Arabic:أم المرة | |
  Shown within Syria | |
| Location |  Syria |
|---|---|
| Region | Aleppo Governorate |
| Coordinates | 36°08′02″N37°41′38″E / 36.133791°N 37.693819°E /36.133791; 37.693819 |
| Area | 25 ha |
Umm el-Marra, (Arabic:أم المرة), east of modernAleppo in the Jabbul Plain of northernSyria, was one of theancient Near East's oldest cities, located on a crossroads of two trade routes northwest ofEbla, in a landscape that was much more fertile than it is today. Possibly this is the city of Tuba mentioned in Egyptian inscriptions listing cities that were defeated or destroyed in the PharaohThutmose III's north Syrian campaign. The city of Tuba is also mentionedin epigraphic remains fromEbla,Mari, andAlalakh.
Umm el-Marra VI:In the Early Bronze III (c. 2750/2700-2350 BC), Umm el-Marra was an important hub with about 3000-5000 inhabitants. At the beginning of this period, the region was wetter than today, but by 2500 BC climate became gradually drier.
Umm el-Marra V-IV:In the Early Bronze IV (c. 2350-2000 BC), the dry climate intensified and cities on the Jabbul Plain experienced a collapse of central authority between 2200-2000 BC (4.2 ka event). A possible explanation may lie in the effects of sustained drought on overstressed primitive agriculture. Dr. Glenn Schwartz ofJohns Hopkins, who conducted field archaeology at Umm el-Marra, suggested in 1994 that "they placed extensive demands on their environments, continually intensifying their agriculture to feed more people. The added stress from a few dry years may have been the straw that broke the camel's back." Level V contains Tomb 1 with pottery similar to Mardikh IIB1 Ebla Palace G.
Umm el-Marra Level IIId:In the Transitional EB IV-MB I, the site was never completely abandoned. Thus, this region saw some continuation as opposed to a collapse following the severe drought conditions that had prevailed. In the MB I (c. 2000-1820 BC) it gradually recovered.
Umm el-Marra Levels IIIa-c:In the MB IIA (c. 1820 BC), the city saw a renaissance while controlled by theAmorites. At this time, it became a regional capital subject to the Great Kingdom ofYamkhad centered on Aleppo. A series of public works saw the construction of ramparts with a mudbrickcity wall.
During the Late Bronze, the site was under the control of various powers. It would at one point have been under theMitanni Empire, andThutmose III of Egypt might have campaigned in the area.
Following the military campaigns ofSuppiluliuma I, it became part of theHittite Empire following the Fall ofCarchemish and the death ofTushratta of Mitanni around 1345 BC. The site was destroyed in the 14th century BC.
TheLate Bronze Age collapse saw the city completely abandoned by 1200/1190 BC.
After a long period of abandonment, the site was re-occupied in theHellenistic andRoman periods.
The site covers around 25 hectares. It was surrounded with a city wallwith 3 gates and a defensive ditch.Excavation of Umm el-Marra began in the late 1970s and early 1980s withsoundings by a Belgian team led by Roland Tefnin.[1][2][3][4]From 1994 until 2010, a joint archaeological team from theJohns Hopkins University andtheUniversity of Amsterdam worked at Umm el-Marra.[5][6][7][8][9]
A rare intact, unlooted tomb, ca. 2300 BCE, uncovered by Dr. Schwartz's team in 2000 at the site, made science press headlines, for it contained five richly-adorned adults and three babies, some of whom were ornamented head-to-toe in gold and silver.[10][11]
It may be the oldest intact possibly royal tomb yet to be found in Syria. Dr. Schwartz noted of peculiar aspects in the burial that they 'may hint at ritual characteristics, rather than a tomb simply reserved for royalty or elite individuals.' The interment, which was above ground in ancient times, included three layers of skeletons in wooden coffins lined with textiles. The top layer includes traces of two coffins, each containing a young woman in her twenties and a baby. The women were the most richly ornamented of all the occupants of the tomb, with jewelry of silver, gold and lapis lazuli. Also of interest on this level was an accompanying lump of iron, possibly from a meteorite.Geochemical analysis of the iron, based on the ratio of iron to nickel andcobalt, confirms that the iron was meteoritic in origin.[12] One of the babies appeared to be wearing a bronzetorque, or collar.
In the layer below were coffins of two adult males and the remains of a baby at some distance from both men, close to the entrance of the tomb. This differs from the placement of the babies in the upper layer, where they were placed next to the women's bodies. Crowning the older man was a silver diadem decorated with a disk bearing a rosette motif, while the man opposite had a bronze dagger. The third and lowest layer held an adult male with a silver cup and silver pins.
All the individuals were accompanied by scores of ceramic vessels, some of which contained animal bones that may have been part of funerary animal offerings. Outside the tomb to the south, against the tomb wall, was a jar containing the remains of a baby, a spouted jar, and two skulls, horselike but apparently belonging neither to horses or donkeys. These equids were subsequently identified askunga, a hybrid of domestic donkey and wild ass.[13][14]
Incisions on four clay cylinders dated to c. 2400 BC have been hypothesized to beEarly Alphabetic Semitic writing, which would make them the oldest such examples.[15][16][17][18]
In 2004, Umm el-Marra had a population of 1,878.[19]
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