Mozan and Hamoukar grew up to 120 ha and featured urban characteristics such as
large-scale secular elite complexes, monumental temples, standardised and specialised
craft production and centralised redistributive economies (Weiss and Courty 1993 :
133 – 139 ; Akkermans and Schwartz 2003 : 259 – 262 ; Stein 2004 : 67 ; Ur 2010 a: 408 – 409 ;
2010 b: 150 – 151 ). In the middle Euphrates Valley, in contrast, some sites appear to have
grown up to 40 – 56 ha only (McClellan 1999 : 413 ), and there is no clear evidence of true
settlement hierarchies akin to those observed to the east, with larger centres being
served by smaller subsidiaries or tributaries.
On the other hand, other signs of social and economic complexity in the middle
Euphrates are evident after 2600 BC. Excavations at Tell Banat, for example, have
brought to light a large-scale building (Building 7 and its subsequent, grander
manifestation, Building 6 ) which may have served in some association to the funerary
traditions observed at the site given its location within metres of an impressively
constructed and richly equipped tomb (Tomb 7 ) (Porter 2002 a: 16 ). The building was
a multi-chambered columned edifice, comprising interconnecting hallways and
courtyards spread out over at least three terraces, some of which were paved with baked
clay tiles set in bitumen mortar (Porter and McClellan 1998 : 25 – 26 ; McClellan 1999 :
419 ). Whoever occupied or operated within this structure had access to considerable
resources and manpower within a society that appears to have become increasingly
segmented. Tomb 7 , located only a few metres to the east, was overlaid with massive
roofing slabs, below which were several underground chambers accessed by connecting
passageways. It was constructed with carefully dressed limestone blocks, all mortared
together with bitumen in the same generous quantities observed in Buildings 7 and 6.
Within the tomb were several rich burial goods, including precious objects of gold,
mother-of-pearl, lapis lazuli and bronze (McClellan and Porter 1999 : 109 – 110 ).
Tell Banat’s other extraordinary mortuary feature was a 20 metre high, conical-
shaped, white-plastered and corrugated earth tumulus known as the White Monument
(or Mortuary Monument 1 ), located about 200 m northeast of the Tell Banat settle-
ment (McClellan 1998 : 244 – 245 ). While no burial chambers were discovered inside
of the tumulus, the funerary character of the White Monument is suggested by
the deposits of human and animal remains dug into the sloping sides of it, and the
fact that it stands in the centre of fields peppered with other Early Bronze burials of the
same period (McClellan 1998 : 246 ; Porter 2002 b: 160 – 161 ). It has been suggested that
such a monument is fitting within a pastoral tribal society, such as that which existed
in the region of the middle Euphrates. Providing a central focus for the pastoral groups
when they brought their flocks to the well-watered river valley during their seasonal
cycle of grazing, the monument countered the centrifugal tendencies of these tribal
societies, and may have helped to establish and define group identity (Porter 2002 a: 26 ;
Peltenburg 2007 – 2008 : 221 , 224 ).
The mortuary character of other Euphrates sites is evident at several other sites
along the middle Euphrates of Syria, including Tell Ahmar, where a massive shaft and
stone chamber grave (the ‘Hypogeum’) contained a rich assemblage of pottery and
metalwork (Thureau-Dangin and Dunand 1936 : 96 and pl. XX); Tell Hadidi, where
several similar massively built stone shaft and chamber tombs have been recovered
(Dornemann 1979 : 118 , 1980 : 227 ); and Jerablus Tahtani with its Tomb 302 , built of
massive limestone blocks and enclosed by what appears to have been a large mound
that would have been visible above ground, no doubt accentuating the tomb’s pre-
–– Lisa Cooper ––