Tell Barri (ancient Kahat) is a tell, or archaeological settlement mound, in north-eastern

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

in the

Al-Hasakah Governorate Al-Hasakah Governorate (; ; , also known as , ''Gozarto'') is one of the fourteen Governorates of Syria, governorates (provinces) of Syria. It is located in the far north-east corner of Syria and distinguished by its fertile lands, plentiful water ...

. Its ancient name was Kahat as proven by a threshold found on the south-western slope of the mound. Tell Barri is situated along the Wadi Jaghjagh, a tributary of the Khabur River. It lies 22 kilometers away from the site

Tell Arbid Tell Arbid is an ancient Near East archaeological site in the Khabur (Euphrates), Khabur River Basin region of Al-Hasakah Governorate, Syria, about 50 kilometers north northeast of modern Al-Hasakah. It is located 45 kilometers south of Tell Mozan ...

and 8 kilometers north of the ancient city of Nagar (

Tell Brak Tell Brak (Nagar, Nawar) was an ancient city in Syria; it is one the earliest known cities in the world. Its remains constitute a tell located in the Upper Khabur region, near the modern village of Tell Brak, 50 kilometers north-east of ...

History

The earliest layers discovered at Tell Barri date to the

Halaf Tell Halaf () is an archaeological site in Al-Hasakah in northeastern Syria, a few kilometers from the city of Ras al-Ayn near the Syria–Turkey border. The site, which dates to the sixth millennium BCE, was the first to be excavated from a N ...

period. Barri was in the

fertile crescent The Fertile Crescent () is a crescent-shaped region in the Middle East, spanning modern-day Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria, together with northern Kuwait, south-eastern Turkey, and western Iran. Some authors also include ...

and could benefit from winter rains as well as the river water. This developed the early agriculture of the area.

Early Bronze Age

The site of Tell Barri was inhabited since the

fourth millennium BC File:4th millennium BC montage.jpg, 400x400px, From top left clockwise: The Temple of Ġgantija, one of the oldest freestanding structures in the world; Warka Vase; Bronocice pot with one of the earliest known depictions of a wheeled vehicle; Ki ...

. Ninevite 5 period pottery from the early 3rd millennium BC was found at the site. Tell Barri came under Akkadian cultural influence. The large urban centre at

was nearby.

Middle Bronze Age

In the Middle Bronze IIA, the eighteenth century BC, the city now known as Kahat is attested from the palace archives of Mari. Kahat seems to have been ruled by semi-independent kings. The town then came under the rule of the Kingdom of Upper Mesopotamia, whose capital,

Shubat-Enlil Tell Leilan is an archaeological site situated near the Wadi Jarrah in the Khabur River basin in Al-Hasakah Governorate, northeastern Syria. The site has been occupied since the 5th millennium BC. During the late third millennium, the site was ...

, was northeast of Kahat. A seal of a ruler of Kahat, Iamsi-Hadnu (contemporary of Tilabnu of Sehna) was found on a treaty at Tell Leilan. Another treaty found at Leilan was signed by Sūmum, a ruler of Kahat and Ḫaya-abum, the ruler of Šehna. When the empire collapsed, the harem of its king

Shamshi-Adad I Shamshi-Adad (; Amorite: ''Shamshi-Addu''), ruled 1813–1776 BC, was an Amorite warlord and conqueror who had conquered lands across much of Syria, Anatolia, and Upper Mesopotamia.Some of the Mari letters addressed to Shamsi-Adad by his son ca ...

(r. 1809-1775 BC) sought refuge at Kahat. Following the death of Shamshi-Adad I, Zimri-Lim of Mari (r. 1775-1761 BC) regain the throne of Mari and eventually conquered Kabiya of Kahat. One of the year names of Zimri-Lim was "Year in which Zimri-Lim seized Kahat". Mari retained control over this region until its fall to Hammurabi of Babylon (r. 1792-1750 BC).

Late Bronze Age

Mitannian Period

By the 15th century BC, the town emerged as a religious centre when the

Hurrian The Hurrians (; ; also called Hari, Khurrites, Hourri, Churri, Hurri) were a people who inhabited the Ancient Near East during the Bronze Age. They spoke the Hurro-Urartian language, Hurrian language, and lived throughout northern Syria (region) ...

kingdom of

Mitanni Mitanni (–1260 BC), earlier called Ḫabigalbat in old Babylonian texts, ; Hanigalbat or Hani-Rabbat in Assyrian records, or in Ancient Egypt, Egyptian texts, was a Hurrian language, Hurrian-speaking state in northern Syria (region), Syria an ...

established itself in the region.

