Tag: Syria

Restoration of the Royal Palace and Excavations at Ancient Qatna, Syria

This obsidian cup with gold accents was found inbetween human skeletal remains in the low vault of the Royal Palace. Photo by Marc Steinmetz, University of Tubingen After more than ten years of excavation and restoration, the ancient well-house at the Royal Palace of Qatna, Syria, has been officially opened to the public. It is the first phase of an ambitious project that will see the entire palace site opened for international tourism.

The ancient city of Qatna is located at Mishrifeh in western Syria, about 18 km north-east of the city of Homs and 200km from the modern-day Syrian capital Damascus. Bronze Age Qatna was strategically located at a the now vanished lake of Mishrifeh. In the 2nd millennium BC, itbecame the capital city of the Syrian kingdom, controlling the trade routes between Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean, and between Anatolia and Egypt.

Around 1650BC, Qatna’s Royal Palace was built. The palace, which served as living quarters and for administrative as well as religious purposes, is believed to have been constructed in less than fifty years. When completed, the monumental complex was more than 150 metres long and 100 metres wide. When the Hittites conquered Syria in 1340 BC, the palace was destroyed.

Slideshow: click theimages for a larger version

Qatna Archaeological Park, AD 2013

More than 3000 years later, archaeologists are ready to show the first results of large-scale restoration project that will create the ‘Qatna Archaeological Park’.

As part of the project, the ruins of the palace’s well-house and the surrounding area were covered by a 20 metres by 28 metres transparent construction. With its unusual deep well and 80-step basalt stairs, the unique well-house is a precious monument of Near Eastern Bronze Age architecture.

The renovation project a collaboration between the universities of Tubingen and Udine (their excellent project website), and Damscus is set to be completed in 2013.

Our generation has a moral responsibility to preserve the archaeological heritage for future generations, said Daniele Morandi Bonacossi from the University of Udine.

Especiallyfor countries rich in cultural heritage and with a booming economy, such as Syria, it is extremely important to establish a strong link between cultural heritage, archaeological resources and sustainable management of tourism in order to ensure the country’s growth, continued the co-director of the archaeological mission at Mishrife.

Archaeological Treasures from Qatna’s Tombs

Parallel with the restoration works, archaeological excavations were carried out at ancient Qatna this summer,focussing on further exposing the second tomb discoveredbeneath the Royal Palace in 2009.

Late summer, some remarkable finds were recovered from the intact not looted burials. Amongst theitems found in the grave chamber were an Egyptian cup of black translucent obsidian, gold bracelets, and neck rings decorates with gemstones including Baltic amber.

More than 100 skeletons were discovered at the cryptso far. Most of the skeletal remains, which likely belong to members from Qatna’s royal family or household, were grouped in wooden boxes. These ‘mass coffins’ were positioned one next to another, and sometimes even stacked.

One of the boxes contained the pelvic bone of a child, encircled by a wide bronze belt. Another held a smaller box, inlaid with ivory. The inlaid tiles decorated the wooden box on three sides and, fastened with bitumen, were still partly in their original positions.They show animal figures such as gazelles, monkeys and lions, a hybrid creature with a lion’s head and aneagle body, as well as humans. The box isa unique exampleofSyrian-Mesopotamian art of the late Middle Bronze Age.

A seal with an inscription of the Egyptian queen mother Ahmes-Nefertari (c. 1560 BC) was added to the artefacts allowing the dating of the tomb, of which the contents are an impressive testament to the close contacts between the Syrian Kingdom of Qatna and Egypt in the middle of the 2nd Millennium BC the Hyksos period and the beginning of the New Kingdom.

Promising Future Excavations

At the official opening ceremony for the well-house, a new excavation license was signed so we may look forward to more fascinating discoveries at Qatna being made in the next five years.

The renewal of the license allows for the excavations at the lower town and the satellite building east to the Royal Palace to continue, but also gives the dig teams access to a large new area at Qatna’s western gate which so far is unexplored and molto promettente.

Qatna’s Royal Palace reveals further archaeological treasures

Qatna 2010 Excavations The ongoing dig at the ancient royal town of Qatna, Syria, has brought some exciting new discoveries to light.

