Habuba Kabira

Habuba Kabira
Habuba Kabira is located in Syria
Habuba Kabira
Shown within Syria
LocationSyria
RegionAleppo Governorate
Coordinates36°09′05″N 38°03′43″E / 36.151446°N 38.061950°E / 36.151446; 38.061950
History
PeriodsLate Chalcolithic, Early Bronze, Middle Bronze
Site notes
Excavation dates1969-1975
ArchaeologistsErnst Heinrich, Eva Strommenger, André Finet

Habuba Kabira (also Hubaba Kabire and Habuba Kebira) is an ancient Near East archaeological site on the west bank of the Euphrates River in Aleppo Governorate, Syria, founded during the later part of the Uruk period in the later part of the 4th millennium BC. It was about 1300 kilometers from the southern Mesopotamia city of Uruk, five kilometers north of Tell Halawa, ten kilometers south of Mumbaqat, and eight kilometers upstream from Jebel Aruda. The site was excavated as part of a rescue archaeology effort due to the construction of the Tabqa Dam and is now mostly underwater.[1] The Habuba Kabira complex consists of two sites

  • Habuba Kabira South (also Habuba Kabira Süd), a protoliterate flat site Lower Town with the adjacent acropolis of Tell Qanas (also Tall Qannas or Tell Kannas) Upper Town. It was founded on virgin soil in the [Uruk period|[Late Uruk period]] and was occupied for around 120 years before being abandoned.
  • Habuba Kabira North, a high mound which was founded in the Uruk period and then occupied through the following Early Bronze and Middle Bronze Ages before being abandoned.[2]

Habuba Kabira North and Tell Kannas showed indications of some earlier use in the form of protoliterate clay tokens dating to the 7th through 4th millennium BC.

  1. ^ Freedman, David Noel, and John M. Lundquist. "Archeological Reports from the Tabqa Dam Project: Euphrates Valley, Syria." The Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research, vol. 44, 1977, pp. iii–182
  2. ^ Dornemann, Rudolph H., "Salvage Excavations at Tell Hadidi in the Euphrates River Valley", The Biblical Archaeologist, vol. 48, no. 1, pp. 49–59, 1985