Animals, Ancestors, and Ritual in Early Bronze Age Syria

An Elite Mortuary Complex from Umm el-Marra

edited by Glenn M. Schwartz

Book cover: Animals, Ancestors, and Ritual in Early Bronze Age Syria

Extent: 715 pages

Publisher: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press

Subjects: Ancient Near East, Mediterranean Archaeology

Series: Monumenta Archaeologica

Series volume number: 50

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(February 2024)

ISBN: 9781950446421

8.46 x 10.98 inches

Price: $150.00

In stock

PDF (Published)

(February 2024)

ISBN: 9781950446438

Price: $120.00

Animals, Ancestors, and Ritual in Early Bronze Age Syria: An Elite Mortuary Complex from Umm el-Marra, edited by Johns Hopkins professor Glenn M. Schwartz, is a final report of the excavation of Tell Umm el-Marra in northern Syria, conducted in 1994-2010. It is likely the site of ancient Tuba, capital of a small kingdom in the Early and Middle Bronze periods, in the Jabbul plain between Aleppo and northern Mesopotamia. Its study advances our understanding of early Syrian complex society beyond the big cities of Antiquity. Of particular importance in the Early Bronze excavations are the results from the site necropolis, tombs of high-ranking persons containing objects of gold, silver, and lapis lazuli. Separate installations hold kungas (donkey x onager hybrids), sometimes along with human infants. This site provides the first archaeological attestation of the kunga equids, unique in the archaeology of third-millennium Syria and Mesopotamia.

  • Edited by Glenn M. Schwartz