2004
within the framework of the international Tishrin Dam Salvage program.
Results shed new light on the Uruk expansion in the 4th millennium BC,
extraordinary Euphrates flood episodes in the 3rd millennium BC, the
'second urban revolution' in Early Bronze Age Syria and prehistoric
developments at neighboring Carchemish.
This volume, the first major report on the site, deals with stratified
mortuary evidence found at a Bronze Age fort that was built over the
destroyed remains of an early 3rd millennium village. Most of the 70
graves belong to the time when Ebla claimed supremacy of the area. They
are considered in terms of the role of burials in site abandonment
processes. Special attention is given to a monumental tomb incongruously
located at the entrance to this small fort. Its creation and life
history are evaluated in the context of other highly conspicuous
mortuary facilities in the region--monuments that served as places of
social memory and vehicles for structuring a distinctive regional
political trajectory within the Bronze Age of the Ancient Near East.
