Tell Brak

Template:Short description Template:Good article Template:Infobox ancient site Tell Brak (Nagar, Nawar) was an ancient city in Syria; it is one the earliest known cities in the world. Its remains constitute a tell located in the Upper Khabur region, near the modern village of Tell Brak, 50 kilometers north-east of Al-Hasaka city, Al-Hasakah Governorate. The city's original name is unknown. During the second half of the third millennium BC, the city was known as Nagar and later on, Nawar.

Starting as a small settlement in the seventh millennium BC, Tell Brak's urbanization began in the late 5th millennium BCE and evolved during the fourth millennium BC into one of the biggest cities in Upper Mesopotamia, and interacted with the cultures of southern Mesopotamia. The city shrank in size at the beginning of the third millennium BC with the end of Uruk period, before expanding again around c. 2600 BC, when it became known as Nagar, and was the capital of a regional kingdom that controlled the Khabur river valley. Nagar was destroyed around c. 2300 BC, and came under the rule of the Akkadian Empire, followed by a period of independence as a Hurrian city-state, before contracting at the beginning of the second millennium BC. Nagar prospered again by the 19th century BC, and came under the rule of different regional powers. In c. 1500 BC, Tell Brak was a center of Mitanni before being destroyed by Assyria c. 1300 BC. The city never regained its former importance, remaining as a small settlement, and abandoned at some points of its history, until disappearing from records during the early Abbasid era.

Different peoples inhabited the city, including the Halafians, Semites and the Hurrians. Tell Brak was a religious center from its earliest periods; its famous Eye Temple is unique in the Fertile Crescent, and its main deity, Belet Nagar, was revered in the entire Khabur region, making the city a pilgrimage site. The culture of Tell Brak was defined by the different civilizations that inhabited it, and it was famous for its glyptic style, equids and glass. When independent, the city was ruled by a local assembly or by a monarch. Tell Brak was a trade center due to its location between Anatolia, the Levant and southern Mesopotamia. It was excavated by Max Mallowan in 1937, then regularly by different teams between 1979 and 2011, when the work stopped due to the Syrian Civil War.

Name

File:TellBrak-NE.jpg

General view of Tell Brak.

The original name of the city is unknown;Template:Sfn Tell Brak is the current name of the tell.Template:Sfn East of the mound lies a dried lake named "Khatuniah" which was recorded as "Lacus Beberaci" (the lake of Brak) in the Roman map Tabula Peutingeriana.Template:Sfn The lake was probably named after Tell Brak which was the nearest camp in the area.Template:Sfn The name "Brak" might therefore be an echo of the most ancient name.Template:Sfn

During the third millennium BC, the city was known as "Nagar", which might be of Semitic origin and mean a "cultivated place".Template:Sfn The name "Nagar" ceased occurring following the Old Babylonian period,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn however, the city continued to exist as Nawar, under the control of Hurrian state of Mitanni.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Hurrian kings of Urkesh took the title "King of Urkesh and Nawar" in the third millennium BC; although there is general view that the third millennium BC Nawar is identical with Nagar,Template:Sfn some scholars, such as Jesper Eidem, doubt this.Template:Sfn Those scholars opt for a city closer to Urkesh which was also called Nawala/Nabula as the intended Nawar.Template:Sfn

History

Dates (BC)	Brak period	Period designation in northern Mesopotamia
6500–5900	A	Proto-Hassuna/Pre-Halaf (Samarra-related)
5900–5200	B	Halaf
5200–4400	C	Northern Ubaid
4400–4200	D	Terminal Ubaid/Late Chalcolithic 1/LC1
4200–3900	E	Northern Early Uruk/Late Chalcolithic 2/LC2
3900–3600	F	Northern Middle Uruk/Late Chalcolithic 3/LC3
3600–3200		Northern Middle Uruk/Late Chalcolithic 4/LC4
3200–3000	G	Northern Middle Uruk/Late Chalcolithic 5/LC5
3000–2900	H	Post-Uruk
2900–2600	J	Ninevite 5
2600–2400	K
2400–2300	L	Post-Ninevite 5
2300–2100	M	Akkadian
2100–2000	N	Post-Akkadian
2000–1850		Middle Bronze I
1850–1500	P	Middle Bronze II/Khabur
1500–1275	Q	Mitanni
1275–900	R	Middle Assyrian
900–600	S	Neo-Assyrian/Iron II
600–330		Post-Assyrian
320–150		Seleuicid/Hellenistic
150–224	T	Parthian/Roman

