< home # store # services # articles # game # app #contact >

Located in the Balik river valley, northern Syria, are four prehistoric mounds. Tell Sabi Abyad is Arabic: ‫ض ‫ي ‫ب ‫أ ‫ي ‫ب ‫ص ‫ل ‫ت or ‘mound of the white boy’

It has been shown, a site in northern Syria was already inhabited almost 10,000 years ago. Or, 7500 to 5500 BC. (1)

Excavation in 1986 (2)
They begin digging at mound 1 in 1986. Among the finds were several tablets and stamp seals. And, further to signs of early neolithic rule. More than 1000 unbaked clay sling missles stored in a container.

By 1991 and 92. It was not possible to fully excavate the 4th mound. Because of its use as a local cemetery. They were able to focus on other areas though, for a longer period of time. Before,  in 2010 when Syrian civil war broke out.

New types of architecture existed. It included extensive storehouses and small circular buildings (tholoi)

There was multi room rectangular buildings.  And, later remains of a massive structure dating to the bronze age. It had 8 rooms with giant 2.5m walls, and a staircase. (3) With evidence of garrison station. (4)

Tell Sabi Abyad is one of the important sites of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period
They had large crops of emmer wheat. Einkorn, barley, flax too. Peas and lentils were also found. (5)

Animal domestication was predominantly goats, but also sheep, cattle and pigs (5)
A small number of gazelle were hunted.

Back then, poplar, willow and ash trees would have grown. Its believed the area of Mesopotamia proper was not yet settled by humans.

Pottery was somewhat similar to other prehistoric sites
Tell Sabi Abyad pottery has variations of what had been found at Tell Seker al-Aheimar, Tell Halula, Akarçay Tepe Höyük, and Mezraa-Teleilat. They had dark faced burnished ware, a fine ware resembling hassuna and samarra ware. Often featuring horned animals. Some of the pots had angled necks and ornate geometric designs.

Did you know? Dating to 6900-6800 BC. Consisting of mineral-tempered, and sometimes painted. The oldest pottery in Syria was discovered. Remarkably, it was of very high quality. Later on, they stopped painting and the quality declined. At the moment, the question of why residents stopped painting is unanswered.

There was complex decorated pottery, in different shapes and wares; clay spindle worls. small transverse arrowheads, and short tangled points; and, seals or sealings
All indications of property.

Around 6200 BC. Cultural changes took place, connected to the 8.2 kiloyear event
Though the villages were not abandoned. (6)

A strange ‘burnt village’ exists here.  Around 6000 BC. There was a fire.

Pottery, and stone vessels, figurines and tools were recovered
Many of the buildings must have been used for store houses. (6)  Because one had over 150 clay sealings with stamp seals. As well as, counting tokens and other goods. Including ceramics, stone shells, axes, bone carvings, and human clay figurines. Its believed the site may have one of the earliest developed registration and administrative systems.

Largest collection of clay tokens, and sealings found yet (7)
Made by a minimum of 61 stamp seals. Over two hundred and seventy-five were found.

At the site Tell Sabi Abyad I is the largest excavation
It is about 240 meters by 170 meters; and, with a height of 10 meters. This was a big project. Believed to be occupied in the 6th millennium before christ.

Tell Sabi Abyad II was a 246x410x15 foot dig
Dates around 7550 and 6850 BC. (4)(8) The site shows an uninterrupted sequence from the pre-pottery to ceramic phase.

The site has sites suffered significant damage from Syrian civil war (9)

The key findings at Tell Sabi Abyad include evidence of neolithic settlement. There pottery, and artifacts help provide invaluable insights into the development of human civilization. The site contributes to understanding the transition from hunter-gatherer. To settled agriculture, and the emergence of complex societies in Mesopotamia.  During the neolithic, or ‘new stone age’.

Cite: 1) Fieldwork campaign: Tell Sabi Abyad (Syria) (https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/research
/research-projects/archaeology/tell-sabi-abyad-syria) universiteitleiden.nl

2) Peter M. M. G. Akkermans. “Tell Sabi Abyad: 1986 Campaign.” Syria, vol. 65, no. 3/4, 1988,
pp. 399–401

3) Lipiński, Edward (2000). The Aramaeans: Their Ancient History, Culture, Religion (https://book
s.google.com/books?id=rrMKKtiBBI4C&pg=PA122). Peeters Publishers.
ISBN 978-90-429-0859-8.

4) Gosden, Chris (1999). The Prehistory of Food: Appetites for Change (https://books.google.co
m/books?id=DMgKW9HleFoC&pg=PA344). Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-415-11765-4. pg 344
5) Maisels, Charles (1993). The Near East: Archaeology in the ‘Cradle of Civilization’ (https://boo
ks.google.com/books?id=tupSM5y9yEkC&pg=PA136). Psychology Press.
ISBN 978-0-415-04742-5. pg 136

6) J van der Plicht, P G Akkermans, O Nieuwenhuyse, A Kaneda, A Russell, Tell Sabi Abyad,
Syria: Radiocarbon Chronology, Cultural Change, and the 8.2 ka Event (https://journals.uai
r.arizona.edu/index.php/radiocarbon/article/view/3458/3740) RADIOCARBON, Vol 53, Nr
2, 2011, p 229–243

7) Maisels, Charles (1999). Early Civilizations of the Old World: The Formative Histories of Egypt,
the Levant, Mesopotamia, India and China (https://books.google.com/books?id=U2iKxwet1T
8C&pg=PA144). Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0-415-10975-8.

8) M. Verhoeven, P.M.M.G. Akkermans (eds.), Tell Sabi Abyad II – The Pre-Pottery Neolithic B
Settlement – Report on the Excavations of the National Museum of Antiquities Leiden in the
Balikh Valley, Syria, (PIHANS vol. 90) VIII, pp. 188, 2000. (http://www.nino-leiden.nl/publicat
ion.aspx?BK_id=00090) ISBN 978-90-6258-090-3

9) Casana J, Laugier EJ (2017) Satellite imagery-based monitoring of archaeological site
damage in the Syrian civil war. PLoS ONE 12(11): e0188589. https://doi.org/10.1371
/journal.pone.0188589

Bibliography: Sabi Abyad Website (http://www.sabi-abyad.nl/)
Nieuwenhuyse, Olivier P., et al., “Tracing pottery use and the emergence of secondary
product exploitation through lipid residue analysis at Late Neolithic Tell Sabi Abyad
(Syria)”, Journal of Archaeological Science 64, pp. 54–66, 2015
Rooijakkers, C. Tineke, “Spinning Animal Fibres at Late Neolithic Tell Sabi Abyad, Syria?”,
Paléorient, vol. 38, no. 1/2, pp. 93–109, 2012

Senner, Wayne M. (1991). The Origins of Writing (https://books.google.com/books?id=Kc4x
AlunCSEC&pg=PA29). U of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-9167-6.