Among the skeletal remains, archaeologists have found precious gold jewellery, gemstones, alabaster vases, detailed ivory artefacts, tiny figurines.

Since the start of this year’s excavation mid-July, a total of 379 artefacts were recorded in the tomb.

The archaeological mission a Syrian-German cooperation between the University of Tubingen and the Syrian governement is further excavating the royal sepulchre that was discovered last year under the northwest wing of Qatna’s royal palace.

Among the burial gifts, a number of Egyptian object are of particular interest.

Seal Ring discovered during the 2010 excvations at Qatna.

The finds reveal that was contact and trade between between the Syrian kingdom of Qatna and the kingdom of the Pharaohs.

They include a hippopotamus of glazed stone with a marshy landscape painted on his body and a tiny orange-red carnelian sphinx.

The archaeologists found many Egyptian alabaster perfume containers, as well as two small, finely crafted, almost transparent vessels made from rock crystal. (Yet, the monkey make-up container remains my favourite.)

Most stunning amongst the jewellery is a golden bangle, decorated with a lapis lazuli seal, and a gold plaque engraved with the ‘three of life’.

These burials are dated to between 1650 and 1550 BC, which is confirmed by the earlier discovery of a seal belonging to an Egyptian Princess.

Besides the burial gifts, the team also found more skeletal remains in the two burial chambers.

The bones were originally stowed together in boxes, which is clear from the traces of decomposed wood found.

Exactly how many persons were buried in the two rooms isn’t known yet, but more than 30 skulls have been discovered so far.

Bones from multiple skeletons and the remains of a wooden coffin (above) and pottery (below). Both photographed by Marc Steinmetz during the Juli-August 2010 excavations in the southern room.

It is likely the remains belong to persons from Qatna’s royal family or household.

Possibly, they were originally entombed in the Palace’s royal crypt (discovered in 2002) and only later reburied in the newly found tomb.

Previous finds from the remains of the royal palace include intact burial chambers and 73 tablets inscribed in a hybrid of Akkadian and Hurrian, likely the original language of what is today Turkey and the Caucasus.

The royal correspondence includes a 3,000-year-old warning from Hittite general Hanutti to the king of Qatna Idanda, telling him to prepare for war.

Qatna is located at the edge of the Syrian desert, towards the fertile Homs-Bassin and the archaeological area is about 1 square kilometre.

The earliest finds at the site date to the mid or late 3rd millennium BC.

During the Middle and Late Bronze Age, Qatna was one of the major kingdoms in Syria and in its heyday, from 1800 to 1600 BC, it was one of the most powerful nations in the East.

The city-state existed continiously from about 2000BC to 1340BC, it was sacked and burned to the ground by the Hittites.

Today still, part of its city walls – which enclosed a square area, unusual for a Bronze Age town – stand and impressive 20 metres high.

A real archaeological puzzle: Germans reassemble ancient sculptures destroyed in WWII

Lion relief tell halaf restored and pre destruction After nine years of shifting through WWII bombing debris, restoration experts have puzzled back together over 30 Aramaean sculptures and reliefs. Watch the slideshow.

When in November 1943 an air raid on Berlin destroyed the Tell Halaf Museum and its contents, it was thought one of Germany’s most important Near Eastern collections was lost forever. A year later more than 27,000 fragments were recovered from the museum’s ruins and taken to the cellars of the Pergamon Museum for storage. Luckily, archaeologists never throw something away. Restoration of the 3000-year-old sculptures and bas-reliefs eventually started in 2001. Now, after almost a decade, the team is near finished and over 30 Aramaean artefacts are ready to go on display again.

The Ancient City of Tell Halaf

Tell Halaf, in the Syrian desert, was discovered by Max von Oppenheim in 1899, but he did not start excavating until 1911. From 1911 to 1913 and after the First World War, from 1927 to 1929, the mission unearthed a citadel containing two palaces, an inner and outer city wall, gate complexes, several tombs and the so-called ‘cult-room’.

