Til Barsip

Til Barsip
تل أحمر
Shown within Syria
Alternate name Tell Ahmar
Location Syria
Region Aleppo Governorate
Coordinates 36°40′26″N 38°07′16″E / 36.674°N 38.121°E / 36.674; 38.121
Type Settlement
Area 50 hectares (120 acres)
History
Periods Assyrian
Site notes
Condition Ruins
Management Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums
Public access Yes
Tell Ahmar Across the Euphrates. 1910.

Til Barsip or Til Barsib (Hittite Masuwari,[1] modern Tell Ahmar; Arabic: تل أحمر‎‎) is an ancient site situated in Aleppo Governorate, Syria by the Euphrates river about 20 kilometers south of ancient Carchemish.

History

The site was inhabited as early as the Neolithic period, but it is the remains of the Iron Age city which is the most important settlement at Tell Ahmar. It was known in Hittite as Masuwari.[1][2] The city remained largely Neo-Hittite up to its conquest by the Neo-Assyrian Empire in the 856 BC and the Luwian language was used even after that.[3][4] Til Barsip was in the area of the Aramean-speaking Syro-Hittite state of Bît Adini. After being captured by the Assyrians the city was then renamed as Kar-Šulmānu-ašarēdu, after the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III, though its original name continued in use. It became a prominent center for the Assyrian administration of the region due to its strategic location at a crossing of the Euphrates river.

Archaeology

The Ahmar/Qubbah stele, discovered in the Euphrates just downriver from the site of Til Barsip

The tell was first examined by David George Hogarth, who proposed the identification as Til Barsip.[5] The site was visited in 1909 by Gertrude Lowthian Bell who also took squeezes from some of the inscriptions there.[6][7] The site of Tell Ahmar was excavated by the French archaeologist François Thureau-Dangin from 1929 to 1931.[8] He uncovered the Iron Age city and an Early Bronze Age hypogeum burial with a large amount of pottery. Three important steles were also discovered at the site. These record how the 8th century BC Aramean king Bar Ga'yah, who may be identical with the Assyrian governor Shamshi-ilu, made a treaty with the city of Arpad. Recent excavations at Tell Ahmar were conducted by Guy Bunnens from the University of Melbourne in the late 1980s and through to the present.[9][10][11][12] Many ivory carvings of outstanding quality were discovered and these were published in 1997. Current excavations are under the auspices of the University of Liège, Belgium.[13]

Ahmar/Qubbah stele

Among the early Iron Age monuments discovered in the area was a particularly well-preserved stele known as the Ahmar/Qubbah stele, inscribed in Luwian,[11] which commemorates a military campaign by king Hamiyatas of Masuwari around 900 BC. The stele also attests to the continued cult of the deity 'Tarhunzas of the Army', whom Hamiyatas is thought to have linked with Tarhunzas of Heaven and with the Storm-God of Aleppo.[14] This stele also indicates that the first king of Masuwari was named Hapatila, which may represent an old Hurrian name Hepa-tilla.

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 Hawkins, John D. Inscriptions of the Iron Age. Retrieved 7 Dec. 2010.
  2. ↑ J. D. Hawkins, The Hittite Name of Til Barsip: Evidence from a New Hieroglyphic Fragment from Tell Ahmar, Anatolian Studies, vol. 33, Special Number in Honour of the Seventy-Fifth Birthday of Dr. Richard Barnett, pp. 131-136, 1983
  3. ↑ J. D. Hawkins, The "Autobiography of Ariyahinas's Son": An Edition of the Hieroglyphic Luwian Stelae Tell Ahmar 1 and Aleppo 2, Anatolian Studies, vol. 30, Special Number in Honour of the Seventieth Birthday of Professor O. R. Gurney, pp. 139-156, 1980
  4. ↑ Fred C. Woudhuizen, The Recently Discovered Luwian Hieroglyphic Inscription from Tell Ahmar, Ancient West & East, vol. 9, pp. 1-19, 2010
  5. ↑ D. G. Hogarth, Recent Hittite Research, The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 39, pp. 408-415, 1909
  6. ↑ Gertrude Lowthian Bell, The East Bank of the Euphrates from Tel Ahmar to Hit, The Geographical Journal, vol. 36, no. 5, pp. 513-537, 1910
  7. ↑ Gertrude Lowthian Bell, Amurath to Amurath, W. Heinemann, 1911
  8. ↑ François Thureau-Dangin, Tell-Ahmar, Syria, vol. 10, iss. 10-3, pp. 185-205, 1929
  9. ↑ Guy Bunnens, Tell Ahmar, 1988 Season, Ancient Near Eastern Studies Supplement Series, vol. 2, Peeters, 1990, ISBN 978-90-6831-322-2
  10. ↑ Guy Bunnens, Melbourne University Excavations at Tell Ahmar on the Euphrates. Short Report on the 1989-1992 Seasons, Akkadica, no. 79-80, pp. 1-13, 1992
  11. 1 2 Bunnens, Guy; Hawkins, J.D.; Leirens, I. (2006). A New Luwian Stele and the Cult of the Storm-God at Til Barsib-Masuwari. Tell Ahmar II. Leuven: Publications de la Mission archéologique de l'Université de Liège en Syrie, Peeters. ISBN 978-90-429-1817-7.
  12. ↑ A. Jamieson, Tell Ahmar III. Neo-Assyrian Pottery from Area C, Ancient Near Eastern Studies Supplement Series, vol. 35, Peeters, 2011, ISBN 978-90-429-2364-5
  13. ↑ Guy Bunnens, Tell Ahmar / Til Barsib, The Fourteenth and Fifteenth seasons (2001/2002), Orient Express, pp. 40-43, 2003
  14. ↑ Bunnens, Guy (2006). "Religious Context". A New Luwian Stele and the Cult of the Storm-God at Til Barsib-Masuwari. Tell Ahmar II. Leuven: Publications de la Mission archéologique de l'Université de Liège en Syrie, Peeters. pp. 76–81. ISBN 978-90-429-1817-7.

References

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