Tell Chuera

Harbe
(({1))}
Shown within Syria
Location	Raqqa Governorate, Syria
Region	Northern Mesopotamia
Coordinates	36°38′44.88″N 39°29′53.88″E / 36.6458000°N 39.4983000°E / 36.6458000; 39.4983000
Type	tell
Site notes
Excavation dates	1958–1960s 1973–1977 1982-present
Archaeologists	A. Moortgat, U. Moortgat-Correns, W. Orthmann, J.-W. Meyer

Tell Chuera (also Tell Ḫuera and Tall Ḥuwaira and Tall Chuera and Tell Khuera) is an ancient Near Eastern tell site in Raqqa Governorate, northern Syria. It lies between the Balikh and Khabur rivers.

Archaeology

The site of Tell Chuera is roughly 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) in diameter and 18 metres (59 ft) high. The site was first described by Max von Oppenheim in 1913. Excavations were begun in 1958 by a team from the Free University of Berlin led by Anton Moortgat. These efforts continued until the late 1960s. Mittani period structures (Knicksachstempel and Mittani-Bau) were uncovered.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} With a new co-leader, Ursula Moortgat-Correns, digs occurred in 1973, 1974 and 1976.^[6][7][8] At the top of the mound three buildings of undressed stone were found (Steinbau I, II, and III) and in the center a mudbrick temple building (Kleiner Antentempe - Smaller Antentemple). In Steinbau I, which had 6 building phases, decorated bronze vessels and bent copper pins with ball heads and flattened perforated shanks (similar to those in the royal cemetery at Ur) from the Early Dynastic period were found. Some clay sealings, sealed with typical ED cylinder seals, were also recovered. The temple had a processional way "lined with rough, megalithic stone stelai" between 2 and 3 meters in height. In an adjacent area were found a number of alabaster statue fragments of votive statues representing males with long wigs, square-cut beards and garments with fleecy fringes, the tallest being 35 centimeters.^[9] After a 5 year hiatus caused by the death of Anton Moortgat in 1977 work resumed in 1982. Two teams worked at the site, one under the direction of Winfried Orthmann of the University of Halle and the other under Ursula Moortgat-Correns, until 1998.^[10][11][12] Excavation then was taken up by a team from the Goethe University Frankfurt, under the direction of Professor Jan-Waalke Meyer from 1998 to 2005.^[13]

History

Originally occupied during the 4th millennium, Tell Chuera became a major site in the 3rd millennium during the Early Dynastic period.^[14] It reached its peak around 2350 BC and was then abandoned for reasons as yet unknown. A small settlement was built on the location by the Mittani during the middle 2nd millennium BC followed by the Assyrians. Equid bones from that period have been identified as horses.^[15] During Middle Assyrian times it was known as Harbe.^[16] It has been proposed that in earlier times its name was Abarsal^[17]