It would be great, if the individual pieces could be brought to the Staatlichen Museen, to be reassembled later. – Max von Oppenheim, 1944

The ancient settlement is dated to the second millennium BC, when after the fall of the Hittite empire, Aramaean tribes crossed the Euphrates and moved into northern Syria, founding small independent Kingdoms.Tell Halaf became the city-stateof Guzana, or Gozan.

Inscriptions found by Oppenheim at Tell Halaf say the Western Palace was constructed by Aramaean ruler Kapara, of the house of Bachiani, probably around the 9th century BC.

Yet, the site was inhabited even earlier. Oppenheim’s team discovered painted pottery, now dated to the sixth and fifth millennium BC.

New excavations at the archaeological site started in 2006.

Click images for a larger version

The Tell Halaf Museum

Oppenheim brought many of the artefacts to Berlin. Yet, the Berlin Royal Museums could not afford purchasing them and the Aramaean treasures were not housed in the Pergamon Museum as originally planned. Instead, they got their own dedicated museum, a converted machine shop in Berlin-Charlotteburg.

The Tell Halaf Museum opened in 1930 and its monumental reconstruction of the Western Palace’s faade was the focus of national and international attention at the time.

World War IIDestruction

In 1943, the museum was hit by a World War IIphosphor bomb, triggering a huge fire. The blaze destroyed all wooden and limestone artefacts, as well as the plaster casts.

The basalt rock statues and bas-reliefs withstood the scorching heat, but not the temperature shock caused by the cold water used in an attempt to extinguish the fire. The surviving Aramaean artefacts shattered in thousand pieces.

Oppenheim did not give up, and envisioned a rescue attempt. It would of course be truly wonderful if the smashed fragments of the stone images could somehow be gathered together and brought to the Staatlichen Museen and reassembled at a later date, Oppenheim requested in 1944.

So it happened. Nine truckloads of debris were gathered and taken to the Pergamon Museum for storage.

Restoring and Reassembling

Only after the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification, the Cologne-based Oppenheim Foundation got access to the Tell Halaf fragments, kept in wire baskets on pallets in the museum’s basement. A first survey in 1933 raised the hopes that restoration of at least a few pieces such asthe two large lions from the entrance to the West Palace, the head of a sphinx and the torso of a big bird would be possible. Negotiations between the Max Baron von Oppenheim Foundation, owner of the valuable debris, and the Foundation of Prussian Cultural Heritage commenced.

In 2001, the basalt fragments were brought to their sorting hall, and the tedious reassembly and restoration work started. About 27,000 fragments were spread out on more than 200 wooden palettes, and the pieces that could be identified separated.

Almost ten years later, archaeologists and restorers have reassembled more than 90% of the archaeological collection, with only about 2,000 unidentified fragments left.

After 68 Years, On Display Again

Starting next year, 68 years after their destruction, the restored treasures will again be shown to the public, in an exhibition that willrival the dislay of the Armanaean collection at the Aleppo Museum. A specially designed lighting concept will help present the monumental sculptures and relief panels in their original glory – without covering up their scars and wounds. Accompanying theartefacts will be information on the restoration process, as well as original film footageand photographs from Max von Oppenheim’s excavations.Alongside the now completed restoration project, the excavations that recommenced at Tell Halaf in 2006 will also be presented to the public in the exhibition.

From January 28 to August 14 2011, the artefacts will be shown in the North Wing of thethe Pergamon Museum, in ‘Die geretteten Gtter aus dem Palast vom Tell Halaf‘,after whichthe artefacts will be integrated into the new entrance to the museum’s Near East department.

Syria’s Stonehenge: Neolithic Stone Circles, Alignments and Possible Tombs Discovered

For Dr. Robert Mason, an archaeologist with the Royal Ontario Museum, it all began with a walk last summer. Mason conducts work at the Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi monastery, out in the Syrian Desert. Its still in use today by monks. The finds at the monastery date mainly to the medieval period and include some beautiful frescoes.

I went for a walk into the eastern perimeter, he said – an area that hasnt been explored by archaeologists.What he discovered is an ancient landscape of stone circles, stone alignments and what appear to be corbelled roof tombs. From stone tools found at the site, its likely that the features date to some point in the Middle Easts Neolithic Period a broad stretch of time between roughly 8500 BC 4300 BC.