Hittite Period

The temple to the Storm god

Teshub Teshub was the Hurrians, Hurrian weather god, as well as the head of the Hurrian pantheon. The etymology of his name is uncertain, though it is agreed it can be classified as linguistically Hurrian language, Hurrian. Both Phonetics, phonetic and L ...

in Kahat is specifically mentioned in the

Shattiwaza Shattiwaza or Šattiwaza, alternatively referred to as Kurtiwaza or ''Mattiwaza'', was a king of the Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni, who reigned 1330-1305 BC. Biography Shattiwaza was the son of king Tushratta. His Hurrian name was ''Kili-Tešup''. ...

treaty of the fourteenth century BC. In 1345 BC, Suppiluliuma I of Hatti defeated the Mitanni stronghold of

Carchemish Carchemish ( or ), also spelled Karkemish (), was an important ancient capital in the northern part of the region of Syria. At times during its history the city was independent, but it was also part of the Mitanni, Hittite and Neo-Assyrian ...

, which led to the defeat of

Tushratta Tushratta ( Akkadian: and ) was a king of Mitanni, 1358–1335 BCE, at the end of the reign of Amenhotep III and throughout the first half the reign of Akhenaten. He was the son of Shuttarna II. Tushratta stated that he was the grandson of A ...

of Mitanni. Tushratta was assassinated and the Mitanni Empire entered a civil war. Suppiluliuma entered a treaty with Shattiwaza (r. 1330-1305 BC), son of Tushratta, making the remnants of the Kingdom of Mitanni a vassal of the Hittites, and a buffer-state between Hatti in the west and Assyria in the east.

Middle Assyrian Period

Shortly afterwards the town fell into the hands of the

Middle Assyrian Empire The Middle Assyrian Empire was the third stage of Assyrian history, covering the history of Assyria from the accession of Ashur-uballit I 1363 BC and the rise of Assyria as a territorial kingdom to the death of Ashur-dan II in 912 BC. ...

. A large palace was built dated to the time of Assyrian ruler

Adad-Nirari I Adad-nārārī I (1305–1274 BC or 1295–1263 BC short chronology) was a king of Assyria during the Middle Assyrian Empire. He is the earliest Assyrian king whose annals survive in any detail, and achieved major military victories that further s ...

(c. 1305 to 1274 BC).

Iron Age

In the

Neo-Assyrian Empire The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the fourth and penultimate stage of ancient Assyrian history. Beginning with the accession of Adad-nirari II in 911 BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire grew to dominate the ancient Near East and parts of South Caucasus, Nort ...

period a palace was built by the Assyrian king

Tukulti-Ninurta II Tukulti-Ninurta II (meaning: "my trust is in he warrior godNinurta") was King of Assyria from 890 BCE to 884 BCE. He was the second king of the Neo Assyrian Empire. History His father was Adad-nirari II, the first king of the Neo-Assyrian peri ...

(891-884 BC) in Kahat. The town lived on after the end of the Assyrian empire in the seventh century BC as a part of

Achaemenid Assyria Athura ( ''Aθurā'' ), also called Assyria, was a geographical area within the Achaemenid Empire in Upper Mesopotamia from 539 to 330 BC as a military protectorate state. Although sometimes regarded as a satrapy, Achaemenid royal inscriptions ...

Babylonians Babylonia (; , ) was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Kuwait, Syria and Iran). It emerged as an Akkadian-populated but Amorite-ru ...

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

ns,

Seleucids The Seleucid Empire ( ) was a Greek state in West Asia during the Hellenistic period. It was founded in 312 BC by the Macedonian general Seleucus I Nicator, following the division of the Macedonian Empire founded by Alexander the Great, ...

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

, and

Parthians Parthia ( ''Parθava''; ''Parθaw''; ''Pahlaw'') is a historical region located in northeastern Greater Iran. It was conquered and subjugated by the empire of the Medes during the 7th century BC, was incorporated into the subsequent Achaemen ...

left their trace. The site was inhabited into the

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

period.

Archaeology

The height of the town mound is 32 meters (105 feet), and its base covers 37 hectares (90 acres). There is also a 7 hectare lower town. In 1980 excavations were begun by a team of Italian archaeologists from the

University of Florence The University of Florence ( Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Firenze'') (in acronym UNIFI) is an Italian public research university located in Florence, Italy. It comprises 12 schools and has around 50,000 students enrolled. History The f ...

