Animals, Ancestors, and Ritual in Early Bronze Age Syria: An Elite Mortuary Complex from Umm El-Marra (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781950446421)

Animals, Ancestors, and Ritual in Early Bronze Age Syria: An Elite Mortuary Complex from Umm el-Marra, edited by Johns Hopkins professor Glenn M. Schwartz, is a final report of the excavation of Tell Umm el-Marra in northern Syria, conducted in 1994-2010. It is likely the site of ancient Tuba, capital of a small kingdom in the Early and Middle Bronze periods, in the Jabbul plain between Aleppo and northern Mesopotamia. Its study advances our understanding of early Syrian complex society beyond the big cities of Antiquity. Of particular importance in the Early Bronze excavations are the results from the site necropolis, tombs of high-ranking persons containing objects of gold, silver, and lapis lazuli. Separate installations hold kungas (donkey x onager hybrids), sometimes along with human infants. This site provides the first archaeological attestation of the kunga equids, unique in the archaeology of third-millennium Syria and Mesopotamia.

Author: Glenn M. Schwartz
ISBN-10: 1950446425
ISBN-13: 9781950446421
Publisher: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology
Language: English
Published: 02/01/2024
Pages: 715
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 5.64lbs
Size: 11.30h x 8.90w x 2.00d