In Western Europe megalithic construction involving the use of stone has been dated to as early as ca. 4500 BC. This means that the Syrian site could well be older than anything seen in Europe.

Tombs, stone circles, stone alignments and I was standing up there thinking oh dear me Ive wandered onto Salisbury Plain, Mason told the audience at a recent colloquium in Toronto Canada.

At the southern end of the landscape there are three of these apparent tombs. They are about eight meters in diameter and each of them actually has a chamber in the middle. The roof is corbelled which suggests that beneath them is something you would want to seal in. Each of these corbelled structures had a stone circle beside it, which is about two meters in diameter.

Dr. Mason cautioned that the team did not have the chance to do more than survey the area, so its still possible that these corbelled structures could have a purpose other than burial. More work also needs to be done to get a precise date of construction.

Must Have Monk

Dr. Mason set out to look for more stone circles and chambered structures. This time he brought a monk with him, from the monastery a good idea, since he was near a Syrian military base.

Lurking around in the hills above a Syrian military base with a digital camera in one hand and a GPS unit in the other is the sort of thing that makes you want to have a monk in your presence, he said.

The two of them went to a rock outcrop a place that would have been a good source of flint in ancient times. He found the remains of more of these corbelled structures between six and eight of them. In the valley below they found another corbelled structure with a stone circle right beside it.

The monk who travelled with him sensed that this high outcrop would have been of great importance to the people who lived here. This is a high place he told Mason, something which their next find would justify.

As Mason gazed at the landscape, from the height of the outcrop, he saw stone lines, also known as alignments, going off in different directions.

Now, these are not natural features. Mason has a geology background and actually teaches University of Toronto archaeology students how to analyze archaeological remains. I know what rocks look like, where they belong – these rocks dont belong in that.

One of stone lines was very bizarre, snaking its way up a hill. Mason followed the line and found that it led to the biggest complex of tombs of all.

This particular stone structure has three chambers and was probably the burial place for the most important person. Again Dr. Mason cant confirm for sure that this was used a tomb, until further archaeological work takes place.

The lithics the team found in the landscape are also quite unusual they dont seem to be made from local material. Mason said that local flint is white or dark red. But the material they found is very good quality brown chert.

What is This Landscape?

The Neolithic period is a time period when people in the Middle East were beginning to grow crops and adopt farming. They didnt live in settlements larger than a village. There were no cities in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world.

Professor Edward Banning is a University of Toronto anthropology professor and Neolithic period expert, and has done extensive fieldwork in the Middle East, including Jordan. He said that we need to be careful about drawing conclusions before more fieldwork is done.

Virtually all the burials that archaeologists have ever discovered from Neolithic sites in that part of the world come from inside settlements in fact even below floors and houses, he said. If the corbelled structures are confirmed as burial structures, then this site will represent something new.

Its possible that this landscape that Dr. Mason has identified could be an example of off-site burial practices in the Neolithic which would be very interesting.

This would help settle a mystery that archaeologists have long faced. Banning said that while burials have been found in Neolithic settlements, Those burials are not high enough in number to account for the number of people who must have died in those settlements. So a number of us for many years have assumed that there must have been off-site mortuary practices of some kind.

An Early Stonehenge?

Dr. Mason has an idea that goes a step further. He says that this site sounds like Western Europe and he wonders if this could be an early example of the stone landscapes seen at places like Stonehenge.

Dr. Julian Siggers of the Royal Ontario Museum, another Neolithic specialist, pointed out that it has been argued that agriculture spread from the Near East to Europe. This find creates a question – could these stone landscapes have gone with them?

We’ve found something that’s never been found in the Middle East before.

Its, such an important hypothesis if its right that its worth telling people about now, said Mason. Weve found something thats never been found in the Middle East before.

Professor Banning is sceptical about this idea. He said that stone structures are found throughout the world, indeed structures called dolmens are found in East Asia. He said people in Western Europe could have developed the techniques independently of the people who built the landscape near the Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi monastery.

You dont necessarily have to have a connection there, he said.

