Emar 2003 Overview

Recherches au pays d'Ashtata Emar I et II, Syria
Jean-Claude Margueron

The grant will be used for publication of the final report on the excavations conducted between 1972 and 1978 at Meskene Khadime and Tell Faq'ous, two sites located on the right bank of the Syrian Euphrates where the recent lake El Assad now lies. The first site, on the southern bank of the river, is situated where the road to Aleppo meets the river and where the river turns towards Mesopotamia after having emerged from the mountains of Anatolia; the major part of the city was on the slope coming down from the plateau, close to the Euphrates and adjacent to the monumental remains of Byzantine Balis city walls. The second one, twelve kilometers downstream, set on the top of a cliff, overhangs the valley by some fifty meters.

The construction of a dam at Tabqa led to the exploration of Meskene in 1972 as part of an international campaign to salvage the antiquities doomed to disappear below the new lake. A French team directed by Jean-Cl. Margueron, carried out work during six seasons between autumn 1972 and autumn 1976. Because of the late discovery of Tell Faq'ous which appeared like a citadel, a last season of excavations, the seventh, was conducted in 1978 on that site in order to understand the possible relationship between the two.

The main result of this expedition was to bring to light the ancient city of Emar, known until now only by texts which mention it at the time of Ebla (middle of the 3rd millennium) and that of Mari (at the beginning of the 2nd millennium); but the town unearthed by our excavations appears to be a new city founded by the Hittite king Suppiluliuma or Mursili II (1339-1306 B.C.), the capital of the land of Ashtata when the Hittite Empire overlaid North Syrian country. All the levels uncovered belong to the Late Bronze Age (about 1350-1187 B.C.), and the town was destroyed by fire in 1187 .

Because of the completion of the dam in July 1973, the excavations were carried out in urgency: this was not the best means for a swift publication of the results. Until now these have only appeared in several preliminary reports. The final publication concerns only the Sumerian and Akkadian texts (D. Arnaud) and the seal impressions on the same documents (D. Beyer).

But now, recent analysis of the excavations and material allows us to submit to the scientific community the main results of the expedition. And this is especially important since a Syro-German expedition has recently started new excavations on the remains of the tell of Meskene-Khadime in spite of heavy damage caused by the waters of the new lake and destruction by looters. To avoid misinterpretations because of the present poor condition of the tell, it has become vital to publish all the information gathered at the time when the site was not disturbed. The publication of Emar excavations will provide a firm basis on which to evaluate the remarkable achievements of a civilization which was able to build a new town by remodeling the rocky substratum and installing a system of terraces scaling the slope from the level of the river at about 280 meters up to the summit of the site at a height of 326 meters. Moreover, it will shed new light on the history of a kingdom and its neighboring states of the 14th century, as well as the nature of the relations established between the Hittite power and an old North Syrian city which had long played a significant economic role.