, led by Paolo Emilio Pecorella and Mirjo Salvini. From 2006 until 2010, the dig was conducted by a team from

University of Naples Federico II The University of Naples Federico II (; , ) is a public university, public research university in Naples, Campania, Italy. Established in 1224 and named after its founder, Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II, it is the oldest public, s ...

led by Raffaella Pierobon-Benoit. The town was walled in the second millennium BC, with an

acropolis An acropolis was the settlement of an upper part of an ancient Greek city, especially a citadel, and frequently a hill with precipitous sides, mainly chosen for purposes of defense. The term is typically used to refer to the Acropolis of Athens ...

at its centre. Tombs were found at the site. Many ceramics were discovered, which have helped the archaeologists to determine the different strata of occupation of the mound. Artifacts from Tell Barri, including

cuneiform Cuneiform is a Logogram, logo-Syllabary, syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform script ...

tablets, have been taken to the museum of

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

. Significant discoveries include a sacred complex in Area G (third millennium BC). Twenty graves from the Khabur period in the early 2nd millennium BC were excavated there. Also found were the remains of the royal palace of Neo-Assyrian ruler Tukulti-Ninurta II (Area J), and the Great Circuit Wall that surrounds the tell and dates to the Parthian period. Scant traces of Roman occupation have been found in many areas of the site. Recently, Islamic occupation (houses' quarter) has been attested on the northern slope of the mound. The site has suffered significant looting during the Syrian Civil War.Casana J, Laugier EJ (2017) Satellite imagery-based monitoring of archaeological site damage in the Syrian civil war. PLoS ONE 12(11): e0188589. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0188589

Notes

References

*Benoit, Raffaella Pierobon, "Tell Barri/Kahat 2000-2010: The Contribution of the Excavations to the History of the Jezireh.", Archaeological Explorations in Syria 2000-2011: Proceedings of ISCACH-Beirut 2015, 2018 *Materne, Jean-Pierre, "L’année de Kahat dans la chronologie du règne de Zimri-Lim", MARI 2, pp. 195–99, 1983 *N. Parmegiani, "The Eastern Sigillata in Tell Barri/Kahat", Mesopotamia 22, pp. 113–28, 1987 * Pecorella, Paolo Emilio, and Mirjo Salvani, "Tell Barri-Kaḫat", Syria, vol. 62, no. 1/2, 1985, pp. 128–30, 1985 * Paolo Emilio Pecorella, "Tell Barri/Kahat: la campagna del 2000: relazione preliminare", Firenze University Press, 2003, * Paolo Emilio Pecorella and Raffaella Pierobon Benoit, "Tell Barri/Kahat: la campagna del 2001: relazione preliminare", Firenze University Press, 2004, * Paolo Emilio Pecorella and Raffaella Pierobon Benoit, "Tell Barri/Kahat: la campagna del 2002: relazione preliminare", Firenze, 2005, * Paolo Emilio Pecorella and Raffaella Pierobon Benoit, "Tell Barri/Kahat: la campagna del 2003: relazione preliminare", Firenze University Press, 2008, * Paolo Emilio Pecorella and Raffaella Pierobon Benoit, "Tell Barri - Kahat: la campagna del 2004", Firenze University Press, 2008, *Pierobon Benoit, Raffaella, "Tell Barii/Kahat: le ‘Pantheon’, Données et problèmes." Stories told around the fountain, pp. 547–569, 2019 *Salvini M., "Le cadre historique de la fouille de Tell Barri (Syrie)", Akkadica 35, pp. 24–41, 1983 * A. Sołtysiak, "Short Fieldwork Report: Tell Barri (Syria), seasons 1980–2006",Bioarchaeology of the Near East, vol. 2, pp 67–71, 2008 * Sołtysiak, A., and R. Koliński, "Tell Barri (Syria), seasons 2008–2010 Arkadiusz Sołtysiak.", Bioarchaeology of the Near East 4, pp. 48–50, 2010 * Sołtysiak, Arkadiusz, and Holger Schutkowski, "Continuity and change in subsistence at Tell Barri, NE Syria.", Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 2, pp. 176–185, 2015

External links

Tell Barri dig web site (italian)

Shelby White - Leon Levy grant to publish Late Bronze age data
{{Authority control Neolithic sites in Syria Hurrian cities Former populated places in Syria Archaeological sites in al-Hasakah Governorate Bronze Age sites in Syria

Barri In Norse mythology, Barri is the place where Freyr and Gerðr are to consummate their union, as stated in the ''Skírnismál'': :Barri the grove is named, :which we both know, :the grove of tranquil paths. :Nine nights hence, :there to Niörd’s ...

Ancient Assyrian cities