Tell Taban
تل طابان | |
 | |
  Shown within Syria  Tell Taban (Near East) | |
| Alternative name | Ṭābetu |
|---|---|
| Location | Al-Hasakah Governorate, Syria |
| Region | Upper Mesopotamia |
| Coordinates | 36°20′10.36″N 40°47′15.83″E / 36.3362111°N 40.7877306°E |
| Type | tell |
| Site notes | |
| Excavation dates | 1997; 1998; 1999; 2005; 2006; 2007; 2008; 2009; 2010 |
| Archaeologists | Katsuhiko Ohnuma, Hirotoshi Numoto |
Tell Taban is an archaeological site in north-eastern Syria in the Al-Hasakah Governorate. It is the site of the ancient city of Ṭābetu.[1]
Archaeology[edit]
The site was first excavated from 1997 until 1999 as a salvage operation in response to the effects of the Hassake dam.[2][3][4] A number of inscribed objects, mostly building inscriptions, were found. The site was again excavated in 2005 through 2010. More inscriptions and an archive containing over 100 cuneiform tablets were found, dating to the Old Babylonian and Middle Assyrian Periods.[5][6][7][8][9]
History[edit]
Ṭābetu[edit]
The city was mentioned in 18th century BC as a regional center named Ṭābatum in the tablets of the kingdom of Mari,[10] and was destroyed by Samsu-Iluna of Babylon.[11] Afterward the city come under the control of Terqa for a time.[12] A few centuries later it came under the rule of the Assyrians after the fall of the Mittani.[13]
Autonomous kingdom[edit]
An autonomous dynasty ruled the city between the 14th and 12th centuries BC under the suzerainty and acknowledging the supremacy of the Middle Assyrian kings; the rulers of Ṭābetu styled themselves "the kings of Ṭābetu and the Land of Mari".[1]
By the time of middle-Assyrian period kingdom of Ṭābetu, the designation "Mari" was likely used to indicate the lands around Ṭābetu and did not refer to the ancient kingdom of Mari located on the Euphrates.[14] Another possibility is that Mari from the Ṭābetu king's title correspond to "Marê"; a city mentioned c. 803 BC in the stele of Nergal-ereš, a Limmu of the neo-Assyrian king Adad-nirari III.[15] Marê was mentioned in association with Raṣappu which was likely located in the southern and eastern slopes of the Sinjar Mountains.[15]
The origin of the dynasty is vague; the first known two rulers bore Hurrian names.[16] However, "the land of Mari" is mentioned in the Hurrian Mitannian archive of Nuzi, and tablets dating to the 15th and 14th centuries BC from Tell Taban itself reveal that the inhabitants were Amorites.[16] The dynasty could have been Amorite in origin but adopted Hurrian royal names to appease the Mitannian empire.[16] The kings of Ṭābetu seems to have acknowledged the authority of Assyria as soon as the Assyrian conquest of Mitanni began; in return, the Assyrians approved the continuation of the local dynasty whose rulers were quickly Assyrianised and adopted Assyrian names replacing the Hurrian names.[16] This is a list of the kings of Ṭābetu who belonged to the same dynasty.[17][18]
| Ruler | period | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Akit-Teššup | Late 14th–early 13th century | |
| Zumiya | Early 13th century | Son of Akit-Teššup |
| Adad-Bel-Gabbe I | Early 13th century BC | Son of predecessor |
| One or two unknown rulers | Mid 13th century BC | |
| Aššur-Ketta-Lešir I | Mid 13th–late 13th century BC | Descendant of Adad-Bel-Gabbe I |
| Adad-Bel-Gabbe II | Late 13th–early 12th century BC | Son of Aššur-Ketta-Lešir I |
| Rīš-Nergal | Mid 12th century BC | Son of Adad-Bel-Gabbe II |
| Mannu-lū-yāʾu | Mid 12th century BC | Son of Adad-Bel-Gabbe II |
| Name not identified | Mid 12th century BC | Son of Mannu-lū-yāʾu |
| Etel-pî-Adad | Mid 12th century BC | Son of Adad-Bel-Gabbe II |
| Adad-bēl-apli | Mid–late 12th century BC | Son of Etel-pî-Adad |
| Adad-Bel-Gabbe III | Late 12th century BC | Son of Adad-bēl-apli |
| Aššur-Ketta-Lešir II | Late 12th–early 11th century BC | Son of Adad-Bel-Gabbe III |
| Enlil-šar-ilāni | Early 11th century BC | Son of Aššur-Ketta-Lešir II |
| Adad-apla-iddina | Unclear |
References[edit]
- ^ a b Numoto, Shibata & Yamada 2013, p. 167.
