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Uncovering
5,000
Years of History
S
OME
of the most
significant con–
tributions to
knowledge are being
made today through
archaeology.
And the most
spec–
tacular new frontier in
archaeology líes in
modero Syria.
We take our readers in
this eye-opening report to
the middle Euphrates val–
ley. Here, in a region
once bypassed by the
Industrial Revolution,
new paved highways are
linking inner Syria's ma–
jar cities, electricity is
brighteni n g
vi ll age
bornes, and utility
trenc hes cut through
5,000 years of buried his–
tory!
picked up at the site in
191 O by the German
scholar Hertzfeld. To take
our readers on a journey
into the past at this
intriguing site, we have
asked the Director of the
Joint Expedition to Terqa,
Professor Giorgio Buccel–
lati of the University of
California at Los Angeles,
to continue this report:
Little wonder the Di–
rectorate General of
Antiquities and Museums
of the Syrian Arab Re–
public is concerned about
uncovering and preserv–
ing this treasure trove of
new discoveries.
Salvage archaeology plays an important role in recovering
Syria's past. At the site of modero Asbara, ancient Terqa,
utility trencbes, cut deep into tbe tell, were kept open
THERE
are no prehistoric
remains in evidence any–
where at Terqa; we begin
with a full-blown city.
There is, however, a si te in
the vicinity of Terqa that
preserves the evidence of
the immediate prolog,
which must necessarily
have preceded the estab–
lishment of the city.
Qraya is the first mound
you encounter north of
Terqa, sorne
5
kilometers
upstream the Euphrates
and right on the river
banks, like Terqa.
Unlike Terqa, howev–
er, the site of Qraya (no
ancient name is as yet
known for it) does not
lo
so vast a region, we
can focus in-depth only
by town officials until archaeologists could investigate the
exposed ancient city wall and stratigrapby.
appear to have been as
badly e r oded by the
on one excavation site. We have
chosen one of the most beautiful
settings along the whole of the
Euphrates.
Here, only a few kilometers
south of a point where the Khabur
River enters the Euphrates, the
modero town of Ashara líes on and
around the heaps of an ancient city.
Apríl 1984
Archaeology has revealed it to be
the capital of a kingdom that lay on
a trade route linking civilizations
from the Arabian or Persian Gulf
to the Mediterranean and the
Ni
le.
The city, anciently, was called
Terqa (pronounce the
q
as
k)-a
fact
revealed on a cuneiform tablet
action of the river.
lt
rests on top of
a sizable glacis of river pebbles con–
gealed into sorne sort of rock for–
mation, as hard as concrete, clearly
visible as you walk along the edge
of the water on the northern slope
of the tell. The river current, in its
constant lapping at the edge of this
natural formation, has not suc-
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