Hasakah, Northeastern Syria, SANA_ Archeological landmarks of the Middle and Neo Assyrian, Aramaic, Roman, Byzantine and the Islamic periods in Tal ( hill) al-Fakhariya make it a living witness to ancient civilizations which succeeded each other in the site.

Tal al-Fakhariya, located in the northeastern province of Hasakah, has been continually inhabited by people as it lies at the center of the area of Ras al-Ein, the main spring feeding the Khabour River.

Archeologists and archeological missions all over the world were attracted by the the great value of the site which unfolds the historical, social and cultural aspects of past life.

Rich archeological discoveries were found in the site. Director of Hasakah Antiquities Department Abdul Masih Baghdo said a 2-meter basalt statue of the Assyrian king Adad-it'i/ Hadd-yi'thi, king of Guzana and Sikan who ruled between the 9th century and the 8th BC was unearthed in 1979 during land leveling activities.

The bilingual inscription in the Assyrian dialect of Akkadian and Aramaic carved on the statue refers to the city of Sikan, indicating that the sculpture was installed outside the Temple of Weather God in Guzana (now Tal Halaf), not very far from Tal al-Fakhariya.

In 1996, two archeological levels including walls dating back to the Byzantine and Roman era were discovered. A bronze jar with six gold coins dating back to the period of the Byzantine Emperor Fokas (602-610) was found in one of the levels. The other one included a 210-centemeter statue of a Roman emperor made of alabaster stone in the 2nd century AD.

Baghdo added that the American archeological mission working in the northern side of the site discovered some parts of a building from the Iron Age. There were also ivory findings from the 3rd century BC and a chain of Byzantine walls and towers.

In 2001, five archeological structures were found to the west of Tal al-Fakhariya by the Syrian-German archeological mission, Baghdo said. The first structure included a room built of adobe and lime stone dated to the 10th century AD, while the second included Byzantine archeological finds.

A well underneath a stone-paved floor from the Roman-Hellenistic period was unearthed in the third structure. Two Aramaic cemeteries were unearthed in the fourth one while the fifth included remains of two houses from the Middle Assyrian period.

H. Said/Ghossoun