Tell Qarqur 2001 Preliminary Report: Northern Ghab survey

The Northern Ghab Regional Survey

Background Information from the Initial 2000 Season

The Northern Ghab Regional Survey began its preliminary season in the summer of 2000. It covers an area of approximately 106 square kilometers between Djisr Chagour in the north, Nabi Eyoub in the northeast, Mouazzara in the southeast, Jeyed in the south, Qal'at Merza in the southwest and Hallouz in the northwest. The survey area covers not only the northern Ghab basin but also extends into the mountain ranges of the Jebel Alouite and the Jebel Zawiye, and part of the Jeble Ouastani separating the Ghab from the Rouj.

The Ghab had been a marshy swamp until the drainage and irrigation projects began in the 1950's. At that time the area was drained of standing water and an intricate system of irrigation canals were built by the Syrian Government in co operation with the German and Italian Governments. The archaeological research of the area, as far as has been recorded, did not begin until after these massive projects began and especially not until after the marsh was drained. However, since the archaeological research has been carried out the irrigation projects have continued. Two artificial lakes have been built and underground pipelines have been installed. The Ghab is a highly productive agricultural area with continued intensive development and potential endangerment to sites, especially small, low mounds. The 2000 season was spent trying to assess how many sites still remained of the previously recorded ones, if there were any sites that may not have been recorded as yet, and generally what chronological periods they were in use. Since the earlier surveys were carried out more than 20 years apart, they will be a valuable comparison and complement our efforts.

The second season of the Northern Ghab Regional Survey (see map)
by Sarah Graff

The second season of the Northern Ghab Regional Survey began on Saturday, June 23, 2001 and ended on July 24, 2001. The survey team consisted of Sarah Graff, the project director from the University of Chicago; Wa'al Mofleh al Hafian; Jesse Cassana, geoarchaeologist from the University of Chicago and Ahmed Abd as Salam Juma, the expedition driver from the village of Qarqur.

There were a number of goals this season and all of them have been accomplished successfully. The first goal was to gain more information on all of the sites' general limits and sizes by topographically mapping as many of the sites as possible. This would not have been possible without the expertise of Mr. Hafian who himself is a topographic engineer. Tells and Rasms were mapped topographically using a hand-held level (niveau) and a stadia rod for elevations and spatially using a hand-held geographic positioning system (GPS). Sites that were covered by buildings or a village, on top of a mountain slope or essentially flat were mapped strictly spatially. Mr. Hafian drafted each site on graph paper at a scale of 1:100 and calculated the area and height of each of the mapped sites. This season we mapped a total of 43 sites.

The next goal was to collect soil samples from all the sites surveyed last year and to continue to sample soil from sites recorded this year. Soil was collected from the sites to be used as basic comparative mineralogical material to the petrographic analysis of ceramics from the surveyed sites. Frequently, soil was taken from sections that were cut into the site, usually by bulldozers or backhoes. The most optimal soil sample for this study is mud brick and we have been able to sample mud brick from some site sections as well as mud brick debris that was exposed on the surface after ploughing or bulldozing. If mud brick was not available then clay samples from nearby springs were taken and if those were not available then surface soil was sampled from the site. To date we have collected 71 soil samples from archaeological contexts.

Another goal for this season was to continue to survey the Northern Ghab to retrieve more settlement and land-use data. In the process we added 22 new sites this year to our site gazetteer. We also investigated a series of ancient canals that were visible on Corona satellite imagery. The canals were clearly visible on the landscape so we photographed and sampled them. We identified them as ancient canal features based on their composition of loose, sandy soil filled with shell fragments. We hope to be able to date them using a combination of C14 analysis and our analysis of the sites that are located adjacent to or connected by the ancient canals.

Our final goal of the season was to begin the geoarchaeological investigations of the valley. For the last week of the survey Jesse Casana joined us to begin this study. The geoarchaeological research is designed to aid in our understanding of the settlement pattern in various archaeological periods, the taphonomic processes responsible for the destruction or preservation of sites, and the ways in which the local environment has been changed through both natural and cultural mechanisms in the past.

First we wanted to recover a sedimentary sequence from the marsh deposits at the southern edge of the survey area. Recent work in the nearby Amuq Valley, Turkey has demonstrated that the lake in that region has experienced several phases of expansion and contraction since the mid-Holocene. A recent pollen-coring project done by a Japanese team in the southern Ghab suggests that the Ghab marsh may also have undergone several formation episodes. In order to ascertain if such a developmental sequence exists, we cleaned a section of a modern canal located in the traditional marsh zone. The section revealed at least four discreet phases of marsh formation, interspersed by periods of alluvial aggradations. The section was drawn, and samples were taken which will allow each episode to be dated using preserved organic materials derived from the sediments. Once a general dated sequence of marsh development is established, we will conduct a limited coring project in future seasons, designed to map the extent of each unit.

Next we wanted to investigate valley margins for evidence of alluvial fan formation. Geoarchaeological work elsewhere has shown that sediments and gravels eroded from mountain slopes can form major fan deposits on valley margins, often burying archaeological sites and features. Therefore in order to gauge both the extent of recent erosion in the highlands, and the burial of archaeological sites, we investigated several sections in the valley. The clearest sequence is found in a large fan at the town of Jurin on the western edge of the plain. Here, a 3-meter sequence is exposed in a gravel extraction pit. The sequence shows a deep fan deposit with strong soil formation, likely dated to the early Holocene, overlain by an episode of rapid fan development. After a second but short period of stability, the unit is overlain by a third episode of development, forming the modern surface. Samples taken from the section will help to establish the absolute dating for the formation episodes.

The geoarchaeological segment of the survey has provided us with the basic data needed to structure more intensive investigations in upcoming seasons. It is hoped that the project will eventually enable us to determine: 1) the extent of marsh in various phases and the causes for its expansion and contraction, and 2) the severity, causes and results of hill slope erosion in highlands surrounding the Ghab. The work already accomplished provides the basis for attaining these goals but continued laboratory work on our soil samples is necessary to fully understand the geomorphology of the Ghab. We have collected a total of 47 samples for geomorphological studies.