Early settlement

In Brak Period A (c. 6500–5900 BC), the earliest small settlement is dated to the proto Halaf culture c. 6500 BC.Template:Sfn Many objects dated to that period were discovered including the Halaf pottery.Template:Sfn

In Brak Period B (c. 5900–5200 BC), the Halaf Culture Template:Sfn Halaf culture transformed into Period C (c. 5200–4400 BC) Northern Ubaid,Template:Sfn and many Ubaid materials were found in Tell Brak.Template:Sfn Excavations and surface survey of the site and its surroundings, unearthed a large platform of patzen bricks that dates to late Ubaid,Template:Sfn and revealed that Tell Brak developed as an urban center slightly earlier than better known cities of southern Mesopotamia, such as Uruk.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Late Chalcolithic

The first city

File:Augenidole Syrien Slg Ebnöther.jpg

Eye figurines from the Eye Temple.

In southern Mesopotamia, the original Ubaid culture evolved into the Uruk period.Template:Sfn The people of the southern Uruk period used military and commercial means to expand the civilization.Template:Sfn In Northern Mesopotamia, the post Ubaid period is designated Late Chalcolithic / Northern Uruk period,Template:Sfn during which, Tell Brak started to expand.Template:Sfn

Brak Period E

Tell Brak Period E (c. 4200–3900 BC; Late Chalcolithic 2; Northern Early Uruk Period) witnessed the building of the City's Walls,Template:Sfn and expansion beyond the mound to form a Lower Town,Template:Sfn becoming a proto-urban city with a size of c. 55 hectares.Template:Sfn

Comparison can be made with Hamoukar in LC1-2 period, where the early urban settlement has been described as "a vast low or flat scatter of pottery and obsidian".Template:Sfn The population density at both settlements was very low at that stage, so they appeared more like a scattering of various small sites in the same area: "... new indicators of social complexity appeared simultaneously with dramatic settlement expansion at Brak and Khirbat al-Fakhar [Hamoukar], although not in the form known from later periods of northern Mesopotamian history. Both were extensive “proto-urban” settlements of low or variable density, with few other parallels elsewhere in the Near East."Template:Sfn Another example is, Khirbat al-Fakhar already reached a massive size of 300 ha, or larger than the contemporary Uruk, itself.Template:Sfn

Area TW of the tell (Archaeologists divided Tell Brak into areas designated with Alphabetic letters.Template:Sfn See the map for Tell Brak's areas) revealed the remains of a monumental building with two meters thick walls and a basalt threshold.Template:Sfn In front of the building, a sherd paved street was discovered, leading to the northern entrance of the city.Template:Sfn Area TW covered an area of nearly 600 square meters up to a depth of 10 meters. A number of beveled rim bowls diagnostic of the Uruk period were found in the TW area.

Brak Period F

Tell Brak Period F can be subdivided into two phases early (c. 3800–3600 BC; Late Chaltolihic 3) and late (c. 3600–3000 BC; Late Chaltolihic 4).

In the Early Brak Period F (c. 3800–3600 BC; LC3), the early city-state continued to expand and reached the size of 130 hectares.Template:Sfn Four mass graves, mainly sub-adults and young adults were discovered in the submound, Tell Majnuna (built entirely of rubbish over two centuries), north of the main tell, and they suggest that the process of urbanization was accompanied by internal social stress, and an increase in the organization of warfare.Template:Sfn The first half of period F (designated LC3), saw the erection of the Eye Temple,Template:Sfn which was named for the thousands of small alabaster "Eye idols" and "Spectacle-topped idols" figurines discovered in it.Template:Sfn Those idols were also found in area TW.Template:Sfn

In Late Brak Period F (c. 3600–3000 BC; LC4) interatction with Southern Mesopotamia increased,Template:Sfn and an Urukean colony was established in the city.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn With the end of Uruk culture c 3000 BC, Tell Brak's Urukean colony was abandoned and deliberately leveled by its occupants.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Brak Period G & H

