Tell Barri. The Settlement and its changes: new developments

The recent excavations, that confirm the continuing site occupation from EJ 0/ EBA to Middle Ages, were directed to further investigate some critical aspects of the site history relative to regional developments. We have studied the transition from EBA to MBA, and from MBA to LBA in new areas on the northern and southwestern slopes of the Tell; the new findings allowed a better definition of the extension and structural characteristics of the settlement. The most important results were obtained for the parthian phase (150 b.C./250 a.C.). The site expands from the acropolis to the lower town, where house buildings are arranged in a seemingly regular pattern. The wealth and variety of finds linking Tell Barri to contemporary sites in Jazirah show the liveliness of this long phase and support the hypothesis of a cultural koiné in north Mesopotamia. . The possible connections with farther Middle-Euphrates sites widen the limits of the koinè, suggesting new possible interpretations. In the last time phase (XII-XIV d.C.) we have studied a group of houses on the acropolis and manufacturing areas in the southern part of the tell, obtaining useful data to reconstruct coeval settlement patterns, still largely unknown in the region