Funerals and Feasts: Ritual Action and Social Structure in the Mortuary Material of Tell Banat, Syria

Excavated by Anne Porter and Thomas McClellan from 1988 until its inundation by the Tishreen dam in 1999, Banat is one of the most significant Early Bronze centers to emerge in northern Syro-Mesopotamia during the past decade. It is the mortuary data in particular that has occasioned most immediate interest from the academic community and general public alike. Of this material, two contemporaneous monumental burial structures stand out: Tell Banat North, the 20 meter high mound that consisted of at least three major phases of packed earth construction, each containing deposits of human bone and artifacts and each covered by a white terra pise surface; and the semi-subterranean, richly furnished Tomb 7, a highly elaborate building with dressed-stone interiors, baked brick and bitumen-coated floors.