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Syrian-Spanish Mission		Photo Gallery
	Archaeological Project in the Syrian Middle Euphrates With the support of the Foundation Osmane Mounif AIDI and the Spanish Ministry of Culture Prospections : At the origin of civilization In 2004, the signature of an agreement between the Faculty of Humanitarian Studies of La Corogne University (Spain) and the General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums in Syria, gave birth to the Syrian-Spanish Archaeological Project in the Syrian Middle Euphrates.

	The aim of this mission is to study a sector of the Euphrates Valley, located in the province of Deir Ezzor. It is an impressive gorge where the river flows between two basalt castings forming a site called Halabiya or Hanuqa (pass) by the Arabs. This point of change of the direction of the Syrian Middle Euphrates Valley, constituted a strategic zone to control the river traffic, which was very heavy in the region since the end of the IVth millennium B.C. The navigability of the Euphrates river favored the communication, hence the commercial exchange between the north of Syria and the South-east of Turkey on one hand, and the Mesopotamian plain (the present Iraq) on the other hand. The gorge of Hanuqa is a place which no doubt has conditioned the historical future of the Syrian-Mesopotamian region. Considering its strategic importance, man has tried since the origins of civilization to exercise a tight control on it. However, if we refer to all the archaeological maps which have been published on the region, this gorge was depopulated in the pre-classical epoch. This gap in the human occupation during the period of the Great Kingdoms and Empires of the Near-East couldn't be real. It was probably the consequence of a lacuna of the modern research. Both campaigns on the site which were achieved in 2005 and 2006 by the Syrian-Spanish team of the Archaeological Project of the Syrian Middle Euphrates, have confirmed our hypothesis. The region close to the Hanuqa gorge was inhabited much earlier before the classical period. Archaeological prospection works on the site have enabled us to document up to now six sites which are dated end IVth and second half of the 1st millennium B.C. viz.: Tall Abu Fahd, Tall Qsubi, Tall Qubr, Tall Tibni, Tall Abu Makiya and Tall Humeida. This continuity of the human presence in the area, is clearly showing the geographic and economic importance of the region subject of our study. Summing up, it concerns almost three millenniums of history that are accumulated at the entry and exit of the Hanuqa pass. Amongst the many discoveries made in the zone, one of the most significant has taken place in 2006 : it concerns Tall Humeida. The Discovery of this archaeological site has allowed to appear a key site for the researches on the origins of the urban civilization, i.e. the first towns and the first history texts. Finally, the first complex societies of which we have certitude. Curiously, Tall Humeida was not an unknown site, for some explorators and European travelers of the XIXth and XXth century refer to it in their books. For example Gertrude Bell has visited the site in 1910. On the ruins of Humeida, the English traveler gives us the following description : .there were vestiges of a considerable town, cut stones, brick wall and a stone sarcophagus. According to her, these remains match with the ancient town of Thillada Mirrada, which is quoted in La Route des Parthes (IIIrd century B.C.). Unfortunately, Bell was wrong in her identification, because the vestiges which she describes in her book A Journey Along the Banks of the Euphrates, belong to the Byzantine epoch (VIth century A.D.). Apart from these vestiges of the late roman period, the study which was made by our team has shown that most of the archaeological remains that form the Humeida hill belong to what was a settlement founded by populations who arrived from the meridional Mesopotamia more than 5000 years ago. Since the IV century B.C., the culture of Uruk (a town situated in southern Iraq) has developed a complex process of territorial expansion through the Euphrates and Tigris valleys, also through the south-west of Persia. The aim was to found, for reasons that still are unknown, enclaves and settlements endowed with a culture typically Mesopotamian, outside its territory, namely the geographical sector known as the Sumer land. The Uruk culture constitutes one of the most fascinating and brilliant stages of the Ancient Universal History. Uruk represents the birth of civilization, an incomparable experience which will transform the prehistorical societies in more complex ones. We are attending the process of setting up the first state, or the archaic state which will modify totally the economy and the society of that epoch. It is a period of great achievements : the first urbanism, the first monumental architecture, the first wheel, the first writing, the first serial production, etc. Finally it concerns the epoch of the fist towns or the Urban revolution. It is the beginning of History. To this fascinating cultural context belongs the archaeological site of Tall Humeida which is identified by the Syrian-Spanish team in 2006. Amongst the archaeological materials which were recovered on the surface of Tall Humeida, one can talk about the mass presence of a type of ceramic which is generally defined as guiding fossile of the Uruk culture : the bowls with beveled edge, a type of vat or porringer very rough, which precise function remain unknown and has given rise to many assumptions. Obviously we are watching the result of a serial ceramic production dated of the epoch that specialists call Recent Uruk (3300 B.C.). Beside the prospection work on the Hanuqa gorge, the Syrian-Spanish team carried out borings on the Tall as-Sin site (10 km to the south of Deir Ez-Zor). It concerns a big fortified town and a necropolis (200 tombs hypogeum) of the Byzantine period, founded on the oriental frontier of the Roman Empire to control the Sassanide Persian armies at the epoch of Justinien (VIth century A.D.). We envisaged to publish by end 2007 a big book on the necropolis of Tall as-Sin. The future of the project The 3rd site campaign will take place between August 21 and September 23, 2007. The target is to terminate the prospection works on the Hanuqa gorge and excavation at Tall as-Sin, by realizing borings, topographical, mapping, photographical, anthropological, etc.works. A Second stage of the project is foreseen to start in 2008 with archaeological excavations of the Urukan site of Tall Humeida. In fact we started the administrative formalities with the General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums with view of obtaining the excavation permit. Prof. Dr. Juan Luis Montero Fenollos Scientifical Director of the Project La Corogne University, Spain