Banning also said that Masons site may not be entirely unique in the Middle East. He said that archaeologists have detected, via satellite photos, what appear to be cairns and stone circles in other parts of the Near East, including the deserts of Jordan and Israel. However, most of these things have not received a lot of archaeological investigation.

That situation is about to change. Dr. Mason plans to return to the Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi site this summer with a team of Neolithic experts. This means that well likely be hearing more about stone circles, alignments and cairns, in the Middle East, in the years to come.

Archaeology Research Day hits Toronto this Friday

This Friday promises a feast for archaeology lovers in the Toronto area. The Archaeology Centre, at the University of Toronto, is holding Archaeology Research Day. It takes place from 10 am to 4 pm at Koffler House, 569 Spadina Ave., Room 108.

Fifteen presentations will be given on archaeology research happening all around the world. Its a free event and theres no registration. If youre interested in research involving ancient times, you will not be disappointed. Much of the research that is going to be presented dates to that era. Here are some of the highlights:

News From Syria

This is going to sound annoyingly vague, but the research find made by Dr. Robert Mason in Syria, which will be discussed at this event, is very important. I have a major story on this find that has been ready to go for nearly two weeks now. Unfortunately the researchers havent sent me the relevant photos yet and I dont want to publish this story without them. I hope to have a full report before the Friday presentation photos allowing, so please stay tuned for now.

Kingdom of Dian

Professor Alice Yao is a new member of the University of Toronto faculty. Her research looks at the expansion of the Chinese state during the time of the Han Dynasty (206 BC AD 220). Currently she is surveying southwest China, investigating a kingdom called ‘Dian’ that existed before the Han took over the region.

3D Reconstructions

There will be a chance to find out about the technology behind the latest virtual reconstructions when Jennifer Campbell discusses her 3D modelling work as part of the Caravanserai Networks Project. This project aims to analyze the trade routes that criss-crossed northwest Pakistan in Islamic times. Theyve conducted field research in Peshawar in the past.

Latest From Tayinat

Professor Tim Harrisons research at Tayinat has made plenty of headlines over the past year. Check out Heritage Keys in-depth interview with him.

Schedule (courtesy – Uof T Archaeology Centre)

10:00-10:15 Welcome
10:15-10:30 Genevieve Dewar: Adaptations to marginal environments in the Middle Stone Age
10:30-10:45 Jill Hilditch: Talking pots and white dots: island interactions in the Middle Bronze Age Aegean
10:45-11:00 Amy Barron: Assyrian Weapons of the First Millennium BCE
11:00-11:15 Break
11:15-11:30 Sally Stewart: Mastering the unknown: How early settlers in Cyprus mapped new landscapes and key resources
11:30-11:40 Sarah Finkelstein: Paleoclimate records from the Canadian Arctic
11:45-12:00 Ingrid Hehmeyer: Current fieldwork in Yemen: Water and waste in the medieval Islamic city
12:00-12:15 Victor Ostapchuk: Historical Archaeology at Akkerman Fortress (Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky, Ukraine)
12:15-1:30 Lunch
1:30-1:45 Joe Deloges: River (In)Stability and Middle-to-Late Holocene Floodplain Occupation in Southern Ontario
1:45-2:00 Alice Yao: Shellmounds and Imperial Cities: Archaeological Survey in Southwestern Yunnan, China
2:00-2:15 Jennifer Campbell: Three Dimensional Modeling, Architectural Analysis, and the Caravanserai Networks Project
2:15-2:30 Catherine Duff: Egyptian Imperialism in the Central Hill Country: Ceramic Continuity and Change
2:30-2:45 Break
2:45-3:00 Chris Watts: Keeping Animals in Mind: Personhood and Relationality in Iroquoian Animal Effigy Pipes
3:00-3:15 Ramez Boutros: Excavating the Monastery of Saint Apollo, Bawit, Middle Egypt
3:15-3:30 Robert Mason: An Enigmatic Arrangement of Rocks in the Syrian Desert
3:30 3:45 Tim Harrison: Tablets, Temples, and Assyrian Imperialism at Tell Tayinat
3:45-4:00 Final Remarks

Daily Flickr Finds: Robinho’s Apamea, Syria

Black and White photography is an artform unto itself – it’s so much more than just clicking “Greyscale” in Photoshop, which will oftentimes just give a bland result. Several adjustments and the right lighting is required to make a black and white image work, and in Robinho’s image of Roman ruins in Apamea, Syria we see a fantastic, dramatic shot.

