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Preliminary Report on the Excavations at Tell Rifa‘at

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

M. V. Seton Williams
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Extract

Tell Rifa‘at, in the ‘Azaz Casa, is situated in the midst of the village of the same name, thirty-five kilometres to the north of Aleppo in the Syrian Region of the United Arab Republic.

The modern village, with a population of 5–6,000, is the seat of a Mudir Nahir; it lies five kilometres east of the Aleppo-‘Azaz road, close to the Turkish border, and is on the railway line from Aleppo to Istanbul. Trial excavations were made on this site by the Czech philologist Hrozny in 1924, but after three months’ work he abandoned his investigations; no detailed report on this work has so far been published, and apart from a few fragments in the Aleppo Museum no material from the excavation appears to be extant.

My attention was drawn to Tell Rifa‘at in 1953 in the course of a survey of sites on either side of the Syro-Turkish frontier; but it was not until 1956 that under the auspices of the Institute of Archaeology, University of London and with the assistance of a grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research and from the Australian Institute of Archaeology, Melbourne, a preliminary investigation of the site was undertaken. A further season had been planned for 1957, but owing to the political situation it was not possible to resume work until the summer of 1960, when a two-month season was carried out with the support of funds from the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology and the C. H. W. Johns Memorial Fund of Cambridge University, the Ashmolean Museum, the Australian Institute of Archaeology, Melbourne, the Russell Trust, and the City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 23 , Issue 1-2 , 1961 , pp. 68 - 87
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1961

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References

* A short article by Hrozný on Tell Rifa‘at appeared in the Central European Observer, Vol. IV, 1926, p. 512Google Scholar.

1 Cf. Schiffer, S., Die Aramäer (1911), 137, n. 9 (Teil Arfad)Google Scholar; Kraeling, E. G. H., Aram and Israel (1918), 65 (Teil Erfad)Google Scholar; Forrer, E., Die Provinzeinteilung des assyrischen Reiches (1920), 56 (Teil Rfad)Google Scholar.

2 L.A.R. I §477Google Scholar.

3 Wiseman, D. J., A Fragmentary Inscription of Tiglath pileser III from Nimrud, Iraq XVIII, Pt. 2, p. 123, obv. 24Google Scholar.

4 Landsberger, B., Sam’al, 29, n. 58Google Scholar, suggests that before 900 B.C. Iaḫan may have been a Hittite state.

5 L.A.R. I §476Google Scholar.

6 L.A.R. I §820Google Scholar; “cities of Bit-Adini” should be emended to “cities of Bit-Agusi,” cf. Forrer, op. cit. 56.

7 L.A.R. I §476Google Scholar.

8 L.A.R. I §§651, 653Google Scholar; Cameron, G. C., The Annals of Shalmamser III, Sumer VI, 22, obv. II 55–60, 69–70Google Scholar. Apparazu and Saruna, towns of Bit-Agusi, are identified by Forrer with modern Baradja (Rom. Abaraza) 20 km. east of Killis, on the east bank of the R. Kuweik, and modern Sarin, 13 km. south-east of Gaziantep, op. cit. 26, 56.

9 L.A.R. I §820Google Scholar. Alt, A., Z.D.M.G. 88, 239Google Scholar, suggests that at this period the frontier between Arpad and Hamath ran from the Jebel Sama’an in the north west to the Jebel el-Hass in the south-east.

10 L.A.R. I §§475–479Google Scholar. This campaign is not dated in the annals.

11 They consisted of “silver, gold, lead, [copper], cattle, sheep, garments made of brightly coloured wool and linen garments.”

12 The description of Arame as “son of (A)gusi” in the texts of Shalmaneser III refers not to his parentage, but to the fact that he was a member of the Bit-Agusi, cf. B. Landsberger, op. cit. 37, n. 82. The Aramaic equivalent of this title, Bar-Gush, is given to the ruler of Arpad in the Zakir inscription, see p. 73 below.

13 G. C. Cameron, op. cit. 20, obv. I, 47–8.

14 L.A.R. I §§599–600Google Scholar.

15 Ibid, §601. Arame's gifts in 858 and 857 included wine and 5,000 sheep. The village of Tell Rifa’at has extensive vineyards and is said to produce some of the best sheep in Syria.

16 Cf. E. G. H. Kraeling, op. cit., 71.

17 L.A.R. I §610Google Scholar.

18 Ibid, §§567, 651–55; G. C. Cameron, op. cit. 22, obv. II 55-III 15; Safar, Fuad, A Further Text of Shalmaneser III, Sumer VIII, obv. II 45–51Google Scholar.

19 The location of Arne is uncertain; R. Dussaud suggests an identification with Erin, S.W. of Tell Rifa’at, Topographie historique de la Syrie antique et médiévale, 468, n. 5Google Scholar. Another possibility is Tell Arane in the Plain of Jabbul, which has Aramaean material, see P.E.Q. 1942, 30Google Scholar.

