Tell Mureybet (Tell Mureybit)
تل المريبط · Mureybet · Tell Mureybat · Mureybit
Natufian to PPNB (12,200–8000 BCE; Phase IA–IVB)·Natufian → Khiamian (Mureybatian) → PPNA → PPNB·🇸🇾 Raqqa Governorate, Middle Euphrates, now beneath Assad Lake, Syria
About
About Tell Mureybet (Tell Mureybit)
Foundational Euphrates Neolithic tell (12,200–8000 BCE) on a Pleistocene terrace now under Lake Assad, excavated 1964–1974 by Van Loon and Cauvin before Tabqa flooding. Four levels trace Natufian → Khiamian → PPNA → PPNB evolution: Natufian round semi-subterranean houses, Mureybatian/PPNA communal building with clay benches and aurochs bucrania, early morphologically domestic einkorn (controversial), and the classic Mureybet 'lion man' and ancestor figurines. Synchronises Göbekli–Jerf el Ahmar–Mureybet cultural sequence.
Why it mattersReference sequence for Euphrates Neolithisation; first proposed domestic einkorn (Hillman) and PPNA 'Mureybatian' cultural horizon.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Was Mureybet einkorn truly domestic or wild-stand gathering?
Theories
- 01Euphrates sedentism preceded Anatolian pillar cult by millennium
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c. 12,200 BCE (Natufian IA)
- Period
- Natufian to PPNB (12,200–8000 BCE; Phase IA–IVB)
- Culture
- Natufian → Khiamian (Mureybatian) → PPNA → PPNB
- Builders
- Euphrates Natufian–PPN forager–farmers
- Purpose
- River terrace sedentary village with communal cult building
- Abandoned
- c.8000 BCE (Early PPNB)
- Rediscovered
- 1964 salvage before Tabqa Dam; excavated Van Loon (Oriental Institute), J. Cauvin (CNRS)
- Excavation
- Excavated
c.10600 BCE
PPNA communal building with benches erected
c.9800 BCE
Early domestic-type einkorn appears in levels III
1974
Last season before lake filling
On the ground
Structures & features
36.0430° N · 38.1260° E · 320 m · 1 mapped feature
Communal building (Phase IIIA)
buildingRectilinear building with plastered bench and aurochs skulls
36.0432° N · 38.1263° E