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ceeded in eroding it in the same
fashion as Terqa.
The site of Terqa exhibits no
traces of occupation befare 3000
B.C. And then suddenly, around
that date, a momentous change
takes place: a massive city wall
carne to be built there, the largest
by far known to us for this early
period from Syria and Mesopo–
tamia. Was it the people from
Qraya who moved south and estab–
lished the new city? We have no
proof for this hypothesis, but it is a
tempting one in view of the fact
that no third-millennium strata
have been found in Qraya.
Much of our knowledge about the
city wall carne from long and narrow
trenches that had been cut by the
municipality of Ashara to make
room for a new sewer system. These
trenches were left open for our
inspection for a period of three
months in 1978 and have si nce been
back-filled after completion of the
sewer system. None is therefore visi–
ble today, and our map shows merely
the location of the trenches.
1t may be appropriate at this
juncture to make a few remarks
about the interaction between the
modern town and archaeology. The
sewer system was one of a few
majar public projects that had been
planned by the municipality shortly
before our excavations. Since the
beginning of these projects coin–
cided more or less with the begin–
ning of our work, and since the
importance of ancient Terqa carne
to be appreciated slowly with the
progress of ou r work, there was an
The
propoa«t
location
(aee
dotted
lne
below)
of
the
original
city
wal
of
Terqa,
now
signifi-
cantly
eroded
away
by
the
Euphrates River.
initial period when archaeology and
city projects had to contend with
each other. In subsequent years,
through the enlightened collabora–
tion of all concerned officials, from
the governor of Der ez-Zor to the
local mayor and through the under–
standing of the local inhabitants,
and under the guidance of the
Directorate General of Antiquities
and Museums, it was agreed to put
a halt to all improvements on the
tell and to prevent all constructions
by prívate parties as well. We hope
that the progressive recovery of
ancient Terqa will continue to pro–
vide adequate compensation for
modern Ashara and its people.
Provincial Capital and Rellgious
Center
Around 2400 B.C. the city of Mari ,
sorne 60 kilometers south of Terqa,
held sway over the Khabur basin.
Terqa was certainly under the con–
trol of Mari. We may surmise that
by the middle of the third millen–
nium Terqa had become a provin–
cial center of its more powerful
neighbor downstream.
lf
the con–
struction of the massive defensive
system a few centuries earlier is
any indication of política! indepen–
dence, it would appear that such
independence did not continue.
If
so, we have no indication as to what
events affected the history of Ter–
qa. A possible hypothesis is that
there was a progressive dislocation
of the center of power downstream,
such as we have postulated for the
sequence Qraya j Terqa at the
beginning of the third millennium.
lt
is a fact that Terqa remained
the cult center of the majar god of
the region, Dagan, even during the