Tell Barri
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Tell Barri is an ancient site in north-eastern Syria. In ancient times it was called Kahat. It is situated by the river Jaghiagh, a tributary of the Habur river.
[edit] Early history of Tell Barri
The earliest culture discovered at Tell Barri belonged to the Halaf culture. Barri was situated in the fertile crescent and could benefit from winter rains as well as the river water. This developed the early agriculture of the area. The site of Tell Barri was inhabited since the fourth millennium BC. By the middle of the third millennium BC Barri came under Akkadian cultural influence. The main cultural centre at Tell Brak was only a short distance away.
[edit] The town of Kahat
By the eightteenth century BC the town now called Kahat is attested from the palace archives of Mari. Kahat seems to have been ruled by semi-independent princes. The town then came under the rule of the Old Assyrian kingdom whose capital Shubat-Enlil was founded east of Kahat. The town emerged as a religious centre when the Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni established itself in the region by the fifteenth century BC. The temple to the Storm god Teshub in Kahat is specifically mentioned in the Shattiwaza treaty of the fourteenth century BC. Shortly afterwards the town fell into the hands of the Assyrians. In the Neo-Assyrian period a palace was built by the Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta II (891-884 BC) in Kahat. The town lived on after the end of the Assyrian empire in the seventh century BC. Babylonians, Persians, Seleucids, Romans, and Parthians left their trace. The site was inhabited into the Arab period.
[edit] Discovery
In 1980 excavatins began by a team of Italian archaeologists led by Paolo Emilio Pecorella and Mirjo Salvini. The height of town mound is 32 meters, or 100 feet, and its size 37 hectares, nearly 100 acres. The town was walled in the second millennium BC and in the centre laid an acropolis. Tombs were also found at the site. Much ceramics was discovered which has helped the archaeologists determine the different strata of occupation of the mound. Artefacts from Tell Barri have been taken to the museum of Aleppo.
