Telul eth-Thalathat is an
archaeological site
An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...
located west of
Mosul
Mosul ( ar, الموصل, al-Mawṣil, ku, مووسڵ, translit=Mûsil, Turkish: ''Musul'', syr, ܡܘܨܠ, Māwṣil) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. The city is considered the second large ...
and just east of
Tal Afar
Tal Afar ( ar, تَلْعَفَر, Talʿafar, ) is a city in the Nineveh Governorate of northwestern Iraq, located 63 km (39 mi) west of Mosul, 52 km (32 mi) east of Sinjar[Nineveh Province
Nineveh Governorate ( ar, محافظة نينوى, syr, ܗܘܦܪܟܝܐ ܕܢܝܢܘܐ, Hoparkiya d’Ninwe, ckb, پارێزگای نەینەوا, Parêzgeha Neynewa), also known as Ninawa Governorate, is a Governorates of Iraq, governorate in nor ...]
(
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
).
History of archaeological research
The site consists of at least five separate
tells or settlement mounds. Telul eth-Thalathat was excavated for four seasons between 1956 and 1965 and again in 1976 by a team from the
University of Tokyo
, abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...
Iraq-Iran Archaeological Expedition. The first two seasons, in 1956 and 1957, were led by N. Egami and worked at Tell II. Burials, residential areas, and a presumed temple were uncovered. The final season was led by S. Fukai.
Occupation history
Telul eth-Thalathat was occupied in the
Ubaid, Nineveh V, and
Uruk
Uruk, also known as Warka or Warkah, was an ancient city of Sumer (and later of Babylonia) situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates River on the dried-up ancient channel of the Euphrates east of modern Samawah, Al-Muthannā, Iraq.Harm ...
periods, as well as during Middle
Assyria
Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the A ...
n times. Excavations have revealed over 20 kilns and a number of burials, as well as some figurines and
spindle whorl
A spindle whorl is a disc or spherical object fitted onto the spindle to increase and maintain the speed of the spin. Historically, whorls have been made of materials like amber, antler, bone, ceramic, coral, glass, stone, metal (iron, lead, lead ...
s.
Robert A. Carter and Graham Philip, Beyond the Ubaid: Transformation and integration in the late prehistoric societies of the Middle East, Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 63, Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 2010, There was also a small Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
settlement.
See also
* Cities of the ancient Near East
The earliest cities in history were in the ancient Near East, an area covering roughly that of the modern Middle East: its history began in the 4th millennium BC and ended, depending on the interpretation of the term, either with the conquest by ...
References
Further reading
*Fukai, S. and T. Matsutani, Excavations at Telul eth-Thalathat, 1976, Sumer, vol. 33, no. 1: pp. 48–64, 1977
External links
Pottery object from Telul eth-Thalathat at the University of Tokyo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Telul Eth-Thalathat
Archaeological sites in Iraq
Nineveh Governorate
Tells (archaeology)