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CHAPTER1
GEOGRAPHICALCONTEXT
ANDARCHAEOLOGICALEVIDENCE
1.1LOCATIONANDNATURALSETTING
TellArbidissituatedintheSyrianJezirah,inthe
UpperKhaburriverbasin,inanareaalsoknown
astheKhaburTriangle[Fig.1.1].Thesiteislocat-
edonthewadirunningmoreorlessnorthtosouth
betweentheperiodicalriversWadiJaghjaghand
WadiKhanzir(Wilkinsonetal.2010:Fig.6).Sev-
eralwadis(fromwesttoeast,therearetheWadi
Aweij,theWadiKhanzir,theWadiJaghjagh,the
WadiJarrah,theWadiKuneizirandtheWadiRu-
meilan)cutthroughtheUpperKhaburbasinfrom
northtosouthanddraintheWadiel-Radd—atrib-
utaryoftheKhabur.ItseemsthattheKhaburhad
amuchgreaterflowinthePleistocene,whichis
whyitsvalleyismuchlargerthantheriver’scur-
rentflow.Asaresultofoverpumpingforirrigation
waterbothinSyriaandTurkey,asignificantdrop
intheflowoftheKhaburanditstributarieshas
beenobservedinrecentyears(Wilkinson2003:
101).Nowadays,theWadiJaghjaghisanintermit-
tentstream,althoughitwasaperennialriveruntil
recently.Geomorphologicalandarchaeobotanical
surveysdemonstratethat,betweenthemid-4th
millenniumandthemid-3rdmillenniumBC,the
Jaghjaghwasariverwithastrongandrelativelysta-
bleflow,withwillowsandCyperusgrassesgrowing
onitsbanks(Deckers,Riehl2007b:345).
TellArbidissituatedinpresent-daynorth-east-
ernSyria,inHassekeProvince,ca.45kmnortheast
fromtheProvince’scapitalandca.30kmsouth-
westofthecityofQamishli.TellArbidislocated
inthecentreoftheUpperKhaburregion,atadis-
tanceofca.25kmfromtheregion’simportant
cities:TellMozan(Urkesh)andTellBrak(Nagar)
ontheroutethatconnectedNagarwithUrkesh;
thelattercontrolledtheroadgoingnorththrough
theMardinpasstowardsAnatoliawithitsabun-
dantnaturalresources.
Jezirahisanundulatingplainelevatedto
theheightof300-400ma.s.l.,delineatedtothe
northbytheTurAbdinmountainrange.Theonly
DAMASCUS
HAMA
ALEPPO
JORDAN
SYRIA
TURKEY
Euphrates
HASSEKE
QAMISHLI
Khabur
IRAQ
JebelAbdal-Aziz
TellBeydar
TellKneidij
TellChagarBazar
TellMelebiya
HASSEKE
Aweij
Khabur
TellMozan
TellBderi
TellRadShaqrah
TellRaqa’i
Khanzir
TellAtij
TellBrak
TellArbid
QAMISHLI
Jaghjagh
0
TellBarri
TellHamidiya
Radd
Jarrah
TellLeilan
TellMuhammadDiyab
JebelSinjar
TellHamoukar
100km
Tigris
Fig.1.1TheUpperKhaburregion
PAMMonographSeries9
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