- ^ Ohnuma, K. et al. 1999: ‘Excavation at Tell Taban, Hassake, Syria (1): Report of the 1997 Season of Work’, Al-Rafidan, vol. 20, pp. 1-47
- ^ Ohnuma, K. et al. 2000: ‘Excavation at Tell Taban, Hassake, Syria (2): Report of the 1998 Season of Work’, Al-Rafidan, vol. 21, pp. 1-70
- ^ Ohnuma, K. et al. 2001: ‘Excavation at Tell Taban, Hassake, Syria (3): Report of the 1999 Season of Work’, Al-Rafidan, vol., pp. 1-63
- ^ Numoto, H., Excavation at Tell Taban, Hassake, Syria (4): Preliminary Report of the 2005 Winter Season of Work, Al-Rāfidān, vol. 27, pp. 1-43, 2006
- ^ Hirotoshi Numoto,. Excavation at Tell Taban, Hassake, Syria (5). Preliminary Report of the 2005 Summer season , Al-Rāfidān, vol. 28, p. 1-62, 2007
- ^ Numoto, H., Excavations at Tell Taban, Hassake, Syria (6): Preliminary Report of the 2006 Season of Work, Al-Rāfidān, vol. 29, pp. 1-46, 2008
- ^ Numoto, H., Excavations at Tell Taban, Hassake, Syria; Preliminary Report on the 2007 Season of Excavations, in: H. Numoto, ed., Excavations at Tell Taban, Hassake, Syria: Preliminary Report on the 2007 Season of Excavations, and the Study of Cuneiform Texts, Tokyo, pp. 1-86, 2009
- ^ Numoto, Hirotoshi; Shibata, Daisuke; Yamada, Shigeo (2013), "Excavations at Tell Taban, Continuity and Transition in Local Traditions at Ṭābatum/Ṭābetu during the second Millennium BC", in Bonatz, Dominik (ed.), 100 Jahre archäologische Feldforschungen in Nordost-Syrien -eine Bilanz: Internationales Symposium des Instituts für Vorderasiatische Archäologie der Freien Universität Berlin und des Vorderasiatischen Museums der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin vom 21. Juli bis 23. Juli 2011 im Pergamonmuseum Für das Institut für Vorderasiatische Archäologie der Freien Universität Berlin und das Vorderasiatische Museum der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin herausgegeben, Harrassowitz, ISBN 978-3-447-10009-0
- ^ Numoto, Shibata & Yamada 2013, p. 171.
- ^ Numoto, Shibata & Yamada 2013, p. 177.
- ^ Yamada, Shigeo. "The City of Ṭābatum and its Surroundings: The Organization of Power in the Post-Hammurabi Period". Organization, Representation, and Symbols of Power in the Ancient Near East: Proceedings of the 54th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale at Würzburg 20–25 Jul, edited by Gernot Wilhelm, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, 2022, pp. 591-604
- ^ Kokushikan Daigaku, Iraku Kodai Bunka Kenkyūjo (2007). Journal of Western Asiatic studies, Volume 28. p. 50.
- ^ Podany 2002, p. 12.
- ^ a b Frederick Mario Fales (1992). "MARl: AN ADDITIONAL NOTE ON "RASAPPU AND HATALLU"". State Archives of Assyria Bulletin (SAAB). Vol. 6. p. 105.
- ^ a b c d Daisuke Shibata (2011). "The origin of the dynasty of the Land of Māri and the city-god of Ṭābetu". Revue d'assyriologie et d'archéologie orientale. Vol. 105. Presses Universitaires de France. pp. 165–180.
- ^ Numoto, Shibata & Yamada 2013, p. 170.
- ^ Daisuke Shibata (2012). "Local Power in the Middle Assyrian Period: The "Kings of the Land of Māri" in the Middle Habur Region". In Gernot Wilhelm (ed.). Organization, Representation, and Symbols of Power in the Ancient Near East: Proceedings of the 54th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale at Würzburg, 20-25 July 2008. Eisenbrauns. p. 492.
Sources[edit]
- Podany, Amanda H. (2002), The Land of Hana: Kings, Chronology, and Scribal Tradition, CDL Press, ISBN 9781883053482
- Shibata, Daisuke, Middle Assyryrian Administrative and Legal Texts from the 2005 Excavation at Tell Taban: A Preliminary Report, Al-Rāfidān, vol. 28, pp. 63–74, 2007
- Shibata, D., "An Old Babylonian Manuscript of the Weidner God- List from Tell Taban.", Iraq, vol. 71, pp. 43– 52, 2009
- Yamada, S., "Old Babylonian School Exer-cises from Tell Taban.", Pages 45– 68 in Scribal Educationa and Scribal Traditions. Vo l . 1 of Culture and Societies in the Middle Euphra-tes and Habur Areas in the Second Millennium BC. Edited by Shigeo Yamada and Daisuke Shibata. Studia Chaburensia 5. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2016
- Yamada, S., "An Adoption Contract from Tell Taban, the Kings of the Land of Hana and the Hana-Style Scribal Tradition.", RA, vol. 105, pp. 61–84, 2011