The Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age I Sequences of Area D

The stratigraphic sequence investigated by the University of Udine at Tell Shiukh Fawqani in the Northern Syrian Euphrates Valley plays a pivotal role within a local, regional and supra-regional scenario. The article will presents the main results of five campaigns of archaeological excavation in Operation D situated on the lower part of the steep western slope of the tell which faces the Euphrates. While the terminal Late Chalcolithic levels, which are relatively well-known from other excavated settlements in the Euphrates Valley, were dug only in a very limited area, a more extensive investigation of the definitely less-known EBA I deposits proved possible. The important data on the stratigraphy, architecture, pottery, lithic industry and the objects brought to light at the site allow us to throw light on a crucial formative period in Syrian history, a prelude to the vast and pervasive process of urbanization and state formation, which culminated, several hundred years later in the mid-third millennium BC, in the unprecedented flourishing of large urban centres in the Jezireh and inland Syria.