Tell Taban is an archaeological site in north-easternSyria in theAl-Hasakah Governorate, near theHabur river. It is the site of the ancient city of Ṭābatum/Ṭābetu (rarely Ṭabēte).
Map of the Khabur Basin during the Bronze Age showing the location of Tell Taban (at the bottom) in relation to other important sites
The site was first excavated by a Kokushikan University Archaeological Mission team led by Hirotoshi Numoto from 1997 until 1999 as a salvage operation in response to the effects of the Hassake dam.[1][2][3] A number of inscribed objects, mostly building inscriptions, were found. The site was again excavated in 2005 through 2010. More inscriptions and an archivecontaining over 100cuneiform tablets were found, dating to the Old Babylonian and Middle Assyrian Periods.[4][5][6][7][8]
The city was mentioned in 18th century BC as a regional center named Ṭābatum in the tablets of the kingdom ofMari, and was destroyed bySamsu-Iluna of Babylon.[9][10] In a text from the time of rulerZimri-Lim found at Mari an official was sent to Ṭābatum which was being incorporated into the province ofQattunan. He traveled throughSaggarâtum and on arriving found that the city had been completely evacuated before some unstated menace.[11] Although it was about 200kilometers away from Mari it is known the Zimri-Lim maintained a large estate at Ṭābatum.[12] Afterward the city come under the control of the kingdom ofKhana centered onTerqa for a time.[13]
A few centuries later Khana was part of the Mitanni Empire. The Fall ofMitanni to Suppiluliuma I in 1345 BC, saw this area come under the Assyrians.
Ṭābetu had an autonomous dynasty ruled the city between the mid 14th and early 12th centuries BC as vassals of the Middle Assyrian kings; the rulers of Ṭābetu styled themselves "the kings of Ṭābetu and the Land of Mari".[14] It is important to note that in thisperiod two places went by the name "Land of Mari", one in the area aroundMãri (Tell Hariri) in the Middle Euphrates region and the other in the area around Tell Taban in the Middle Habur region.[15]
By the time of middle-Assyrian period kingdom of Ṭābetu, the designation "Mari" was likely used to indicate the lands around Ṭābetu and did not refer to the ancient kingdom of Mari located on theEuphrates.[16] Another possibility is that Mari from the Ṭābetu king's title correspond to "Marê"; a city mentioned c. 803 BC in the stele of Nergal-ereš, aLimmu of theneo-Assyrian kingAdad-nirari III. Marê was mentioned in association with Raṣappu which was likely located in the southern and eastern slopes of theSinjar Mountains.[17]
It is thought that in this period there was a shrine of the goddessGulaat the site.[18][19]
It has been proposed that there was a temple ofSebettu at the site in this period. During the reign of local ruler Aššur-Ketta-Lešir I a letter found at Tell Taban addressed to one Labeʾtu reads "Let me deliver 1 sūtu of fine oil, which my lady requested. It will enter the temple of the Sebettu, who protects you".[20]
The origin of the dynasty is vague; the first known two rulers boreHurrian names.[21] However, "the land of Mari" is mentioned in the HurrianMitannian archive ofNuzi, and tablets dating to the 15th and 14th centuries BC from Tell Taban itself reveal that the inhabitants wereAmorites.[21] The dynasty could have been Amorite in origin but adopted Hurrian royal names to appease the Mitannian empire.[21] The kings of Ṭābetu seems to have acknowledged the authority of Assyria as soon as the Assyrian conquest of Mitanni began; in return, the Assyrians approved the continuation of the local dynasty whose rulers were quickly Assyrianised and adopted Assyrian names replacing the Hurrian names. This is a list of the kings of Ṭābetu who belonged to the same dynasty.[22]
^Ohnuma, K. et al., "Excavation at Tell Taban, Hassake, Syria (1): Report of the 1997 Season of Work", Al-Rafidan, vol. 20, pp. 1-47, 1999
^Ohnuma, K. et al., "Excavation at Tell Taban, Hassake, Syria (2): Report of the 1998 Season of Work", Al-Rafidan, vol. 21, pp. 1-70, 2000
^Ohnuma, K. et al., "Excavation at Tell Taban, Hassake, Syria (3): Report of the 1999 Season of Work", Al-Rafidan, vol., pp. 1-63, 2001
^Numoto, H., "Excavation at Tell Taban, Hassake, Syria (4): Preliminary Report of the 2005 Winter Season of Work", Al-Rāfidān, vol. 27, pp. 1-43, 2006
^[1]Hirotoshi Numoto, "Excavation at Tell Taban, Hassake, Syria (5). Preliminary Report of the 2005 Summer season" , Al-Rāfidān, vol. 28, p. 1-62, 2007