The Brak Period G (c. 3200–3000 BC; LC5), saw the site contracting during the following periods H and J, and became limited to the mound.Template:Sfn In the Brak Period H (c. 3000–2900 BC; Post-Uruk), evidence exists for an interaction with the Mesopotamian south, represented by the existence of materials similar to the ones produced during the southern Jemdet Nasr period.Template:Sfn

Early Bronze

Brak Period J & K

During the Brak Period J (2900–2600 BC) and K (2600–2400 BC) the city remained a small settlement during the Ninevite 5 period, with a small temple and associated sealing activities.Template:Sfn

Kingdom of Nagar

Around c. 2600 BC, a large administrative building was built and the city expanded out of the tell again.Template:Sfn The revival is connected with the Kish civilization,Template:Sfn and the city was named "Nagar".Template:Sfn Amongst the important buildings dated to the kingdom, is an administrative building or temple named the "Brak Oval",Template:Sfn located in area TC.Template:Sfn The building have a curved exterior wall reminiscent of the Khafajah "Oval Temple" in central Mesopotamia.Template:Sfn However, aside from the wall, the comparison between the two buildings in terms of architecture is difficult, as each building follows a different plan.Template:Sfn

The oldest references to Nagar comes from Mari and tablets discovered at Nabada.Template:Sfn However, the most important source on Nagar come from the archives of Ebla.Template:Sfn Most of the texts record the ruler of Nagar using his title "En", without mentioning a name.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn However a text from Ebla mentions Mara-Il, a king of Nagar;Template:Sfn thus, he is the only ruler known by name for pre-Akkadian Nagar and ruled a little more than a generation before the kingdom's destruction.Template:Sfn

At its height, Nagar encompassed most of the southwestern half of the Khabur Basin,Template:Sfn and was a diplomatic and political equal of the Eblaite and Mariote states.Template:Sfn The kingdom included at least 17 subordinate cities,Template:Sfn such as Hazna,Template:Sfn and most importantly Nabada, which was a city-state annexed by Nagar,Template:Sfn and served as a provincial capital.Template:Sfn Nagar was involved in the wide diplomatic network of Ebla,Template:Sfn and the relations between the two kingdoms involved both confrontations and alliances.Template:Sfn A text from Ebla mentions a victory of Ebla's king (perhaps Irkab-Damu) over Nagar.Template:Sfn However, a few years later, a treaty was concluded, and the relations progressed toward a dynastic marriage between princess Tagrish-Damu of Ebla, and prince Ultum-Huhu, Nagar's monarch's son.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Nagar was defeated by Mari in year seven of the Eblaite vizier Ibrium's term, causing the blockage of trade routes between Ebla and southern Mesopotamia via upper Mesopotamia.Template:Sfn Later, Ebla's king Isar-Damu concluded an alliance with Nagar and Kish against Mari,Template:Sfn and the campaign was headed by the Eblaite vizier Ibbi-Sipish, who led the combined armies to victory in a battle near Terqa.Template:Sfn Afterwards, the alliance attacked the rebellious Eblaite vassal city of Armi.Template:Sfn Ebla was destroyed approximately three years after Terqa's battle,Template:Sfn and soon after, Nagar followed in c. 2300 BC. Large parts of the city were burned, an act attributed either to Mari,Template:Sfn or Sargon of Akkad.Template:Sfn

Akkadian period

File:TellBrakNaramsinN.jpg

Palace of Naram-Sin.

Following its destruction, Nagar was rebuilt by the Akkadian empire, to form a center of the provincial administration.Template:Sfn The city included the whole tell and a lower town at the southern edge of the mound.Template:Sfn Two public buildings were built during the early Akkadian periods, one complex in area SS,Template:Sfn and another in area FS.Template:Sfn The building of area FS included its own temple and might have served as a caravanserai, being located near the northern gate of the city.Template:Sfn The temple was dedicated to the god Šamagan, god of animals of the steppe. The early Akkadian monarchs were occupied with internal conflicts,Template:Sfn and Tell Brak was temporarily abandoned by Akkad at some point preceding the reign of Naram-Sin.Template:Sfn The abandonment might be connected with an environmental event, that caused the desertification of the region.Template:Sfn

