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Other Archaeological Sites / The Neolithic of the Levant (500 Page Book Online) Ancient Tell Sweyhat
Tell Sweyhat was occupied from the beginning of the third millennium BC. It was initially a relatively small village localized in the area of the central mound. The settlement may have encompassed an area of 15 hectares by the mid-third millennium and had tripled in size to become an urban state center by the end of the third millennium. The late third millennium represents a peak period of settlement not just at Tell Sweyhat but on the plain around it. The original settlement became a fortified center or citadel and a substantial outer (lower) town emerged around it. The entire site was enclosed by a wall at that time ... Tell Sweyhat collapsed probably early in the second millennium but the site continued to be occupied in an Early Bronze-Middle Bronze transitional period. With its population decreased markedly the settlement retracted to the area of the central mound. Tell Sweyhat was abandoned certainly no later than 1800 since no Middle Bronze IIB ceramics have been recovered in excavations or on the surface. Tell Sweyhat was reoccupied a thousand years after its collapse in the Hellenistic and late Roman periods ... The Tell Sweyhat plain has a mean annual precipitation of 200-300 mm and relatively high interannual variability of 25 to 35 percent. These factors place it at the southern limit of the semi-arid "transitional zone" between the desert steppe and the better-watered lands of northern and western Syria. Dry farming, although possible, is nevertheless precarious and pastoralism would probably have been a critical part of the subsistence economy in the past as it is today. Indeed some combination of small-scale non-intensive agriculture and pastoralism could be argued to be the most viable long-term subsistence strategy in such a marginal environment ... Reference: Tell Sweyhat Archaeological Project (University of Pennsylvania) |
The Tell Sweyhat Project is an archaeological expedition carrying out excavations at Tell Sweyhat which is a large mounded site located on the left (east) bank of the Euphrates circa 65 kilometers down river from Jerablus (ancient Carchemish) on the Syrian/Turkish border. The excavations at Sweyhat are jointly sponsored by The Oriental Institute of Chicago and the University Museum at the University of Pennsylvania ...
