Tall Bazi, is an ancient Near East archaeological site in Raqqa Governorate of Syria in the same general area as Mari and Ebla. It is located on the Euphrates river in upper Syria, about 60 kilometers south of Turkey near the abandoned town of Tall Banat. Tall Bazi has been proposed as the location of Armanum, known from texts of Sargon and Naram-Sin in the Akkadian period, during the reign of Naram-Sin of Akkad.[1][2][3] It was occupied into the Mitanni period at which time it was destroyed. In the Late Roman Empire a large building was constructed at the top of the main mound, using the remaining Late Bronze Age fortification walls. The modern village of Tell Banat is adjacent to the site.
An Early Bronze palace was found beneath the Middle Bronze temple. The earlier occupation of the Citadel dates back to the Late Early Dynastic period and Akkadian period. Numerous clay bi-conical sling shots were found especially around a fortified wall gate.[4]
The Northern Town of the lower area was occupied beginning in the Middle Bronze Age and was destroyed at the same time as the Western Town, in the Late Bronze Age. A geomagnetic prospection followed by excavation at four locations showed that the original portion was a grown settlement with later construction matching the planned houses of the Western Town.[5]
The main mound has been dubbed the "Citadel". It contained a large (37.6 meter long by 15.8 meter wide) temple built in the Middle Bronze Age (on top of an Early Bronze Age palace) still in use when it was destroyed at the same time as the 200 meter by 250 meter lower town in the Late Bronze Age.[6]
In the Middle Bronze II, Tall Bazi would have been in between larger powers like Carchemish (north), Aleppo (west; Yamhad), and Mari (southeast).
In this period the city was named Baṣīru. In the remains of the temple on the main mound were found evidence of significant production and ritual consumption of beer as well as two cuneiform land grant tablets of the Mitanni period one (Bz 51) sealed by ruler Saushtatar which gave the town of Baidali to the people of Baṣīru, one (Bz 50) by ruler Artatama I, and an Old Babylonian cylinder seal.[7][8] When the settlement was destroyed the temple was looted and equipment smashed, then burned like the lower town. More post destruction looting then occurred.
The Western Town (1 hectare) is a single period area of the Late Bronze Age which lasted up to a century before it was violently destroyed. It contain about 100 houses with a central market area and planned 6 meter wide main roads with spurs into residential areas. Houses were built to a standard design with little variation.[9] Destruction appears to have come quickly as most material was still in place. Each house had its own oven for baking and vats for the production of beer. The Northern Town and Citadel were destroyed at the same time.[10] No human remains were found.[11][12] Due to the sketchy nature of radiocarbon dating for this period dates radiocarbon samples have reported dates ranging from 1400 BC down to 1200 BC for the destruction layer. A Mitanni period cylinder seal was found.[13][14]
As a result of the Syrian Civil War the top of the mound was turned into a military emplacement with much of the remains, including the temple, being destroyed by bulldozer activity. Archaeological finds still being held at the site were robbed away by ISIS.[15][16][17]
Tall Bazi is adjacent to (about one half a kilometer to the south) and was possibly part of the Tell Banat Settlement Complex (Tell Banat, Tell Banat North, and Tell Kabir) excavated as part of the Euphrates Salvage Project. The site of Tell Saghir, adjacent to the north, was not excavated. Some differences in dating between excavators of Tall Bazi and the Complex cause difficulty in aligning them chronologically.[18][19][20][21]
Tell Kabir (also Tall Kabir) - Lies 1 kilometer southwest of Tell Banat. A low mound covers an area of about 2.3 hectares with a 13 meter by 22 meter 3rd millennium BC temple having two meter thick stone walls at the summit. The temple was abandoned at the end of the Late Bronze Age and was replaced by domestic occupation until the Middle Bronze Age.[22][23][24]