The destruction of Nagar's kingdom created a power vacuum in the Upper Khabur.Template:Sfn The Hurrians, formerly concentrated in Urkesh,Template:Sfn took advantage of the situation to control the region as early as Sargon's latter years.Template:Sfn Tell Brak was known as "Nawar" for the Hurrians,Template:Sfn and kings of Urkesh took the title "King of Urkesh and Nawar", first attested in the seal of Urkesh's king Atal-Shen.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

The use of the title continued during the reigns of Atal-Shen's successors, Tupkish and Tish-Atal,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn who ruled only in Urkesh.Template:Sfn The Akkadians under Naram-Sin incorporated Nagar firmly into their empire.Template:Sfn The most important Akkadian building in the city is called the "Palace of Naram-Sin",Template:Sfn which had parts of it built over the original Eye Temple.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Despite its name, the palace is closer to a fortress,Template:Sfn as it was more of a fortified depot for the storage of collected tribute rather than a residential seat.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The palace was burned during Naram-Sin's reign, perhaps by a Lullubi attack,Template:Sfn and the city was burned toward the end of the Akkadian period c. 2193 BC, probably by the Gutians.Template:Sfn

Post-Akkadian kingdom

In Brak Period N,Template:Sfn the Fall of the Akkadian Empire (c. 2154 BC), saw Nagar becoming a center of an independent Hurrian dynasty,Template:Sfn evidenced by the discovery of a seal, recording the name of king Talpus-Atili of Nagar,Template:Sfn who ruled during or slightly after the reign of Shar-Kali-Sharri (r. 2217–2193 BC).Template:Sfn

Ur III Dynasty?

The view that Tell Brak came under the control of Ur III is refused,Template:Sfn and evidence exists for a Hurrian rebuilding of Naram-Sin's palace, erroneously attributed by Max Mallowan to Ur-Nammu of Ur.Template:Sfn Period N saw a reduction in the city's size, with public buildings being abandoned, and the lower town evacuated.Template:Sfn Few short lived houses were built in area CH during period N,Template:Sfn and although greatly reduced in size, archaeology provided evidence for continued occupation in the city, instead of abandonment.Template:Sfn

Mari Period

File:TellBrakMitanni.jpg

The Mitannian palace.

During Brak Period P (c. 1820–1550 BC; MB IIA), Nagar was densely populated in the northern ridge of the tell.Template:Sfn The city came under the rule of Mari,Template:Sfn and was the site of a decisive victory won by Yahdun-Lim of Mari over Shamshi-Adad I of Assyria.Template:Sfn Nagar lost its importance and came under the rule of Kahat in the 18th century BC.Template:Sfn

Late Bronze

Mitanni Period

During period Q, Tell Brak was an important trade city in the Mitanni state.Template:Sfn A two-story palace was built c. 1500 BC in the northern section of the tell,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn in addition to an associated temple.Template:Sfn However, the rest of the tell was not occupied, and a lower town extended to the north but is now all but destroyed through modern agriculture.Template:Sfn Two Mitannian legal documents, bearing the names of kings Artashumara and Tushratta (c. 1380–1345 BC), were recovered from the city.Template:Sfn

Assyrian period

Following the death of king Tushratta, the Mitanni Empire collapsed. In the west the Hittites came and created a vassal buffer state in the region of Hanigalbat, while the Assyrians later took territory from the east. Tell Brak was destroyed between c.1300 and 1275 BC,Template:Sfn in two waves, first at the hands of the Assyrian king Adad-Nirari I (r. 1305–1274 BC), then by his successor Shalmaneser I.Template:Sfn

Iron Age

Little evidence of an occupation on the tell exists following the destruction of the Mitannian city, however, a series of small villages existed in the lower town during the Assyrian periods.Template:Sfn The remains of a Hellenistic settlement were discovered on a nearby satellite tell, to the northwestern edge of the main tell.Template:Sfn However, excavations recovered no ceramics of the Parthian-Roman or Byzantine-Sasanian periods, although sherds dating to those periods are noted.Template:Sfn In the middle of the first millennium AD, a fortified building was erected in the northeastern lower town.Template:Sfn The building was dated by Antoine Poidebard to the Justinian era (sixth century AD), on the basis of its architecture.Template:Sfn The last occupation period of the site was during the early Abbasid Caliphate's period,Template:Sfn when a canal was built to provide the town with water from the nearby Jaghjagh River.Template:Sfn

