Tell Beydar (Nabada)
Na-ba-da · Tell Beydar · Nabada · Nabada Beydar
Early Bronze Age Ej II–IVa (Jezirah Early Dynastic to Akkadian)·North Mesopotamian Kish tradition, Semitic (Nabada Akkadian)·🇸🇾 Al-Hasakah Governorate, western Khabur triangle, Syria
About
About Tell Beydar (Nabada)
Circular walled 3rd-millennium city Nabada (c.2900–2200 BCE, Early Jezirah III), 28 ha upper town + lower town 20 ha, centre of western Jezirah after Tell Brak. European-Syrian excavations (1992–2010 Marc Lebeau/Antoine Suleiman) found: hexagonal city wall with 7 gates, palace-temple complex with 200+ tablets (Akkadian-Nabada cuneiform naming ruler), cylinder seal workshops, and Early Dynastic grain administrative tablets. Abandoned Akkadian collapse, resettled Mitanni scatter.
Why it mattersOnly hexagonal circular-planned Jezirah city; western Jezirah administrative tablets; Akkadian collapse horizon.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Why hexagonal 7-gate plan — ritual cosmos or topography?
- 02Nabada = Nabada of Ebla texts — same polity
Theories
- 01Nabada as Ebla's Jezirah trade partner — western Khabur Ebla network
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.2900 BCE EJ II walled town; monumental 2500 BCE EJ III Nabada
- Period
- Early Bronze Age Ej II–IVa (Jezirah Early Dynastic to Akkadian)
- Culture
- North Mesopotamian Kish tradition, Semitic (Nabada Akkadian)
- Builders
- Nabada kings (Makkanum tablets)
- Purpose
- Western Khabur grain entrepôt and bead-administrative centre
- Abandoned
- c.2200 BCE 4.2ka event + Akkadian collapse; brief Mitanni
- Rediscovered
- 1992 European-Syrian survey and Francis Bluard geophysics
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
1992
Euromission Beydar begins with geophysics
c.2450 BCE
Palace tablets — earliest western Jezirah archives
c.2210 BCE
Akkadian destruction/abandonment
On the ground
Structures & features
36.7360° N · 40.5860° E · 350 m · 3 mapped features
Hexagonal city wall and Gate 7
wallMudbrick 7-gate circular wall 5 m thick
36.7361° N · 40.5861° EPalace-temple tablets archive (Field B)
archive200 tablets in palace room
36.7359° N · 40.5859° ECylinder seal workshop
workshopEarly Dynastic seal-cutters quarter
36.7360° N · 40.5860° E
Gallery