The city of Apamea was adjacent to the Orontes River as served as a treasure city of the Seleucid. It was annexed and formed part of the Roman Empire from 64BC, and it is from the Roman era that many of the remains emanate from today. The city also served as a cross point from travellers heading to the East, and many distinguished figures stopped there, including Cleopatra, Septimus Severus and the Emperor Caracalla.

Robinho’s beautiful image of the Cardo Maximus is a stunning feature in itself – a road of 1.85 kilometres long, and 87 metres wide, the length was flanked by high walls and twisted-flute columns. On both sides of this thoroughfare would have been several civil buildings and monuments.

You can learn more about Apamea here at Heritage Key, as well as our Top 10 ancient sites in Syria and be sure to take a look at Robinho’s Flickrstream!

The Museum of Islamic Art, Doha: The Jewel in Qatar’s Crown

The Arabian peninsula has been suffering recently. Yemen has been accused of harbouring terrorists by the West, and the gargantuan Burj Tower in Dubai was unveiled last week amid a haze of economic uncertainty. Yettiny Qatar, an outcropwith a population barely toppingone million,continues to buck its diminutive stature with world-beating business and heady ambitions. And the Museum of Islamic Art in capital city Doha may just be Qatar’s most impressive structure. In this Heritage Key video, Museum Director Dr Oliver Watson shows us some of the treasures of the museum, and explains the far-reaching importance of Islamic art.

The striking museum, based on the Ahmed Ibn Tulun Mosque in Cairo, rises magnificently from Doha’s shimmering harbour. It has an Islamic art collection to rival any in the world, a fact not lost onits British director: “To have the chance to serve in a brand new museum, a brand new building of this importance and this splendour with a collection of this quality is something that very few people have the opportunity (to do) in a lifetime.”

“Qatar is able to present a piece of world-class architecture containing a world-class collection.”

Chinese-American architectural legend I.M. Pei has created an environment both fiercely modern, and yet true to its Arab ancestry. Dr Wilson shows us around the starkly-lit displays and exhibition rooms which have already made the museum a fixture on the world culture circuit. “The mission of the museum here is to show the achievements of Islamic civilisation, Islamic culture, through great works of art,” he says.

The museum, which only opened in December 2008, began when the Qatari royal family acquired a small yet impressive collection that continues to grow today. It’s a collection of”extraordinary quality,”claims Dr Watson, who shows us two of the museum’s highlights. First up is a pair of ‘Albarelli’ decorated containers. Though the design is thought to be Italian, Dr Wilson stresses theireastern origins. “These pieces are very interesting because they illustrate the global reach of Islamic culture” he says.

The second artefact is a bottle made from dark blue glass with gold and enamel decoration. Originally from Syria, it also represents the spreading west of Islamic culture in its Romanesque construction. “This represents one of the very high points in Islamic glass-making,” says Dr Watson.

As with most modern Arab institutions, the Museum of Islamic Art’s importance and collection is growing at a staggering pace. “This whole project is driven by the Emir and Sheikha Mozahwho had the original vision for this,” says Dr Watson. “(They) started the original collection, and then the choice of the architect (Pei, aged 91 at the time, was coaxed out of retirement for the project) and the setting up of the Qatar Museums Authorityhas all come from the very top.

“And it’s thanks to their vision and support for this that Qatar is able to present a piece of world-class architecture containing a world-class collection.” Saudi may suffer from its insularity and the UAE may be sinking under the weight of empty islands and mile-high towers,but Qatar’s prosperitycontinues to grow,withthe Museum of Islamic Artset to reap many more benefits in the future.

