Options
Eighteen years on the frontiers of Assyria: the Ziyaret Tepe Archaeological Project
Matney, Timothy
MacGinnis, John
Wicke, Dirck
Koroglu, Kemalettin
2020
Abstract
This paper reviews the results of the archaeological investigations at Ziyaret Tepe, located on the river Tigris 60 km east of Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey. Known in antiquity as Tušhan, the site was a provincial capital and garrison town of the Assyrian Empire. While the project originally expected to have only a few years to conduct operations, we were in the end able to work at the site for a period of almost two decades. The approaches involved included surface collection, geo-physical prospection, large-scale excavation, targeted soundings and material, epigraphic and environmental analyses pursued through multiple techniques. The architecture uncovered included the remains of a palace, an administrative building, the defensive wall, a city gate and both high and low status housing. Key finds included cremation burials, an archive of cuneiform texts dating to the end of the empire, another tablet hinting at the existence of a previously unknown language, and evidence for the use of clay tokens in administration in the first millennium BC. Together these finds have helped us to document the occupation and utilisation of ancient Tušhan across the whole span of Neo- Assyrian rule, from its (re-)founding by Ashurnasirpal II in 882 BC to its abandonment as the empire collapsed in 611 BC.
Publisher
EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste
Source
Timothy Matney, John MacGinnis, Dirck Wicke, Kemalettin Koroglu, "Eighteen years on the frontiers of Assyria: the Ziyaret Tepe Archaeological Project", in: Katia Gavagnin, Rocco Palermo (Edited by), "Imperial Connections. Interactions and Expansion from Assyria to the Roman Period. Volume 2. Proceedings of the 5th “Broadening Horizons” Conference (Udine 5-8 June 2017)", Trieste, EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, 2020, pp. 85-118
Languages
en
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internazionale
File(s)