Tell Chuera
Tell Chuera is an ancient Near Eastern tell site in Raqqa Governorate, northern Syria. It lies between the Balikh and Khabur rivers.
Site details
The site of Tell Chuera is roughly in diameter and high.History
Tell Chuera was settled in the Early Bronze, and again in the Late Bronze.Early Bronze
Originally occupied during the 4th millennium, Tell Chuera became a major site in the 3rd millennium during the Early Dynastic period. It reached its peak around 2350 BC and was then abandoned for reasons as yet unknown.In the Early Bronze IVB, the site was active during the Ur III period.
Late Bronze
A small settlement was built on the location by the Mittani during the middle 2nd millennium BC followed by the Assyrians. Equid bones from that period have been identified as horses. During Middle Assyrian times it was known as Harbe. It has been proposed that in earlier times its name was Abarsal.Excavation history
The site was first described by Max von Oppenheim in 1913. Excavations were begun in 1958 by a team from the Free University of Berlin led by Anton Moortgat. These efforts continued until the late 1960s. Mittani period structures were uncovered. With a new co-leader, Ursula Moortgat-Correns, digs occurred in 1973, 1974 and 1976. At the top of the mound three buildings of undressed stone were found and in the center a mudbrick temple building. In Steinbau I, which had 6 building phases, decorated bronze vessels and bent copper pins with ball heads and flattened perforated shanks from the Early Dynastic period were found. Some clay sealings, sealed with typical ED cylinder seals, were also recovered. The temple had a processional way "lined with rough, megalithic stone stelai" between 2 and 3 meters in height. In an adjacent area were found a number of alabaster statue fragments of votive statues representing males with long wigs, square-cut beards and garments with fleecy fringes, the tallest being 35 centimeters.After a 5 year hiatus caused by the death of Anton Moortgat in 1977 work resumed in 1982. Two teams worked at the site, one under the direction of Winfried Orthmann of the University of Halle and the other under Ursula Moortgat-Correns, until 1998. Excavation then was taken up by a team from the Goethe University Frankfurt, under the direction of Professor Jan-Waalke Meyer from 1998 to 2005.