^[2]Numoto, H., "Excavations at Tell Taban, Hassake, Syria (6): Preliminary Report of the 2006 Season of Work", Al-Rāfidān, vol. 29, pp. 1-46, 2008
^Numoto, H., "Excavations at Tell Taban, Hassake, Syria; Preliminary Report on the 2007 Season of Excavations", in H. Numoto, ed., Excavations at Tell Taban, Hassake, Syria: Preliminary Report on the 2007 Season of Excavations, and the Study of Cuneiform Texts, Tokyo, pp. 1-86, 2009
^[3]Shibata, Daisuke, "Middle Assyryrian Administrative and Legal Texts from the 2005 Excavation at Tell Taban: A Preliminary Report", Al-Rāfidān, vol. 28, pp. 63–74, 2007
^[4]Numoto, Hirotoshi, Shibata, Daisuke and Yamada, Shigeo, "Excavations at Tell Taban, Continuity and Transition in Local Traditions at Ṭābatum/Ṭābetu during the second Millennium BC", in 100 Jahre archäologische Feldforschungen in Nordost-Syrien-eine Bilanz, edited by Dominik Bonatz, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, pp. 167-179, 2013ISBN978-3-447-10009-0
^Charpin, D., "Le “Pays de Mari et des bedouins”: À l’époque de Samsu-iluna de Babylone", RA 105, pp. 41–59, 2011
^Marti, Lionel, "Se réfugier à Ṭâbatum", Revue d’Assyriologie et d’archéologie Orientale, vol. 105, pp. 35–40, 2011
^Ziegler, Nele, "Iddin-Dagan, un gestionnaire à Ṭâbatum", Revue d’Assyriologie et d’archéologie Orientale, vol. 105, pp. 17–34, 2011
^Yamada, Shigeo, "The City of Ṭābatum and its Surroundings: The Organization of Power in the Post-Hammurabi Period", Organization, Representation, and Symbols of Power in the Ancient Near East: Proceedings of the 54th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale at Würzburg 20–25 Jul, edited by Gernot Wilhelm, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 591-604, 2022
^Shibata, Daisuke, "The Toponyms, 'the Land of Māri', in the Late Second Millennium B.C.", Revue d’Assyriologie et d’archéologie Orientale, vol. 105, pp. 95–108, 2011
^Frederick Mario Fales, "Mari: An Additional Note on 'Rasappu and Hatallu'", State Archives of Assyria Bulletin (SAAB), vol. 6, pp. 105-107, 1992
^Shibata, D., "The Gods of Ṭabetu during the Middle Assyrian Period and their Genealogy", in De l’ argile au numérique: mélanges assyriologiques en l’ honneur de Dominique Charpin, edited by Gregory Chambon et al. 2 Volumes, Leuven; Paris: Peeters, pp. 943–975, 2019
^Maul S., "Die Inschriften von Tall Ṭâbân (Grabungskampagne 1997-1999): Die Könige von Ṭâbêtu und das Land Mâri in mittelassyrischer Zeit", ASJ Supplementary Series 2, Tokio, 2005
^Konstantopoulos, G., "Early Foundations of Literary Evidence and Cultic Use", in The Divine/Demonic Seven and the Place of Demons in Mesopotamia. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, pp. 51–102, 2023
Numoto H., "Excavating an Assyrian Regional Centre: Result of the 2007 season at Tell Taban, Hassake", Chronique Archéologique en Syrie III, pp. 187-203, 2008
Ohnuma K., "Tell Taban 1997", Chronique Archéologique en Syrie II, pp. 121-124, 1998
Shibata, D., "An Old Babylonian Manuscript of the Weidner god-List from Tell Taban", Iraq, vol. 71, pp. 43–52, 2009
[5]Shibata, Daisuke, "The City of Tabetu and the Kings of the Land of Mari Middle Assyrian Texts from the 2005 Excavation at Tell Taban", Bulletin of the Society for Near Eastern Studies in Japan 51.1, pp. 1_69-1_86, 2008
[6]Yamada, Shigeo, "An adoption contract from Tell Taban, the kings of the land of Hana, and the Hana-style scribal tradition", Revue d’assyriologie et d’archéologie orientale 105.1, pp. 61-84, 2011
[7]Yamada, Shigeo, "A pudûm rotation list from Tell Taban and the cultural milieu of Ṭabatum in the post-Hammurabi period", Revue d’assyriologie et d’archéologie orientale 105.1, pp. 137-156, 2011
Yamada, S., "Old Babylonian School Exercises from Tell Taban", in Scribal Education and Scribal Traditions. Vol. 1 of Culture and Societies in the Middle Euphrates and Habur Areas in the Second Millennium BC. Ed . Shigeo Yamada and Daisuke Shibata. Studia Chaburensia 5. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, pp. 45–68, 2016
Yamada S., "Administration and Society in the City of Tabatum as seen in the Old Babylonian Texts from Tell Taban", Rafidan, Special Issue 2010, pp. 247-252, 2010
Yamada, Shigeo, "A Preliminary Report on the Old Babylonian Texts from the Excavation of Tell Taban in the 2005 and 2006 Seasons: The Middle Euphrates and Habur Areas in the Post-Hammurabi Period", al-Rāfidān 29, pp. 47-62, 2008
Yamada, Shigeo, "Sim’alites at Ṭabatum and the origin of the kingdom of the “Land of Hana”", De l’argile au numerique. Melanges assyriologiques en l’honneur de Dominique Charpin. Leuven, pp. 1189-1208, 2019
