<< Our Photo Pages >> Tell Halaf - Ancient Village or Settlement in Syria
Submitted by AlexHunger on Tuesday, 21 November 2006 Page Views: 16661
Multi-periodSite Name: Tell Halaf Alternative Name: Tall Halaf, Guzana, GosanCountry: Syria
NOTE: This site is 44.436 km away from the location you searched for.
Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: Al Qamishli Nearest Village: R'as al 'Ayn
Latitude: 36.822809N Longitude: 40.041151E
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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Ancient Village or Settlement in Syria
Tell Halaf is an archaeological site that dates back to the 6th millennium BCE in the Al Hasakah governorate in northeastern Syria in the fertile Khabur river valley (Nahr al Khabur), near the Turkish border. It was the first find of a Neolithic culture, subsequently dubbed the Halafian culture, characterized by glazed pottery painted with geometric and animal designs.
The Halaf people made female figurines of partially baked clay and stone and stamp stone seals. The seals are thought to mark the development of concepts of personal property. The Halafians used stone and clay tools and knew of Copper but did not use it for tools. Halafian structures were constructed of mud-bricks, sometimes on stone foundations and may had ritual use due to a large number of female figurines found. The tholoi of Arpachiyah had a circular domed structures approached through long rectangular anterooms.
The Halaf culture developed from the Neolithic in a linear fashion until about 5300 BCE. The Halafian culture was then replaced in northern Mesopotamia by the Ubaid culture. The site was then abandoned for a long period. In the 10th century BCE, the site became the capital of the Aramaean Guzana city-state. King Kapara built the Hilani palace in a Neo Hittite style with statues and relief orthostats.
From 894 BCE, the site became tributary to the Assyrians and was reduced in 808 BCE to a Assyrian province. The governor's palace was in the eastern part of the citadel mound. An Assyrian style temple in was discovered in the lower town. Guzana remained inhabited until Roman-Parthian Period.
Tell Halaf was rediscovered in 1899 by Baron Max von Oppenheim, a German diplomat and Banking heir, while he was surveying the area to build the Baghdad Railway. He excavated the site between 1911 and 1913 and then again 1929. Von Oppenheim displayed many of the found artefacts in his private Berlin Tell Halaf museum, which was unfortunately bombed to near oblivion in WWII. The fragments of the artefacts found again under the rubble are now being restored by the Berlin Pergamom museum. This project is scheduled to be finalised in 2008 and displayed in 2010. The site is also currently being excavated again with German suport.
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