Tell Banat - The mound has an area of about 25 hectares encircled by a massive stone wall on the south and east. One building, built on a 3 meter deep gravel base and thought to be a palace, contained a 3rd millennium BC monumental tomb with 5 chambers. The tomb was constructed with dressed stone walls, a bitumen coated baked brick floor, and a ceiling of one ton limestone slabs.[25][26][27]
Tell Banat North - Used as a mortuary site in the 3rd millennium BC Banat Periods IV and III and holds the structure known as the White Monument. The mound is 22 meters high and 100 meters in diameter. Large quanities of clay bi-conical sling shots were found. Tell Banat North was excavated from 1988 to 1999 by McClellan and Porter.[28]
Four periods of occupation are defined for the Tell Banat Complex:[29]
Banat Period IV (2700/2600 – 2450 BC)
Banat Period III (2450 – 2300 BC)
Banat Period II (2300 - 2100 BC) - abandoned though nearby Tell Bazi appears to have remained occupied
Banat Period I (2100 BC - Late Bronze Age) - Tell Kabir only, with modest domestic activity on Tell Banat
The fortified main mound rises 60 meters above the plain with the unfortified lower town portion, to the west, being only 7 meters high. The fortification walls around the main mound were constructed of large limestone block. The lower town area is divided into a Western Town and Northern Town. The site was excavated by German archaeologists in 1993–1997, in 1999, in 2001–2005, and then in 2007–2009. At this point local conditions became too difficult to continue work. The excavations were under the auspices of the German Research Foundation and later the Institute of Near Eastern Archaeology.[30][31][32][33][34][35][36]
Due to the Tishrin Dam construction the lower town is now under water. The main mound is still above water. The adjacent third millennium BC archaeological complex at Tall Banat was also flooded.[37]
^[1] Adelheid Otto, "Archeological Perspectives On The Localization Of Naram-Sin's Armanum", Journal of Cuneiform Studies vol. 58, pp. 1-26, 2006
^Nashat Alkhafaji and Gianni Marchesi, "Naram-Sin's War against Armanum and Ebla in a Newly-Discovered Inscription from Tulul al-Baqarat", Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol. 79, no. 1, pp. 1-20, 2020
^Alfonso Archi, "In Search of Armi", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 63, 2011, pp. 5–34, 2011
^Anne Porter, "Victims of Violence: Healing Social Ills through Mesopotamian Mortuary Practice", Near Eastern Archaeology, vol. 78, no. 4, pp. 252–62, 2015
^B. Einwag and A. Otto, "Tall Bazi 2000 und 2001 – Die Untersuchungen auf der Zitadelle und in der Nordstadt", DaM 15, pp. 105–130, 2006
^Otto, Adelheid, "Archaeological Evidence for Collective Governance along the Upper Syrian Euphrates during the Late and Middle Bronze Age", Organization, Representation, and Symbols of Power in the Ancient Near East: Proceedings of the 54th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale at Würzburg 20–25 Jul, edited by Gernot Wilhelm, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 87–100, 2012
^Martino, Stefano de, "The Mittanian Cuneiform Documents: The Interplay between Content, Language, Material, Format, and Sealing Practices", The Ancient World Revisited: Material Dimensions of Written Artefacts, edited by Marilina Betrò, Michael Friedrich and Cécile Michel, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 207-220, 2024
^[2] Torrecilla, Eduardo, and Yoram Cohen, "A Mittani Letter Order from Azu (Had 8) and its Implications for the Chronology and History of the Middle Euphrates Region in the Late Bronze Age” Revue d’Assyriologie et d’archéologie Orientale, vol. 112, pp. 149–58, 2018
^Adelheid Otto, "The Organization of Residential Space in the Mittani Kingdom as a Mirror of Different Models of Governance", in: Eva Cancik-Kirschbaum, Nicole Brisch and Jesper Eidem (Eds.), Constituent, Confederate, and Conquered Space in Upper Mesopotamia. The Emergence of the Mitanni State, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 33–60, 2014
