Third Millennium BC Cities in the arid zone of inner Syria: Settlement Landscape, Material Culture and Interregional Interactions

Corinne Castel (1) , Georges Mouamar (1)

1 Archéorient - ARCHEORIENT - Environnements et sociétés de l'Orient ancien

The recent discovery and excavations of the mid/late third millennium BC cities of Tell Al-Rawda and Tell Shʻaīrat, and the surveys conducted around unexpectedly highlighted the arid zone of inner Syria, to the north of Palmyra (in the so called “Shamiyeh region”). In this article, the co-authors, who are also respectively co-directors of the two archaeological Expeditions, show that Tell Al-Rawda and Tell Shʻaīrat have a common regular and geometric urban fabric which indicate the cities are pre-planned “new cities”. This reveals the discovery of an urban model, also recognized in northern Syria and largely diffused in the steppe land. Both sites appear as key-sites to understand the dynamic of the urbanization of Syria. They certainly illustrate indeed the birth of a precocious territorial state, possibly connected to the “Very Long Wall” , onto the desert margins of Syria in a context of territorial conquest. This event took place around 2500 BC, before the construction of Palace G of Ebla. They also offer a comparison between different items of the material culture of the two sites.

Mots clés: Ancient Orient; Early Bronze Age Syria; Tell Al-Rawda; Tell Sh'airat; Urbanisation/urbanization; First Cities; Urbanism

Domaines: Archéologie et Préhistoire; Architecture, aménagement de l'espace; Art et histoire de l'art

Corinne Castel, Georges Mouamar. Third Millennium BC Cities in the arid zone of inner Syria: Settlement Landscape, Material Culture and Interregional Interactions. Proceedings of the 10th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, held in Vienna 5th-29th April 2016, Apr 2016, Vienne, Austria. pp.137-147. ⟨halshs-02131701⟩