Tell Masaikh (Kar-Ashurnasirpal)

Tell Masaikh is a mound of more than 20 hectares on the east bank of the Euphrates, 5 kilometres upstream of Terqa (Tell Ashara). Under it lies Kar-Ashurnasirpal, “the quay of Ashurnasirpal”, founded by the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II. The town was built to hold a crossing of the Euphrates, was soon abandoned, and rose again a century later around a governor’s palace. It fits into the same visit as Terqa, and together the two show two separate ages of the middle Euphrates.

Getting there

From Mayadin, south-east along the Euphrates on the road to Terqa; the mound is on the east bank, so ask in Mayadin where to cross before you set out. The mound is 5 kilometres north-west of Terqa but across the river: Terqa is on the west bank, Tell Masaikh on the east. On the far bank to the west is Tell Qraya, the site of the twin town of Nebarti-Ashur. Whether the dig area can be seen today, and how to reach it, could not be confirmed; ask locally for the way.

Why the town was built

Ashurnasirpal II reigned from 883 to 859 BC. In his annals he writes that during a campaign between 877 and 867 BC he founded two towns on either side of the Euphrates: Kar-Ashurnasirpal on the east bank and Nebarti-Ashur on the west. They faced each other because of the crossing between them; whoever held the road over the river here held the trade of the middle Euphrates. The first town did not last, though, and emptied soon after it was founded.

What was found

Early in the 8th century, under Adad-nirari III, Nergal-eresh, governor of Rasappa, had the old ruins levelled and the town rebuilt from scratch. Its main building was a new palace following the plan of the royal palace at Kalhu, the Assyrian capital. The palace came to light in the west of the mound and the lower town in the east, both enclosed by a massive wall.

The palace wall paintings carry black and white geometric bands. About 100 seals and seal impressions were found on the acropolis. Later the throne room was split in two, and some of the rooms to the north were filled with earth and capped with a mudbrick platform.

What not to miss

The stele found under the throne-room floor. A large fragment of this cuneiform stele, dedicated to the god Nabu, is the document that proves the town really was Kar-Ashurnasirpal: its text names “Kar-Ashurnasirpal on the bank of the Euphrates”, together with Adad-nirari III and Nergal-eresh. The mound kept its own name hidden under its floor.

How the palace ended

The palace was most likely destroyed by the Assyrian army under Tiglath-Pileser III (745-727 BC). The reason may have been a bid for independence by one of the town’s governors. After the palace fell, the Assyrians built a large new governor’s residence beside it. When the town was finally abandoned is not known.

The excavation and its present state

Excavations have been directed since 1996 by Maria Grazia Masetti-Rouault of the EPHE in Paris; since 2009 the site has been part of a joint French-Syrian project together with Terqa. The present condition of the dig area, and what happened there after 2011, cannot be independently confirmed.