20 King, L. W., Bronze Reliefs from the Gates of Shalmaneser, 33, pls. LXVI–LXXIGoogle Scholar.

21 See p. 71 n. 8 above.

22 E. Forrer, op. cit. 26.

23 L.A.R. I §582Google Scholar.

24 Op. cit. 26.

25 L.A.R. I §743Google Scholar. Adad-nirari III states that after crossing the Euphrates on his march against Damascus he received the submission of kings who in the time of šamši-Adad had rebelled and withheld tribute. It is probable t####ha the reference is to the rulers of Syria.

26 Pognon, H., Inscriptions sémitiques de la Syrie, de la Mésopotamie et de la région de Mossoul, 156 ffGoogle Scholar; Lidzbarski, M., Ephemeris für semitische Epigraphik, III, 1 ff.Google Scholar

27 Dupont-Sommer, A., Les Araméens, 47Google Scholar.

28 C.A.H. III, 28Google Scholar.

29 Chronicle, Eponym, R.L.A. II, 429Google Scholar; L.A.R. I §§735, 739-40Google Scholar.

30 Chronicle, Eponym, R.L.A. II, 430Google Scholar.

31 Weidner, F., A.f.O. VIII, 17 ff.Google Scholar

32 A Dupont-Sommer, Les inscriptions araméennes de Sfiré (Stèles I & II), 1958 (text and translation of Stela III in appendix); Une inscription araméenne inédite Sfiré, Bulletin du Musée de Beyrouth, XIII, 1956, 23 ff. (Stela III)Google Scholar.

33 Stela I, A, ll. 5–6. “All Aram” should refer to the Aramaean states of Syria. The geographical expression “ all Upper and Lower Aram,” apparently distinguished from “all Aram,” is not otherwise attested and its significance is uncertain. Dupont-Sommer, p. 29, suggests that it refers to the Aramaean countries of Mesopotamia. The identification of Muṣru is difficult as there would seem to be three countries of that name: Egypt, a state in the Taurus and another cast of Assyria (cf. Garelli, P., art. Muṣur (mat Muṣri) in Supplément au Dictionnaire de la Bible, V, fasc. xxix, 1957, col. 1468–1474Google Scholar). In this inscription, however, a reference to Egypt can be excluded.

34 Stela I, B, ll. 9–10. Dupont-Sommer, p. 73, s uncertain whether “the Valley” refers to the Beq’a or to Babylonia.

35 R.A. 28, 175 ff.Google Scholar

36 Bulletin du Musée de Beyrouth, XIII, 38–41Google Scholar; Les Inscriptions araméennes de Sfiré 1958, 22Google Scholar.

37 L.A.R. I §§769, 813Google Scholar.

38 R.L.A. II, 430Google Scholar.

39 Cf. Saggs, H. W., Iraq XVII, Pt. 2, pp. 144 ff.Google Scholar

40 R.L.A. II, 430Google Scholar.

41 This is nowhere expressly stated but is made certain by numerous references to the Assyrian governor of Arpad, cf. E. Forrer, op. cit. 56, 68; A.J.S.L. XXI, 86Google Scholar; XXII, 222, 229; XXX, 280. One governor, Zazaia, was eponym for the year 692, R.L.A. II, 457Google Scholar; J. Kohler and A. Ungnad, Assyrische Rechtsurkunden, nos. 36, 173.

42 D. J. Wiseman, op. cit., 123, obv. 24–5.

43 Arpad is cited as an example of Assyrian revenge in 2 Kings xviii.34, xix.13; Isaiah x.9Google Scholar.

44 L.A.R. II §§55, 134Google Scholar.

45 References to Arpad occur in Assyrian documents down to the time of Aššurbanipal, cf. R.C.A.E., nos. 43, 221, 372, 395, 601, 1287; J. Kohler and A. Ungnad, op. cit., nos. 173, 268.

46 A report on these shells has not yet been received.

47 Compare section of M 6 (Plate XXXVI), where similar evidence, though more scanty, suggests a period of desertion.

48 These were reported on by Hans Helbaek, who also noted the presence of grape pips at Hama (Hama II, 3, (1948), Appendix 1Google Scholar).

49 From information communicated by Miss Virginia Grace of the Agora Expedition.

50 From information kindly supplied by Miss du Plat Taylor, based on unpublished material from al Mina (now in the Institute of Archaeology, London); and also from Woolley, C. L., Al Mina, Sueidia, J.H.S. 58, fig. 27:14Google Scholar, Levels 5–6, and Plate X, Level 2.

51 A conical seal, found unstratified, also belongs to this level.

52 The site plans will be published with the full report.

53 Layer (6) in M 6 now includes the former (7–9b), (11a), (18) and (20).

Layer (7) in M 6 now includes the former (10) and (12).

Layer (8) now = (11b).

Layer (9) now = (13).

54 Barrett, R. D., Iraq XII, Pt. 2, Pl. XXII:1Google Scholar; S. Lloyd, Early Anatolia. Pl. 27.

55 But this is the first time objects of this nature have been found on a Syrian site.

56 Luschan, Von F. v., Ausgrabungen in Sendschirli, IV, Abb. 204bGoogle Scholar

57 v. Luschan, op. cit., Abb. 209.

58 Thureau-Dangin and others, Arslan Tash, fig. 9.

59 All material excavated from Tell Rifa‘at is housed in the National Museum at Damascus, with the exception of a few objects deposited in Aleppo.