eminence at the site and the importance of the individuals buried within it (Peltenburg
et al. 1995 : 7 – 10 ; Peltenburg 1999 : 430 – 431 ). Further down the river, at the Euphrates’
confluence with the Balikh, the site of Tell Bi’a has yielded two rows of large, richly
provisioned mud-brick tombs entirely above ground (Strommenger and Kohlmeyer
1998 ). To the west in the Jabbul Plain, the site of Umm al-Marra has now yielded nine
Early Bronze Age tombs and related funerary installations, used in a sequence over a
period of some three centuries, from c. 2500 to 2200 BC(Schwartz in press). Like several
of the Euphrates’ monumental graves, it is conjectured that these tombs may also have
been partly or completely visible above ground, and in their prominent location on a
high point in the centre of the site’s acropolis, would have emphasised the pre-
eminence of the buried deceased, who may have comprised members of the local ruling
families (Schwartz 2007 a: 40 , 43 ). All these impressive burial complexes were probably
the places where elaborate rituals relating to the veneration of the ancestors were carried
out. The visibility and centrality of the tombs would have promoted the remembrance
of the ancestors. At the same time, the presence of these prominent tombs, and the
repeated funerary offerings and attendant rituals that continued to be performed in
and around them, would have perpetuated and reinforced the elevated status of the
living elites who claimed descent from the ancestors and were no doubt the main
participants in the ongoing mortuary rites at these funerary complexes (Peltenburg
1999 : 428 ; 2007 – 2008 : 228 ; Schwartz 2007 a: 45 , 47 ).
Such well-made and richly furnished tombs indicate that by at least the middle of
the third millennium BC, parts of the Euphrates River Valley and western Syria had
experienced the growth of social stratification, such that some elite members of society
had the wealth and resources to build and furnish for themselves rich funerary markers
in the settlements over which they now had considerable influence and authority. At
the same time, much of the Syrian middle Euphrates remained a pastoralist-based
society, usually typified by inclusive or corporate ideals, where power was shared across
different groups and sectors of society (Porter 2002 b: 167 – 168 ; Peltenburg 2007 – 2008 :
219 ). The continued reverence of the ancestors, a common practice among pastoral
tribes with their emphasis on kin-based descent groups, may have been part of the
strategy on the part of newly ascendant elites to perpetuate a tribal-based corporate
ideology – effectively linking themselves to the past and the tribal ancestor traditions
that defined that past – even when in reality they were exercising more exclusionary
forms of behaviour (Porter 2002 b: 168 – 170 ).
However we choose to interpret the symbolic meaning and import of the
monumental tombs of the Euphrates Valley and Umm al-Marra, their richness cannot
be denied, particularly in the form of the grave offerings found within them, which
consisted of precious stones and metals in the form of gold, silver and bronze. Such
imported materials reflect the far-reaching contacts that some individuals of the
Euphrates region were capable of carrying out by the mid-third millennium BC. The
acquisition and display of such well crafted and costly objects was a means for local
elites to highlight their status and prestige within their own communities, Moreover,
ownership of such luxury goods would have accentuated their status among their elite
peers from other contemporary principalities, affording them membership within
the larger club of elite groups, and paving the way for greater economic and social,
and possibly political relationships with these outside groups (Cooper 2006 : 236 ;
Peltenburg 2007 – 2008 : 235 ).
–– Cultural developments in western Syria ––