Society

People and language

The Halafians were the indigenous people of Neolithic northern Syria,Template:Sfn who later adopted the southern Ubaidian culture.Template:Sfn Contact with the Mesopotamian south increased during the early and middle Northern Uruk period,Template:Sfn and southern people moved to Tell Brak in the late Uruk period,Template:Sfn forming a colony, which produced a mixed society.Template:Sfn The Urukean colony was abandoned by the colonists toward the end of the fourth millennium BC, leaving the indigenous Tell Brak a much contracted city.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The pre-Akkadian kingdom's population was Semitic,Template:Sfn and spoke its own East Semitic dialect of the Eblaite language used in Ebla and Mari.Template:Sfn The Nagarite dialect is closer to the dialect of Mari rather than that of Ebla.Template:Sfn

No Hurrian names are recorded in the pre-Akkadian period,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn although the name of prince Ultum-Huhu is difficult to understand as Semitic.Template:Sfn During the Akkadian period, both Semitic and Hurrian names were recorded,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn as the Hurrians appear to have taken advantage of the power vacuum caused by the destruction of the pre-Akkadian kingdom, in order to migrate and expand in the region.Template:Sfn The post-Akkadian period Tell Brak had a strong Hurrian element,Template:Sfn and Hurrian named rulers,Template:Sfn although the region was also inhabited by Amorite tribes.Template:Sfn A number of the Amorite Yaminite tribes settled the surroundings of Tell Brak during the reign of Zimri-Lim of Mari,Template:Sfn and each group used its own language (Hurrian and Amorite languages).Template:Sfn Tell Brak was a center of the Hurrian-Mitannian empire,Template:Sfn which had Hurrian as its official language.Template:Sfn However, Akkadian was the region's international language, evidenced by the post-Akkadian and Mitannian eras tablets,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn discovered at Tell Brak and written in Akkadian.Template:Sfn

Religion

The findings in the Eye Temple indicate that Tell Brak is among the earliest sites of organized religion in northern Mesopotamia.Template:Sfn It is unknown to which deity the Eye Temple was dedicated,Template:Sfn and the "Eyes" figurines appears to be votive offerings to that unknown deity.Template:Sfn The temple was probably dedicated for the Sumerian Innana or the Semitic Ishtar; Michel Meslin hypothesized that the "Eyes" figurines were a representation of an all-seeing female deity.Template:Sfn

During the pre-Akkadian kingdom's era, Hazna, an old cultic center of northern Syria, served as a pilgrimage center for Nagar.Template:Sfn The Eye Temple remained in use,Template:Sfn but as a small shrine,Template:Sfn while the goddess Belet Nagar became the kingdom's paramount deity.Template:Sfn The temple of Belet Nagar is not identified but probably lies beneath the Mitannian palace.Template:Sfn The Eblaite deity Kura was also venerated in Nagar,Template:Sfn and the monarchs are attested visiting the temple of the Semitic deity Dagon in Tuttul.Template:Sfn During the Akkadian period, the temple in area FS was dedicated to the Sumerian god Shakkan, the patron of animals and countrysides.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Tell Brak was an important religious Hurrian center,Template:Sfn and the temple of Belet Nagar retained its cultic importance in the entire region until the early second millennium BC.Template:Sfn

Culture

File:TellBrakTW-W.jpg

Area TW

Northern Mesopotamia evolved independently from the south during the Late Chalcolithic / early and middle Northern Uruk (4000–3500 BC).Template:Sfn This period was characterized by a strong emphasis on holy sites,Template:Sfn among which, the Eye Temple was the most important in Tell Brak.Template:Sfn The building containing "Eyes" idols in area TW was wood paneled, whose main room had been lined with wooden panels.Template:Sfn The building also contained the earliest known semi columned facade, which is a character that will be associated with temples in later periods.Template:Sfn

By late Northern Uruk and especially after 3200 BC, northern Mesopotamia came under the full cultural dominance of the southern Uruk culture,Template:Sfn which affected Tell Brak's architecture and administration.Template:Sfn The southern influence is most obvious in the level named the "Latest Jemdet Nasr" of the Eye Temple,Template:Sfn which had southern elements such as cone mosaics.Template:Sfn The Uruk presence was peaceful as it is first noted in the context of feasting; commercial deals during that period were traditionally ratified through feasting.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The excavations in area TW revealed feasting to be an important local habit, as two cooking facilities, large amounts of grains, skeletons of animals, a domed backing oven and barbequing fire pits were discovered.Template:Sfn Among the late Uruk materials found at Tell Brak is a standard text for educated scribes (the "Standard Professions" text), part of the standardized education taught in the 3rd millennium BC over a wide area of Syria and Mesopotamia.Template:Sfn