^[3] A. Otto, "Defining and transgressing the boundaries between ritual commensality and daily commensal practices: the case of late bronze age Tall Bazi.", eTopoi - Journal for Ancient Studies, Special Volume 2, pp. 179–195, 2012
^B. Einwag and A. Otto, "Tall Bazi 1998 und 1999 - Die letzten Untersuchungen in der Weststadt", DaM 13, pp. 65–88, 2001
^A. Otto, "Alltag und Gesellschaft zur Spätbronzezeit: Eine Fallstudie aus Tall Bazi (Syrien)", Subartu 19, Turnhout 2006
^A. Otto, "The Late Bronze Age Pottery of the Weststadt of Tall Bazi (North Syria)", in: M. Luciani, A. Hausleitner (Eds.), Recent Trends in the Study of Late Bronze Age Ceramics in Syro-Mesopotamia and Neighbouring Regions. Proceedings of the International Workshop in Berlin, 2 – 5 November 2006, OrA 32, Rahden/Westf., pp. 85-117, 2014
^[4] B. Einwag and A. Otto, "The Late Bronze Age at Tall Bazi: The Evidence of the Pottery and the Challenges of Radiocarbon Dating", in: From Pottery to Chronology: The Middle Euphrates Region in Late Bronze Age Syria. Proceedings of a Workshop in Mainz (Germany), May 5–7, 2012. MAAO 1, Gladbeck, pp. 149–176, 2018
^[5] B. Einwag and Adelheid Otto 2019. The inventory of the temple at Tall Bazi, in Evans, J.M. & Roßberger, E. (ed.), "Ancient Near Eastern temple inventories in the third and second millennia BCE: integrating archaeological, textual, and visual sources", Proceedings of a conference held at the LMU Centre for Advanced Studies, November 14–15, pp. 159–74, 2016
^Berthold Einwag and Adelheid Otto, Die Torlöwen an Tempel 1 von Tall Bazi und ihre Stellung in der Reihe steinerner Löwenorthostaten, in: Heather Baker, Kai Kaniuth und Adelheid Otto (ed.), Stories of long ago. Festschrift für Michael D. Roaf, AOAT 397, Münster, pp. 91–115, 2012
^[6] C. Coppini, "Tell Bazi: the Middle and Late Bronze Age pottery from the Citadel's Nordhang.", In From pottery to chronology: The Middle Euphrates region in Late Bronze Age Syria. Proceedings of the international workshop in Mainz (Germany), pp. 177-193, (2012, May)
^Anne Porter, "The Tell Banat Settlement Complex during the Third and Second Millennia BCE", in From Pottery to Chronology: The Middle Euphrates Region in Late Bronze Age Syria Proceedings of the International Workshop in Mainz (Germany), May 5–7, 2012, edited by A. Otto. Münchener, pp. 195–224, 2018
^Porter, Anne, et al, "“Their corpses will reach the base of heaven”: a third-millennium BC war memorial in northern Mesopotamia?", Antiquity 95.382, pp. 900-918, 2021
^Porter, Anne., "Communities in Conflict: Death and the Contest for Social Order in the Euphrates River Valley", Near Eastern Archaeology, vol. 65, no. 3, pp. 156–73, 2002
^Porter, Anne., "The Dynamics of Death: Ancestors, Pastoralism, and the Origins of a Third-Millennium City in Syria", Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 325, pp. 1–36, 2002
^Porter, Anne, "The Third Millennium Settlement Complex at Tell Banat: Tell Kabir", DamM 8, pp. 125–63, pl. 20, 1995
^Cooper, E., "The EB–MB Transitional Period at Tell Kabir, Syria", in Espace naturel, espace habite en Syrie du Nord 10e-2e millénaires av. J.-C., ed. M. Fortin andO. Aurenche. Lyons: Maison de L’Orient, pp. 271–80, 1998
^Weiss, Harvey, "Archaeology in Syria", American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 101, no. 1, pp. 97–148, 1997
^Porter, A., "Tell Banat: Tomb 1", Damaszener Mitteilungen 8, pp. 1–50, 1995
^Porter, A./T. McClellan, "The third millennium settlement complex at Tell Banat:Results of the 1994 excavations", DaM 10, pp. 11–63, 1998
^Porter, Anne, and Thomas McClellan, "‘Royal Grave’ at Tell Banat", ASOR Newsletter 46/3, pp. 28, 1996
^McClellan, T., "Tell Banat North: the White Monument", in M. Lebeau (ed.) About Subartu: studies devoted to Upper Mesopotamia, volume 2, Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 243–71, 1998
^[7] Anne Porter, "The Power of the Populace: Politics and the Mortuary Monuments of Tell Banat", in Kathryn R. Morgan, ed., Pomp, Circumstance, and the Performance of Politics: Acting Politically Correct in the Ancient World, Chicago: Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, ISACS 16, pp. 131-160, 2024 ISBN978-1-61491-106-7
