Syria - Tell Masaikh

A team under the supervision of M.G. Masetti-Rouault began excavations in TellMasaikh as part of research in the area surrounding the Tell Ashara-Terqa site, organised since 1996 by the French archaeological expedition team led by O. Rouault. This site, which is five kilometres upstream of Terqa on the left bank and that has been dated to the Iron Age II (9th-7th centuries B.C.) from ceramics collected on the surface, also attracted our attention in the first place due to uncertainty around its preservation. With the agreement and support of the Syrian Antiquities Department for a rescue operation, we embarked on a sounding campaign from the autumn of 1997. Initial work carried out as part of the campaign produced interesting results providing additional information on the development of the valley’s history, which encouraged us to insist, in our research, on a greater number of extended soundings during later campaigns. The General Directorate for Antiquities and Museums in Syria subsequently issued an excavation permit to Maria Grazia Masetti-Rouault (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Section V, Sorbonne, Paris, and Mixed Research Unit 8167, Orient et Méditerranée, Collège de France, Paris).

The research and excavation programme at Tell Masaikh and at other sites in the Terqa region, while being independently managed, continued to share the historical concerns and use the scientific, administrative and material structures of the “Terqa region project” led by O. Rouault (Director of the Terqa expedition, professor of Eastern Archaeology at Université de Lyon 2, Mixed Research Unit 5133, Archéorient, Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée, Lyon).

Within this same structure and beyond the privileged relationship with the Syrian antiquities departments, the Tell Masaikh expedition team established close partnerships with various French and European institutions. The University of Pavia’s (Italy) Department of Ancient Oriental Studies, under Prof. C. Mora, regularly sends researchers and students who take part in excavations and research relating to archaeological material and publications. Researchers from the University of Bordeaux (professor R. Chapoulie and M. Martinaud) and from the University of La Rochelle (V. Mathé) are conducting a programme of magnetic and radar surveys on sites and in the area around the Terqa region. R. Chapoulie is developing a project to analyse the ceramics found, over time, in sites included in the project. A team of researchers and doctoral students from the Universities of Warsaw (Poland), led by Dr. A. Soltysiak, is responsible for bio-archaeological research and analyses, studying all the biological remains found during our excavations. The expedition team often receives archaeological students from other European and Syrian universities.