Division of Archaeology

Department of Archaeology and Anthropology

Projects

Tell Brak

Introduction

The Investigation of Urban Growth and Administration in Northern Mesopotamia in the 4th and 3rd millennia BC (NE Syria).

Project Directors

  • Professor E.E.D.M. Oates, Trinity College, Cambridge; McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge
  • Dr J.L. Oates, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge; Girton College, Cambridge

Epigraphist

  • Professor Piotr Michalowski, Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of Michigan

Current Field Director

  • Dr Geoffrey Emberling, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan

Field Directors 1994-96

  • Dr R. Matthews, Institute of Archaeology, University College London
  • Miss Helen McDonald, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge

Financial Support

  • McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research
  • British School of Archaeology in Iraq
  • National Geographic Society
  • British Academy
  • British Museum
  • Metropolitan Museum of Art (H. Dunscombe Colt Archaeological Institute Gift; Armida Colt Gift)
  • University of Cambridge (C.H.W. Johns Fund; Crowther-Beynon Fund)
  • Leverhulme Trust

Publications

  1. Preliminary reports in Iraq from 1977 onwards
  2. D. Oates, J. Oates and H. McDonald 1997. The Excavations at Tell Brak I: The Mitanni and Old Babylonian Periods.
  3. D. Oates, J. Oates and H. McDonald 2001 . The Excavations at Tell Brak II: Nagar in the Third Millennium BC.
  4. In preparation: Vol. III: The Uruk and 'Ubaid Periods.
  5. D. Matthews 1997. The Early Glyptic of Tell Brak.
  6. For detailed bibliography see Iraq 54, 1994, 175-76.

Research aims and current results

The Brak project was established to explore the then little-known 3rd and 4th millennia BC (Late Chalcolithic and EBA) occupation of Northern Mesopotamia, in particular within the Khabur basin of NE Syria where Brak is situated. The first objective was to establish an archaeological framework within which to examine changing environmental, social and economic conditions. More recently, and with the benefit of this framework, more specific questions have been addressed, including

  • the nature of the unique early 4th millennium urban settlement;
  • the nature of the Akkadian imperial presence;
  • the nature of the post-Akkadian city, now established as the focus of one of the earliest known Hurrian kingdoms.

The chance discovery of a Mitanni "palace" (a large building with administrative, manufacturing and residential functions) led in 1985 and l986 to the investigation of the Mitanni city; this remains the only major excavated site within the homeland of this little known LBA empire. Investigations into past environmental conditions and economies, and an intensive survey of sites in the surrounding countryside have been carried out.

In 1995 and 1996 Dr Matthews was responsible for a Leverhulme-funded project devoted to detailed contextual analysis. From 1998 Dr Emberling and Miss McDonald will be investigating how incursions from Southern Mesopotamia (Late Uruk and Akkadian) affected the social and political structure of this important northern city; he will also investigate further the early 4th millennium city.

Brak is the largest tell in North Mesopotamia and Syria, over 40m in height, 800 x 600 m in area. In the Northern Middle Uruk period (c. 3500 BC) Brak occupied an area of over 110 ha, including a corona of smaller tells surrounding the main mound. The tell was occupied from at least as early as 6000 BC to the early Iron Age. A "Gateway City", Brak lies on one of the major roads leading from the Tigris Valley north to the metal sources in Anatolia and west to the Euphrates and the Mediterranean. Its ancient name, Nagar, appears in the 3rd millennium Ebla texts as the most important city in northeastern Syria. Brak was also a major focus of Akkadian imperial administration. One of the unusual discoveries of this period is a large caravanserai situated at the north gate of the city, while the Ebla texts tell us that Nagar was noted especially for the quality of its mules. The large Hurrian city which flourished here in post-Akkadian times stands in apparent contradiction to recent suggestions of a long-term environmental catastrophe in the Khabur area in the late 3rd millennium.

Well-stratified material has been recovered from private houses of the 4th to the 2nd millennium BC. A number of important shrines have been identified, including the famous Eye Temple and in the Akkadian period the temples of Shamash and Shakkan. In the early second millennium the shrine of the Lady of Nagar was the source of political authority in the Khabur area. Cuneiform texts and sealings from the 3rd and 2nd millennia inform us of administrative procedures as do the earlier token systems, numerical tablets and sealings of the Middle and Late Uruk periods. Large casemate walls and a unique city gate dating to the early 4th millennium are among the most recent discoveries. The latest occupation at the site consists of a Roman village and castellum, situated to the north and east of the main tell. Brak was first excavated by Sir Max Mallowan in 1937-38, and the castellum was investigated by Father Poidebard in 1930.