Tell Sabi Abyad Project

Tell Sabi Abyad

In the late 1930s, Agatha Christie (indeed, the best-seller crime author…) and her husband, the archaeologist Max Mallowan, travelled through Northern Syria, on the road from Chagar Bazar to the town of Raqqa on the Euphrates. During their trip they visited the barren plain of the Balikh River and both of them were highly impressed by the archaeological richness of the region and its many ancient sites.

 

One of Max’s "whacking great Tells" was Tell Sabi Abyad, Arabic for “Mound of the White Boy”. Since 1986 archaeologists carry out large-scale excavations at this site. The results are spectacular: 9000-years-old prehistoric villages are exposed, as well as a Bronze Age fortress with hundreds of cuneiform texts.  

 

This is the official website of the archaeological project at Tell Sabi Abyad in Syria. Its aim is to provide information about the goals and results of the excavation and about the different aspects of the research being conducted at Tell Sabi Abyad.

 

Tell Sabi Abyad is a project of Leiden University and the National Museum of Antiquities.

We are renewing this website. Please be patient. 

Check this website regularly for updates!

 

See also our Facebook page: Tell Sabi Abyad Project - Syria

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SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS 

 AKKERMANS P.M.M.G.

2010	"Late Neolithic Architectural Renewal: The Emergence of Round Houses in the Northern Levant, ca. 6500- 6000 BC", in: Diane Bolger & Louise Maguire (eds.), The Development of Pre-State Communities in the Ancient Near East. Oxford: Oxbow Books, pp. 22-28. Download pdf
2008	"Burying the Dead in Late Neolithic Syria", in: J.M. Córdoba, M. Molist, M.C. Pérez, I. Rubio, S. Martínez (eds.), Proceedings of the Fifth International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. Madrid: UAM Editiones, pp. 621- 645. Download pdf
2006	"The Fortress of Ili-pada. Middle Assyrian Architecture at Tell Sabi Abyad, Syria", in: P. Butterlin et al. (eds.), Les espaces Syro-Mésopotamiens. Dimensions de l'expériencehumaine au Proche-Orient ancien. Turnhout : Brepols (Subartu XVII), pp. 201-211. Download pdf
2004	"Hunter-Gatherer Continuity: the Transition from the Epipalaeolithic to the Neolithic in Syria", in: O. Aurenche, M. Le Mière & P. Sanlaville (eds.), From the River to the Sea – The Palaeolithic and Neolithic on the Euphrates and in the Northern Levant. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports International Series 1263, pp. 281-293. Download pdf
2003	The Archaeology of Syria – From Complex Hunter-Gatherers to Early Urban Society, ca. 16,000–300 BC. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press. 467 pp. (second printing 2004).
2000	"Old and New Perspectives on the Origins of the Halaf Culture", in: O. Rouault & M. Wäfler (eds.), La Djéziré et l'Euphrate syriens de la Protohistoire à la fin du IIe millénaire av.J.-C. Turnhout: Brepols (Subartu VII), pp. 43-54. Download pdf
1999	"Pre-Pottery Neolithic B Settlement Patterns along the Balikh and Euphrates - Fact or Fiction?", in: G. del OlmoLete and J.-L. Montero Fenollós (eds.), Archaeology of the Upper Syrian Euphrates - The Tishrin Dam Area, Barcelona: Editorial Austa, pp. 523-533. Download pdf
1998	"The 1997 Excavations at Tell Sabi Abyad, Syria", Orient-Express 1998/1:11-12.
1997	"Excavations at Tell Sabi Abyad, 1996", Orient-Express 1997/2:38-40.
1997	"Seals and Seal Impressions from Middle Assyrian Tell Sabi Abyad, Syria", Subartu 4:243-258. Download pdf
1997	"Old and New Perspectives on the Origins of the Halaf Culture", in: O. Rouault and M. Wäfler (eds.), La Djéziré et l'Euphrate syriens de la Protohistoire à la fin du second millénaire av.J.-C., Paris: ERC, pp. 55-68.
1996	"Tell Sabi Abyad", in: Miroir d'un partenariat - Exposition Syro-Européenne d'Archéologie, Damascus: Ministery of Culture, DGAM, pp. 31-34.
1993/94	"Hirbat as-Sanaf 1988-1991", Archiv für Orientforschung XL/XLI:272-275.
1993/94	"Tell Sabi Abyad, 1991-92", Archiv für Orientforschung XL/XLI:261-267.
1993/94	"Tell Sabi Abyad, 1988", Archiv für Orientforschung XL/XLI:257-261.
1993	"Tell Sabi Abyad e Khirbet esh-Shenef", in: O. Rouault e M.G. Masetti-Rouault  (eds.), L'Eufrate e il tempo - Le civiltà del medioEufrate e della Gezira siriana, Milan: Electa, pp. 131-134.
1993	"Il periodo Halaf nell'Eufrate e nella Gezira", in: O. Rouault e M.G. Masetti-Rouault (eds.), L'Eufrate e il tempo - Le civiltà del medioEufrate e della Gezira siriana, Milan: Electa, pp. 27-29.
1993	Villages in the Steppe - Later Neolithic Settlement and Subsistence in the BalikhValley, Northern Syria, Ann Arbor: International Monographs in Prehistory. Download pdf
1992	"Tell Sabi Abyad", Chronique Archéologique en Syrie 1:36-40.
1991	"Khirbet esh-Shenef", American Journal of Archaeology 95:690-691.
1991	"Sabi Abyad", American Journal of Archaeology 95:695-697.
1991	"New Radiocarbon Dates for the Later Neolithic of Northern Syria", Paléorient 17:121-125. Download pdf
1989/90	"Tall Sabi Abyad 1986", Archiv für Orientforschung 36/37:293-300.
1989/90	"Tall Damishliyya", Archiv für Orientforschung36/37:235-238.
1989	"Tell Sabi Abyad: Stratigraphy and Architecture", in: P. Akkermans (ed.), Excavations at Tell Sabi Abyad – Prehistoric Investigations in the Balikh Valley, Northern Syria, Oxford: British Archaeological Reports International Series 468, pp. 17-75.
1989	"The Prehistoric Pottery of Tell Sabi Abyad", in: P. Akkermans (ed.), Excavations at Tell Sabi Abyad – Prehistoric Investigations in the Balikh Valley, Northern Syria, Oxford: British Archaeological Reports International Series 468, pp. 77-213.
1989	"The Other Small Finds of Tell Sabi Abyad", in: P. Akkermans (ed.,) Excavations at Tell Sabi Abyad – Prehistoric Investigations in the Balikh Valley, Northern Syria, Oxford: British Archaeological Reports International Series 468, pp. 285-293.
1989	"The Neolithic of the BalikhValley, Northern Syria: A First Assessment", Paléorient 15:122-134. Download pdf
1988	"Tell Sabi Abyad: 1986 Campaign", Syria 65:399-401.
1988	"The Soundings at Tell Damishliyya", in: M.N. van Loon (ed.), Hammam et-Turkman, Istanbul: NHAI, pp. 9-67. Download pdf
1987	"Tell Sabi Abyad: Preliminary Report on the 1986 Excavations", Akkadica 52:10-28.
1987	"A Late Neolithic and Early Halaf Village at Sabi Abyad, Northern Syria", Paléorient 13:23-40. Download pdf
1986/87	"Excavations at Tell Damishliyya, A Neolithic Settlement in the BalikhValley, Northern Syria", Annales Archéologiques Arabes Syriennes 36/37:40-66.
1984	"Archäologische Geländebegehung im Balih-Tal", Archiv für Orientforschung 31:188-190.

And Many More