Ziyaret Tepe, the ancient city of Tušhan, was a provincial capital of the Assyrian Empire, in its day the greatest the world had ever seen. The excavations captured in this innovative book – the governor's palace, military barracks and mansions of the rich – chart the empire's history from its expansion in the early 9th century BC to its dramatic fall three centuries later, providing insights into the daily lives of both the commoners and Assyrian elites who inhabited this ancient frontier city. Fieldwork over 18 seasons uncovered areas of both the lower town and the great mound of Ziyaret Tepe which looms 22 metres above it, a record of thousands of years of human occupation. Today in southeast Turkey, near the Syrian border, Tušhan yielded exceptional finds, such as elaborate wall paintings, a hoard of luxury items burned in a cremation ritual 2,800 years ago, and a cuneiform tablet that hints at a previously unknown language. The story of the project is told by the specialists who dedicated years of their lives to it. Geophysicists, ceramicists, readers of cuneiform, experts in weaving, board games and Neo-Assyrian politics joined archaeologists, zooarchaeologists, archaeobotanists and many others. But this is no dry field book of dusty digging. Both accessible and scholarly, it is a lively, copiously illustrated record of teamwork, a compelling demonstration of the collaboration – the science, artistry and imaginative reconstruction – that makes modern archaeology so absorbing.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

The origins of Assyria and its culture

Assyria

Cuneiform script

The environmental overview

GAP and the Ilısu Dam

The mound at Ziyaret Tepe

The operation areas

Dating the occupation of the mound

The abandonment of the city in the 11th century BC

Assyrian ethnic diversity

A long tradition of deportation

The Assyrians in the northern territories

Outpost of the Roman Empire

The medieval period

The Ottoman period

The village of Tepe

Chapter 2

The excavation team gets down to work

Introducing the team

A day in the life of the dig director

Geophysics

Registration of the finds

Drawing at Tepe

An artist in residence

Photography on site

Chapter 3

Work on the Tušhan excavations begins

The royal palace

Mud brick: unsung star of the archaeologist’s world

The palace cremation burials

Burial practices

The gods of the land

The Tušhan city wall

Forts along the River Tigris

The southern gate to the city

The military barracks by the city wall

Beer for the troops

Elite residences

Wine... the drink of the elite

Evolution of the roof

The administrative complex

The pebble mosaics

Preparing food and drink

Feasts

Bread

Chapter 4

Ziyaret Tepe reveals its rich and varied finds

The Tušhan archive

The fall of the Empire

Seals and sealings

Weights and measures

Tokens

Board games

Artefacts of ivory and bone

Textiles and wool

Archaeobotany: Farming and food production

Zooarchaeology: Reading the bones

Decorative ivoryReading the ceramics

Ceramic disks

The working of iron in the Middle Iron Age

The humble nail

Copper and bronze

Jewellery

Ground stone

Chipped stone

Sweeping the floors

Beads

Chapter 5

Conservation and communication

Diyarbakır Museum

Communicating the excavation results

The new museum in Diyarbakır

The end of the Assyrian Empire and the fall of Tušhan

Director’s epilogue

Appendix A: A-Z of the operation areas

Appendix B: The team

Index

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