Ziyaret Tepe
Ziyaret Tepe is located in Turkey
Ziyaret Tepe
Ziyaret Tepe
Location in Turkey
Coordinates: 37°47′37″N 40°47′035″E / 37.79361°N 40.79306°E / 37.79361; 40.79306

Tushhan (alternatively spelled as Tushan or Tušhan), also known as Ziyaret Tepe, was an ancient city in Mesopotamia and was a provincial capital in the upper Tigris river valley, on the south bank and inhabited since the Mitanni period, and mainly during the Neo-Assyrian period during the Iron Age.

It is now believed to be located at the site of the modern settlement of Tepe in Diyarbakır Province, Turkey.

History

The site of Ziyaret Tepe was occupied as early as the Early Bronze Age. Most of the urban development uncovered to date is from the Middle Iron Age, when the city was rebuilt after its collapse at the end of the Middle Assyrian period. In late Assyrian times it was known as Tushhan, until circa 612 BC to 605 BC, when that empire fell. The site was also occupied in a much smaller scale in the Hellenistic, Roman, Medieval and Ottoman periods. The site is expected to be inundated by the Ilısu Dam around 2014.

Archaeology

Work at the location began with 3 years of surface survey and remote sensing in 1997 [1][2][3] From 2000 until 2014 the site was being excavated by a team directed by Timothy Matney of the University of Akron.[4][5][6][7][8] [9] [10] [11]

An important assemblage of cuneiform clay tablets was found there, translated by Simo Parpola of Helsinki University.[12]

Controversial Neo-Assyrian tablet

A cuneiform tablet was discovered in 2009 at Ziyaret Tepe that contained a list of around 60 names. It was a list of women deported from an unknown location around 800 BC, during the Neo Assyrian Empire period. According to John MacGinnis of the University of Cambridge McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, these women may have come from around the Zagros Mountains. He said that the most likely possibility was that these names belonged to Shubrians, a people speaking a dialect of Hurrian.[13][14] This contention received little support.

Üçtepe

Ziyaret Tepe is quite close to the town of Üçtepe, located near Bismil, where in 1861 John George Taylor found the famous Kurkh Monoliths, Assyrian monuments that contain a description of the Battle of Qarqar — of interest to biblical and Ancient Near East studies.[15] In fact, Üçtepe was believed to have been the location of Tushan by some scholars in the past. Today the monoliths are located at the British Museum.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Timothy Matney, The First Season of Excavation at Ziyaret Tepe in the Diyarbakir Province, Anatolica, vol. 24, pp. 7-30, 1998
  2. ↑ Timothy Matney and Lewis Somers, The Second Season of Excavation at Ziyaret Tepe in the Diyarbakir Province, Anatolica, vol. 25, pp. 203-219, 1999
  3. ↑ Timothy Matney and A. Bauer, The Third Season of Archaeological Survey at Ziyaret Tepe in Diyarbakir Province, Anatolica, vol. 26, pp. 119-128, 2000
  4. ↑ Timothy Matney et al.,Archaeological Excavations at Ziyaret Tepe: 2000 and 2001, Anatolica, vol. 28, pp. 47-89, 2002
  5. ↑ Timothy Matney et al.,Archaeological Investigations at Ziyaret Tepe: 2002, Anatolica, vol. 29, pp. 175-221, 2003
  6. ↑ Timothy Matney and L. Rainville, Archaeological Investigations at Ziyaret Tepe: 2003 and 2004, Anatolica, vol. 31, pp. 19-68, 2005
  7. ↑ Timothy, Matney et al., Report on Excavations at Ziyaret Tepe, 2006 Season, Anatolica, vol. 33, pp. 23-73, 2007
  8. ↑ Timothy, Matney et al., Excavations at Ziyaret Tepe 2007-2008, Anatolica, vol. 35, pp. 37-84, 2009
  9. ↑ Timothy, Matney et al., Excavations at Ziyaret Tepe, Diyarbakir Province, Turkey, 2009-2010 Seasons, Anatolica, vol. 37, pp. 67-114, 2011
  10. ↑ Matney, Timothy ; Greenfield, Tina ; Köroʇlu, Kemalettin ; MacGinnis, John ; Proctor, Lucas ; Rosenzweig, Melissa ; Wicke, Dirk. / Excavations at ziyaret tepe, diyarbakir province, Turkey, 2011-2014 seasons. In: Anatolica. 2015 ; Vol. 41. pp. 125-176.
  11. ↑ Timothy Matney el al, Ziyaret Tepe Exploring the Anatolian frontier of the Assyrian Empire, Cornucopia Books, September 2017 ISBN 978-09565948-9-1
  12. ↑ S. Parpola, Cuneiform Texts From Ziyaret Tepe (Ancient Tushan) 2002-2003, State Archives of Assyria Bulletin, vol. 16, 2006
  13. ↑ Archaeologists discover lost language - University of Cambridge
  14. ↑ John MacGinnis, Evidence for a Peripheral Language in a Neo-Assyrian Tablet from the Governor’s Palace in Tušhan, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol. 71, no. 1, pp. 13-20, (April 2012)
  15. ↑ Nadav Naʼaman, Ancient Israel and Its Neighbors: Interaction and Counteraction : Collected Essays, Eisenbrauns, 2005. p. 2 ISBN 1575061082

References

  • Timothy Matney and Ann Donkin, Mapping the Past: An Archaeogeophysical Case Study from Southeastern Turkey, Near Eastern Archaeology, vol. 69, pp. 12–26, 2006
  • Timothy, Matney et al., Eighteen years on the frontiers of Assyria: the Ziyaret Tepe Archaeological Project, EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, 2020 ISBN 978-88-5511-145-4 eISBN 978-88-5511-146-1

37°47′36″N 40°47′35″E / 37.793470°N 40.793047°E / 37.793470; 40.793047

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