Tell Billa (Shibaniba)
Late Bronze–Neo-Assyrian (c.1500–600 BCE)·Mitanni → Middle/Neo-Assyrian·🇮🇶 Nineveh Governorate, Northern Iraq, Iraq
About
About Tell Billa (Shibaniba)
Small but archive-rich tell 20 km N of Nineveh: Mitanni layer produced Nuzi-type tablets, Middle Assyrian governor’s correspondence (14 c. tablets) and Neo-Assyrian granaries. E. Speiser 1931 found Billa Hurrian songs. Stratified architecture maps Late Assyrian reorganization after fall of Mitanni. Tell Billa (Shibaniba) — Ninevite Assyrian–Mitanni Archive Hill context and stratigraphy linking to regional chronology.
Why it mattersTell Billa (Shibaniba) — Ninevite Assyrian–Mitanni Archive Hill
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Stratigraphic relation to neighboring cultures?
Theories
- 01Regional trade node
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- Occupied Late Bronze–Neo-Assyrian (c.1500–600 BCE)
- Period
- Late Bronze–Neo-Assyrian (c.1500–600 BCE)
- Culture
- Mitanni → Middle/Neo-Assyrian
- Builders
- Local communities
- Purpose
- Provincial archive and Hurrian urban gateway near Nineveh
- Abandoned
- post-period
- Rediscovered
- 19th-century surveys, modern excavations
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
Late Bronze–Neo-Assyrian
Provincial archive and Hurrian urban gateway near Nineveh
On the ground
Structures & features
36.4500° N · 43.2000° E · 450 m · 2 mapped features
Middle Assyrian Tablet Archive
archiveGovernor’s house with 14 cuneiform archive tablets
36.4510° N · 43.2010° ENeo-Assyrian Granary Ward
storageThree long cell storage buildings with burnt grain
36.4490° N · 43.1990° E