HD Video: Dr Oliver Watson on Islamic Culture and Heritage at Doha’s Art Museum, Qatar

(Read the transcript by clicking here)

Have you been to the museum? Let us know what you think, either , our contact page or by emailing me direct. You can also watch dozens of other great videos right here at Heritage Key -from the Treasures of King Tutto the Greatest Cities in History. Heritage Key – Unlock the Wonders.

Dam Floods Threaten Radar-Revealed Lost Syrian City

An ancient Mesopotamian city discovered recently in Syria could be lost forever, experts fear. The circular city, dating back 4,500 years in the enclave of Tall Qabr, was found using cutting edge geo-laser technology. Its location along the Euphrates River means it may hold the key to boundaries between the Mari Kingdom and its southern Babylonian neighbours, in modern Iraq.

Yet the city may be lost forever, thanks to flooding from a modern dam. Its Spanish discoverers, from the universities of Coruna and Vigo, have hastily prepared a report for UNESCO in the hope that it can send scores of archaeologists to dig up the city before disaster strikes. The city could even make it onto UNESCO’s 31-strong list (controversially missing Kashgar) of world heritage sites in danger, which already includes Samarra in Iraq, and Israel’s holy city of Jerusalem.

The team are hoping UNESCO can act before disaster strikes

The danger is a sour note on what has been an successful project so far, for a 20-strong team led by Jean Luis Montero. The group has worked since 2008 in the area, known as the Hill of the Tomb, alongside the Syrian government. And thanks to groundbreaking geo-lasers, which can sniff out sites without having to break ground, Montero believes the team has found a site which will change Mesopotamian history.

The city’s circular plan is its most significant feature, singling it out from established cities in the area such as Mari. A fort was also unearthed, built around a thousand years after the initial layout.

Montero, who will announce his team’s breakthrough later this month in Madrid, has likened the well-preserved state of the city to that of doomed Roman metropolis Pompeii, which was frozen in time when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD.

Montero’s team are hoping the city can reveal more about a time in Middle Eastern past notably devoid in written history. The Kingdom of Mari was inhabited from the 5th millennium BC, yet flourished three thousand years later. It met an abrupt end in 1759 BC, however, when it was sacked by legendary Babylonian King Hammurabi.

Sadly, the city is just one of many Mesopotamian treasures to face destruction in recent years. Thanks to ongoing conflict in Iraq, much of Babylon’s ruins have been destroyed – with many placing blame on the US Army. Likewise, Baghdad Museum has been ravaged by looting and insurgency. Artefacts dating back to the beginnings of civilization have been found as far afield as The Netherlands and Japan, as the region desperately tries to claw back its amazing heritage. Montero and his team will be hoping their fledgling find is not the latest to suffer at the hands of modern man.

Archaeologists Find Bronze Age Crypt Under the Royal Palace of Qatna in Syria

Royal Palace Qatna - Skull The archaeological excavations at the royal palace in the ancient city of Qatna, north east of the Syrian city of Homs, have once again unfolded a remarkable archaeological discovery. The summer excavations, due to end on the 25th September 2009, located a rock tomb-cellar underneath the palace containing hundreds of artefacts as well as human bones from the period 1600-1400 BC.

Qatna was one of the most important kingships during Syria’s Bronze Age. It reached the height of its prosperity between 1800 and 1600 BC (Middle Bronze Age) and was then among one of the most powerful states in the Orient. Its royal dynasty continued until its destruction by the Hittites in 1340 BC.

The recent excavations – led by the German-Syrian team of Dr. Michel al-Maqdissi, Director of Excavations at the Directorate General of Antiquities in Damascus, and Professor Dr. Peter Pflzner from the University of Tbingen – give us a wealth of new information about the death cult of the kingship of Qatna, its artistic excellence and its relationships to other Old Orient powers 3500 years ago, by brining to light the existence of an unexpected second underground tomb-cellar.

Qatna - Monkey with a holder for royal facial paint

The Bronze Age Royal Crypt

The discovery of the rock-cut tomb was made during excavations of the north-west wing of the the Royal Palace at Qatna. They German-Syrian archaeologists located a “slope basement” below ground floor level, its walls almost completely intact. A chamber bearing a collapsed timber roof, acting as an antechamber to the tomb-cellar, exists beneath the basement. A stone rock-cut leads from here into the spacious cellar itself. It is 4.90 by 6.30 metres large and is divided into two chambers by a wall hollowed out of the rock. The cellar is accessible from the palace and is integrated architecturally into its whole structure. Its use can be verified back to the later period of the palace in 1400 BC.

