PUBLISHED 2021. Please visit the publication's website.
Tell Skeikh Hamad, on the left bank of the Habur in Syria, has been identified with the Assyrian city of Dur-Katlimmu, on account of the Middle Assyrian (13th cent. BC) archive excavated in “Building P” on the western slope of the citadel (Tell) during the initial seasons of 1978 through 1984. The stratigraphy and the 668 registered cuneiform texts allow the reconstruction of the event history of the region and of the biography of the building that is considered to have been an annex of the Middle Assyrian Palace. Founded by king Adad-nirari I at the beginning of the 13th cent. BC., the city probably served him and his successors Shalmaneser I. and Tukulti Ninurta I. as the strategic take off point for the conquest of the Mittani Empire, thus becoming the second important city of the Middle Assyrian State/Empire by furnishing the seat of a Great Vizier titled “King of Hanigalbat” and constituting the administrative center of the western part of the Empire. The grant will support the finish of the final report on “Die Zitadelle von Dur-Katlimmu in mittel-und neuassyrischer Zeit” to be published as Vol. 12 of the series “Berichte der Ausgrabung Tell Sheikh Hamad / Dur-Katlimmu (BATSH)”. This publication project will be directed by Dr. Hartmut Kühne.
