Chagar Bazar is a cluster of mounds with human occupations from the Bronze Age but with a rich Neolithic sequence from the Halaf period. The settlement is a long-duration site located in Syria on the wadi Dara, a tributary of the Khabour River, c. 35 km from Hassake. It is surrounded to the north by the Taurus, to the southwest by the Djebel Abd al-Aziz, and to the southeast by the Iraqi Djebel Sinjar.
It is considered a key site where the definition and periodisation of the Late Neolithic in the Near East was established. The site offers one of the most complete sequences for its very early stages or Proto-Halaf up to the final stages and transition to the Ubaid period (from late-7th to mid-6th millennium cal BCE). Although the excavations performed in 1999-2000 have already been published, the fieldwork carried out in Chantier F during the period 2001-2010 still remains unpublished. Since M. Mallowan's research, Chagar Bazar had been a point of reference when interpreting the Halaf Period in the sixth-millennium cal. BC, and part of the “cultural package” defining the Halaf culture was built through the discoveries at this site. From 1999 to 2010 an extensive archaeological program on the northwestern slopes of theTell covered around 450 square metres, with an upper “Area A” (Late Halaf layers) and a lower “Area B” (with Proto-Halaf and Primitive Halaf layers). The site has provided a large amount of exceptional remains, from large amount of painted pottery, personal ornament, baked figurines, lithic and bone tools among others. Also remarkable is the rich architectural sequence with the evolution of each architectural phase that combines the circular plantbuilding or “tholoi” with the pluricelular rectangular one. The layout of the settlement is also very interesting with a model of circular human occupations which represents a continuous overlap of constructed dwellings spaces with large open areas where complex domestic facilities were placed.
The publication project will be directed by Dr. Anna Bach Gómez and Dr. Walter Cruells
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