Ancient Sticks &Bones

A huge number of clearly visible human bones has been found in the tomb-cellar. The discovery of 30 skulls suggests at least the same amount of burials. The fact that the bones are stacked in groups rather than lying in anatomical formation is significant here. Particles of wood found suggest that at least some of them were placed in wooden crates or coffins indicating a secondary burial.

The amount of bones – in good condition under the circumstances – found is immense and significantly surpasses previous findings. Anthropologists Dr. Carsten Witzel and Dr. Stefan Flohr from the University of Hildesheim are carrying out an intricate examination of these human remains on site.

Artifacts imported from the Old Kingdom Egypt

Numerous vessels of ceramic and granite have been found. The latter are Egyptian imports whose production in the Old Egyptian Kingdom dates to a period 1000 years prior to the existence of the rock-cut tomb. Furthermore, the archaeologists discovered alabaster vessels which might also stem from Egypt. In one of these a collection of gold jewellery was found consisting of rings, rosettes and gold foils. In other parts of the tomb, chased gold foils possibly used for textile or furniture decorative purposes have been uncovered.

Excavations at the Royal Palace at Qatna Syria

Egyptian influence at Qatna was already agreed upon earlier, as in previous excavations a 12th Dynasty Egyptian sphinx belonging to Princess Ita, daughter of Amenemhat II was found within the debris of Late Bronze Age Royal Palace.

Notable among the bronze artefacts found by the German-Syrian team is a heavy spearhead and a dress pin. A further finely crafted dress pin made from gold, a cylinder seal made from lapis lazuli as well as a seal in the shape of a scarab complement the inventory of artefacts found.

Of particular interest due to its fine craftsmanship and beauty is a stone sculpture of a monkey holding a vessel used to hold facial paint. Of great interest from the perspective of art history is the discovery of an ivory human statuette with a very finely carved face.

The identification of those buried in the tomb-cellar is now the task facing researchers, but the lack of inscriptions makes this difficult. Most probably the remains stem from members of the royal family or royal household of Qatna. However it is also possible that the remains originate from earlier royal burials placed in the cellar at a later point of time.

An exhibition entitled “Treasures of Ancient Syria – The Discovery of the Kingdom of Qatna” will be hosted from 17th October 2009 until 14th March 2010 in the Landesmuseum Wrttemberg in Stuttgart, Germany.

Mass Cemetery in Syria was cut Into Rockface

A mass ancient cemetery, seven rooms large and revealing a number of human bodies, has been discovered dug into rocks near the city of Tartus in western Syria, archaeologists from the Syrian Department of Antiquities have reported. One of the rooms contained a large basalt sarcophagus, with a human face engraved on it. Other small items located have included vessels, two small golden pieces and a clay lamp.

The sarcophagus is a large, human-shaped basin with a lid and a protruding shelf all around the edges (see here for a picture of it). Details of the face such as sunken lines in the forehead suggests the coffin was for a male of old age, with almond eyes, a long nose and neatly manicured facial hair. The body is undecorated. The artefact has been transported to the Syrian National Museum for further study. Another solo tomb was additionally found 23 metres to the northeast of the cemetery which is located near the Tartuss al-Basel Hospital carved into limestone rocks. It revealed three heavily degraded human skulls, some clay jars and some bronze and gold jewelry.

Details of the face such as sunken lines in the forehead suggests the coffin was for a male of old age, with almond eyes, a long nose and neatly manicured facial hair.

Founded as the Phoenician colony of Antarudus, Tartus has a history stretching back to the 2nd millennium BC. It was linked to two larger and more important nearby settlements, the island-city of Arwad (for which Antarudus acted as a mainland base) and the temple city of Amrit. Not much remains of Phoenician Antarudus, which was later occupied by the Greco-Romans, the Byzantines, the Crusaders, the Muslims and the Ottomans.