Tell Tweini Excavations 1999-2007

PUBLISHED 2019. Please visit the publication's webpage.

The site of Tell Tweini is located on the southern bank of the Rumeilah River in the Syrian coastal plain, approximately 1,5 km east of modern-day Jebleh and 40 km south of Ras Shamra-Ugarit, capital of the ancient Kingdom of Ugarit. Since 1999, the site of ca. 12 hectares is under excavation by the Syro-Belgian team headed by Dr. M. Al-Maqdissi (Department of Antiquities, Damascus - Field B) and the director of this White Levy Program publication project, Prof. Dr. J. Bretschneider (Catholic University of Leuven - Field A and C).

Besides Tell Sianu and Tell Tweini, no other sites are currently under archaeological investigation in the Jebleh plain. Whereas the Southern Levant has been studied thoroughly, research in the North Syrian coastal region is largely limited to the excavations at Ugarit, at Ras ibn Hani and Ras al Bassit. The comparative lack of archaeological data for this region does no justice to its actual status in ancient times and has created a lopsided picture, especially where the Phoenician culture and its Bronze Age origins are concerned. As one of the few sites under excavation in the Northern Levant with a full archaeological sequence spanning the Early Bronze Age IV (ca. 2400 B.C.) up to the Iron III period (ca. 500 B.C.), Tell Tweini is a key site for the study of the developments in the Northern Levant especially where the Bronze to Iron Age transition is concerned and an ideal starting point from which to approach the nature of the transitional period. Tweini was part of the Ugaritic Kingdom and is large enough to reflect transformations taking place at regional as well as supra-regional scale. Moreover, it is well preserved and has been excavated using modern techniques of recovery.

Contextualizing this material with a (re)assessment of all the exposed data and analysis of the current archaeological record of the Eastern Mediterranean will help to work out an explanatory model of the socio-economical and political situation and developments during this period at both local and international scope.