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hypothesis, although there is no
certain proof for it. The titulary of
the kings omits the name of any
city and refers only to Khana, the
name of the region. On the other
hand , Terqa is the only known site
to date to have yielded cuneiform
tablets with names of kings of Kha–
na, and its general urban layout is
significant enough to qualify as a
capital city. Finally, T erqa is at t he
geographical center of the region of
Khana.
We know by now the names of
13 kings of the dynasty of Khana.
Two buildings are primarily
associated with this period, the
temple of Ninkarrak and the house
of Puzurum. The main entrance of
the temple was onto a plaza on the
south, in an opposite direction from
the house of Puzurum. The house
had been burned in antiquity: you
may sti ll see on the walls clear
t races of the fire that must have
been intense as the roof collapsed
and buried the contents of the
house for us to retrieve sorne 3,700
years later. The fire was, howcver ,
contained, because its traces are
The second-millennium temple of
Ninkarrak, goddess of bealth,
provided a great surprise. Witbin 2
feet from tbe altar in tbe corner of
t be cella a small bag bad been
deposited in aotiquity, cbock-full of
beads for priestly use. The bag bad
disintegrated, below left, but tbe
contents were in pristine sbape. Tbe
semiprecious stones- all 6,637 of
them!- are on display in tbe Der
ez-Zor Museum.
localized and certainly did not
extend to the temple. The layout of
the house, sti ll clearly visible in t he
excavation area very much resem–
bles the layout of a modero village
mudbrick house. A central court–
yard served as the main living area,
where most of the household activi–
ties occurred, inc luding cooking.
The three rooms on the northern
s ide of the courtyard served pri–
marily as storage.
One of these rooms, the one at
the corner with one wall flanking
the alleyway, was thc most impor–
tant of all, a t least for us.
It
con–
tained sorne 100 pieces of written
documents, 15 of which were in a
good state of preservation. To–
gether , they form an interes ti ng
archive of a middle-class person
who was buying land and houses in
the area of Terqa.
Nomadic Gathering Center
For a few centur ies after the end of
the city we have cometo know, the
site of Terqa underwent a drastic
change in its sociopoli tical function
and hence in its outward appear–
ance. We have found no trace of
Assyrian presence in Terqa or else–
where on the western banks.
If there is no trace of Assyrian
occupation at Te rqajSirqu, is there
any trace of Aramaic occupation?
Yes, and of quite a varied nature.
From our own excavations comes
the evidence of burials. These were
found in shafts, normally within
jars, with pottery of a distinct type,
quite different from that of the ear–
lier periods.
Thus the general picture that
emerges, albeit tentatively, is that
of a gathering center for a nomadic
group that did not reside at Terqaj
Sirqu , but used it for ceremonial
purposes: the burying of t he dead
and the acknowledgment o f the
política! suzerainty of the Assyrian
king.
The few centuries of nomadic
occupation at the si te were foll owed
by a long hiatus, during which the
site seems to have been tot ally
uninhabited- some 20 centuries,
from about 700 B.C. until about
A.D. 1200.
The date of the medieval remains
is set to A .D. 1200 in the Ayyubid
period on t he bas is of a coin and of
ceramic typology. We have no indi–
cation of what happened to the vil–
lage after that, for how long it was
occupied and when the modero set–
t le men t originated.
It
is a lso
unknown whether the modero
name "Ashara" was already in use
in medieval times, or whether it
carne to be used later.
As excavat ions continue we will
keep our readers updated.
o
The institutions currently associated
with the Joint Expedition
10
Terqa
are
1/MAS- lnternationa/ lnstitute for
Mesopotamian Area Studies
The University of California, Los
Angeles
California State University, Los
Angeles
Johns Hopkins University
The University of Arizona
The University of Rome
Th e Centre Nationa/ des R e–
cherches Scientifiques. Paris.