File:BEYDAR SEAL.jpg

A drawing of a seal from Nabada, pre-Akkadian kingdom of Nagar, in "Brak Style"

The pre-Akkadian kingdom was famed for its acrobats, who were in demand in Ebla and trained local Eblaite entertainers.Template:Sfn The kingdom also had its own local glyptic style called the "Brak Style",Template:Sfn which was distinct from the southern sealing variants, employing soft circled shapes and sharpened edges.Template:Sfn The Akkadian administration had little effect on the local administrative traditions and sealing style,Template:Sfn and Akkadian seals existed side by side with the local variant.Template:Sfn The Hurrians employed the Akkadian style in their seals, and Elamite seals were discovered, indicating an interaction with the western Iranian Plateau.Template:Sfn

Tell Brak provided great knowledge on the culture of Mitanni, which produced glass using sophisticated techniques, that resulted in different varieties of multicolored and decorated shapes.Template:Sfn Samples of the elaborate Nuzi ware were discovered, in addition to seals that combine distinctive Mitannian elements with the international motifs of that period.Template:Sfn

Prior to the Nuzi ware, the predominant ceramic tradition at Brak is known as Khabur ware. Nuzi ware retains some shapes of Khabur ware, as well as some of its surface decorations. The fourth and last phase of Khabur ware (around 1500 BC) is generally contemporaneous with Nuzi ware. Both of them occur in parallel for some time at Brak before the Khabur ware disappears.

Wagons

Seals from Tell Brak and Nabada dated to the pre-Akkadian kingdom, revealed the use of four-wheeled wagons and war carriages.Template:Sfn Excavation in area FS recovered clay models of equids and wagons dated to the Akkadian and post-Akkadian periods.Template:Sfn The models provide information about the types of wagons used during that period (2350–2000 BC),Template:Sfn and they include four wheeled vehicles and two types of two wheeled vehicles; the first is a cart with fixed seats and the second is a cart where the driver stands above the axle.Template:Sfn The chariots were introduced during the Mitanni era,Template:Sfn and none of the pre-Mitanni carriages can be considered chariots, as they are mistakenly described in some sources.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Government

The first city had the characteristics of large urban centers, such as monumental buildings,Template:Sfn and seems to have been ruled by a kinship based assembly, headed by elders.Template:Sfn The pre-Akkadian kingdom was decentralized,Template:Sfn and the provincial center of Nabada was ruled by a council of elders, next to the king's representative.Template:Sfn The Nagarite monarchs had to tour their kingdom regularly in order to assert their political control.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn During the early Akkadian period, Nagar was administrated by local officials.Template:Sfn However, central control was tightened and the number of Akkadian officials increased, following the supposed environmental event that preceded the construction of Naram-Sin's palace.Template:Sfn The post-Akkadian Nagar was a city-state kingdom,Template:Sfn that gradually lost its political importance during the early second millennium BC, as no evidence for a king dating to that period exists.Template:Sfn

Rulers of Tell Brak

King	Reign	Notes
Early period, possibly ruled by a local assembly of elders.Template:Sfn
Pre-Akkadian kingdom of Nagar (c. 2600–2300 BC)
Mara-Il	Fl. late 24th century BC.Template:Sfn
Early Akkadian period, early 23rd century BC.Template:Sfn
Urkesh dominance, the Urkeshite king Atal-Shen styled himself "King of Urkesh and Nawar",Template:Sfn so did his successors who ruled only in Urkesh.Template:Sfn
Akkadian control, under the rule of Naram-Sin of Akkad.Template:Sfn
Post-Akkadian kingdom of Nagar
Talpus-Atili	Fl. end of the third millennium BC.Template:Sfn	Styled himself "the sun of the country of Nagar".Template:Sfn
Various foreign rulers such as Mari,Template:Sfn Kahat,Template:Sfn Mitanni,Template:Sfn and Assyria.Template:Sfn

