Two Seasons of Excavation at Tell Aqab in the Jezirah, N.E. Syria

The site of Tell Aqab lies six kilometres south of the town of Amuda, in the Jezirah province of north-east Syria. It is one of a large number of early mounds which cluster along the northern edge of the Khabur triangle, an extensive and fertile plain drained by the Khabur River and its eastern tributaries. The rich well-watered soil of the Khabur triangle has attracted human settlement during many periods in the past. Earlier in this century excavations by von Oppenheim (Oppenheim 1931) at Tell Halaf and by Mallowan (Mallowan 1947) at Chagar Bazar and at Tell Brak demonstrated the great archaeological potential of the Khabur headwaters sites. The excavation of Tell Aqab was undertaken by the Department of Archaeology of the University of Edinburgh in order to gain a better understanding of the prehistory of this important area. In particular, the site of Tell Aqab promised to yield a long and well stratified Halaf and Ubaid culture sequence for the Khabur headwaters region.