^B. Einwag and A. Otto, "Tall Bazi", in: Jahresbericht 1993 des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, AA, vol. 4, pp. 662–663, 1994
^B. Einwag and A. Otto, "Tall Bazi", in: Jahresbericht 1994 des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, AA, vol. 4, pp. 868–872, 1995
^B. Einwag and A. Otto, "Tall Bazi", in: Jahresbericht 1995 des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, AA, vol. 4, pp. 641–643, 1996
^A. Otto and B. Einwag, "Tall Bazi - eine Metropole des 2. Jahrtausends v.Chr." im syrischen Euphrattal, Antike Welt 27, pp. 459–71, 1996
^B. Einwag and A. Otto, Die Ausgrabungen in Tall Bazi, in: Deutsches Archäologisches Institut (Hrsg.), 25 Jahre archäologische Forschung in Syrien 1980-2005, Damascus 2005, pp. 130–135, 2006
^[8] W. Sallaberger and B. Einwag, and A. Otto, "Schenkungen von Mittani-Königen an die Einwohner von Basīru. Die zwei Urkunden aus Tall Bazi am Mittleren Euphrat.", Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie, vol. 96, no. 1, pp. 69-104, January 2006 DOI:10.1515/ZA.2006.003
^B. Einwag and A. Otto, "Excavations at Tall Bazi 2008", Chronique Archéologique en Syrie IV, pp. 171–174, 2010
^A. Porter, "The dynamics of death: Ancestors, pastoralism, and the origins of a third-millennium city in Syria.", Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 325(1), pp. 1–36, 2002
B. Einwag, "Fortified Citadels in the Early Bronze Age? New Evidence from Tall Bazi (Syria)", in: J. Cordoba (Hrsg.), Proceedings of the Fifth International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Madrid 2006, Madrid, pp. 741–53, 2008
T. L. McClellan, "Banat." In: H. Weiss (ed.), Archaeology in Syria, AJA, vol. 95, pp. 700–70, 1991
McClellan, T., and A. Porter, "Survey of Excavations at Tell Banat: Funerary Practices", in Archaeology of the Upper Syrian Euphrates, the Tishrin Dam Area, ed. G. Del Olmo Lete and J. -L. Montero. Aula Orientalis-Supplementa, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, pp. 107–61, 1999
[9] Otto, Adelheid and Berthold Einwag, "Three ritual vessels from the Mittani-period temple at Tell Bazi", Stories told around the fountain. Papers offered to Piotr Bieliński on the occasion of his 70th birthday, pp. 503–518, 2019
A. Otto and M. G. Biga, "Thoughts about the Identification of Tall Bazi with Armi of the Ebla Texts", in: P. Matthiae – F. Pinnock – L.Nigro – N. Marchetti (eds.), Proceedings of the 6th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, vol. 1, Wiesbaden, pp. 481–494, 2010
Otto, Adelheid, and Berthold Einwag, "Wettlauf mit der Zeit. Rettungsgrabungen in Tall Bazi", Welt und Umwelt der Bibel 31.1, pp. 64–69, 2004
Adelheid Otto, "Ritual Drinking in Syria: New Insights from the Decorated Terracotta Basin from Tall Bazi and the Funerary Talisman from Ebla: Pearls of the Past. Studies on Near Eastern Art and Archaeology in Honour of Frances Pinnock, hrsg. v. D'Andrea, Marta (marru 8).". IJBF Online: Internationale Jahresbibliographie der Festschriften. Berlin, Boston: K. G. Saur, 2009
Prévalet, Romain, "Étude technique d'une perle en or de Tell Banat (Syrie) et réflexion sur la diffusion des savoirs au IIIe millénaire av. J.-C.", Syria 91, pp. 247–260, 2014
[10] Sang, Li, "Burial practices of the third millennium BCE in the Middle Euphrates Region: an interpretation of funerary rituals", Unpublished PhD. Thesis, Tübingen, 2010
Szeląg, D., "Tell Bazi in der Mittleren Bronzezeit: Die Untersuchungen am Nordhang", MDOG, 144, pp. 133–160, 2012
Wilhelm, S., "Ancestral bones: Early Bronze Age human skeletal remains from Tell Banat, Syria", Baghdader Mitteilungen 37, pp. 359–80, 2006
M. Zarnkow and A. Otto and B. Einwag, "Interdisciplinary Investigations into the Brewing Technology of the Ancient Near East and the Potential of the Cold Mashing Process", in: W. Schiefenhövel and H. Macbeth (Hrsg.), Liquid bread: beer and brewing in cross-cultural perspective, New York – Oxford, pp. 47–54, 2011