Economy

Throughout its history, Tell Brak was an important trade center; it was an entrepot of obsidian trade during the Chalcolithic, as it was situated on the river crossing between Anatolia, the Levant and southern Mesopotamia.Template:Sfn The countryside was occupied by smaller towns, villages and hamlets, but the city's surroundings were empty within three kilometers.Template:Sfn This was probably due to the intensive cultivation in the immediate hinterland, in order to sustain the population.Template:Sfn The city manufactured different objects, including chalices made of obsidian and white marble,Template:Sfn faience,Template:Sfn flint tools and shell inlays.Template:Sfn However, evidence exists for a slight shift in production of goods toward manufacturing objects desired in the south, following the establishment of the Uruk colony.Template:Sfn

Trade was also an important economic activity for the pre-Akkadian kingdom of Nagar,Template:Sfn which had Ebla and Kish as major partners.Template:Sfn The kingdom produced glass,Template:Sfn wool,Template:Sfn and was famous for breeding and trading in the Kunga,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn a hybrid of a jenny (a female donkey) and a male Syrian wild ass.Template:Sfn Tell Brak remained an important commercial center during the Akkadian period,Template:Sfn and was one of Mitanni's main trade cities.Template:Sfn Many objects were manufactured in Mitannian Tell Brak, including furniture made of ivory, wood and bronze, in addition to glass.Template:Sfn The city provided evidence for the international commercial contacts of Mitanni, including Egyptian, Hittite and Mycenaean objects, some of which were produced in the region to satisfy the local taste.Template:Sfn

Equids

The kungas of pre-Akkadian Nagar were used for drawing the carriages of kings before the domestication of the horse,Template:Sfn and a royal procession included up to fifty animals.Template:Sfn The kungas of Nagar were in great demand in the Eblaite empire;Template:Sfn they cost two kilos of silver, fifty times the price of a donkey,Template:Sfn and were imported regularly by the monarchs of Ebla to be used as transport animals and gifts for allied cities.Template:Sfn The horse was known in the region during the third millennium BC, but was not used as a draught animal before c. 18th century BC.Template:Sfn

Site

Excavations

Soundings were conducted in 1930 by Antoine Poidebard although little was published. After a survey of the area in 1934, Tell Brak was excavated for three seasons by the British archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan, husband of Agatha Christie, in 1937 and 1938.Template:Sfn The artifacts from Mallowan's excavations are now preserved in the Ashmolean Museum, National Museum of Aleppo and the British Museum's collection;Template:Sfn the latter contain the Tell Brak Head dating to c. 3500–3300 BC.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Two small cuneiform tablets were found and a half dozen fragments, all in the Akkadian period script.

A team from the Institute of Archaeology of the University of London, led by David and Joan Oates, worked in the tell for 14 seasons between 1976 and 1993. Finds included several Uruk Period numerical tablets and a number of cuneiform tablets and inscriptions. After 1993, excavations were conducted by a number of field directors under the general guidance of David (until 2004) and Joan Oates. Those directors included Roger Matthews (in 1994–1996), for the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research of the University of Cambridge; Geoff Emberling (in 1998–2002) and Helen McDonald (in 2000–2004), for the British Institute for the Study of Iraq and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Finds included a large cache of carnelian, gold, silver, and lapis lazuli beads, late 3rd millennium arrowheads, stone maceheads, a range of ceramic wares, and an alabaster statuette of a seated bear.

File:Brak akkadian tablet BM 131738.jpg

Brak akkadian tablet BM 131738

In 2006, Augusta McMahon became field director, also sponsored by the British Institute for the Study of Iraq.Template:Sfn A regional archaeological field survey in a radius around Brak was supervised by Henry T. Wright (in 2002–2005).Template:Sfn The survey data was combined with LANDSAT and 1960s era CORONA satellite images as well as historical photographs.Template:Sfn Many of the finds from the excavations at Tell Brak are on display in the Deir ez-Zor Museum.Template:Sfn The most recent excavations took place in the spring of 2011, but archaeological work is currently suspended due to the ongoing Syrian Civil War.Template:Sfn

A number of Proto-Literate clay tokens were found at the site, mainly in Uruk leveling fill but in one case in a stratified context. Most of the finds were pellets but also cones, discs, and ovioid bullae. In Late Uruk fill a number of large stone spheres and polished teardrops were found.

Syrian Civil War

According to the Syrian authorities, the camp of archaeologists was looted, along with the tools and ceramics kept in it.Template:Sfn The site changed hands between the different combatants, mainly the Kurdish People's Protection Units and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.Template:Sfn In early 2015, Tell Brak was taken by the Kurdish forces after light fighting with the Islamic State.Template:Sfn

See also

• Chagar Bazar
• Cities of the Ancient Near East
• Hamoukar
• Tall Al-Hamidiya
• Tell Aqab
• Tell Chuera
• Tell Leilan
• Tell Mozan

References

Informational notes

Citations

Bibliography

Further reading

General

• Biga, M. G., "The Marriage of Eblaite Princess Tagrisˇ-Damu with a Son of Nagar’s King", Subartu, IV, 2, pp. 17–22, 1998
• Oates, Joan, and David Oates, "An open gate: Cities of the fourth millennium BC (Tell Brak 1997)." Cambridge Archaeological Journal 7.2, pp. 287-297, 1997
• [1]Ur, Jason A., "Urban form at Tell Brak across three millennia.", in Preludes to Urbanism: Studies in the Late Chalcolithic of Mesopotamia in Honour of Joan Oates, Archaeopress, Oxford, 2014

Excavation Related

• Ambers, J., "Radiocarbon results from Tell Brak", Iraq 55, pp. 198-199, 1993
• Bowman, S. G. E., and J. C. Ambers, "Radiocarbon Dates for Tell Brak, 1987", Iraq, vol. 51, pp. 213–15, 1989
• Clutton-Brock, Juliet, "A Dog and a Donkey Excavated at Tell Brak", Iraq, vol. 51, pp. 217–24, 1989
• Clutton-Brock, Juliet, and Sophie Davies, "More Donkeys from Tell Brak", Iraq, vol. 55, pp. 209–21, 1993
• Emberling, Geoff, et al., "Excavations at Tell Brak 1998: preliminary report.", Iraq, pp. 1-41, 1991
• Fielden, Kate, "Tell Brak 1976: the pottery.", Iraq 39.2, pp. 245-255, 1977
• Fielden, Kate, "A Late Uruk pottery group from Tell Brak, 1978", Iraq 43, pp. 157-166, 1981
• Mallowan, M. E. L., "Excavations at Brak and Chagar Bazar", Iraq, vol. 9, pp. 1-259, 1947
• [2]Roger Mathews, "Excavations at Tell Brak 4: Exploring an Upper Mesopotamian Regional Centre, 1994-1996", McDonald Institute Monographs, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, July 15 2003 ISBN 978-1902937168
• Oates, David, "The Excavations at Tell Brak, 1976.", Iraq 39.2, pp. 233-244, 1977
• Oates, David, "Excavations at Tell Brak, 1978–81.", Iraq 44.2, pp. 187-204, 1982
• Oates, David, "Excavations at Tell Brak, 1983–84.", Iraq 47, pp. 159-173, 1985
• Oates, David, "Excavations at tell brak 1985–86.", Iraq 49, pp. 175-191, 1987
• Oates, David, and Joan Oates, "Excavations at Tell Brak 1990-91.", Iraq 53, pp. 127-145, 1991
• [3]Oates, David, and Joan Oates, "Excavations at Tell Brak. v. 1: The Mitanni and Old Babylonian periods", McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, British School of Archaeology in Iraq, 1997
• [4]Oates, David, and Joan Oates, "Excavations at Tell Brak. v. 2: Nagar in the third millennium BC", McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, British School of Archaeology in Iraq, 2001
• Oates, Joan, "Excavations at Tell Brak, NE Syria, 1992.", Cambridge Archaeological Journal 3.1, pp. 137-140, 1993

External links

• Piotr Michałowski, "Bibliographical information (Tell Brak & related matters)
• SciAm: Ancient Squatters May Have Been the World's First Suburbanites Template:Webarchive
• Death and the City: Recent Work at Tell Brak, Syra - Oriental Institute video/audio lecture Template:Webarchive
• White-Levy Brak publication project
• BISI Webinar: Prof Augusta McMahon on 'From Tell Brak to Lagash' - Augusta McMahon - Feb 21, 2022
• Archaeology breakthrough after spy satellite images unveiled world's ‘first city’ - Express - Mar 8, 2022