Tell Munbaqa (Ekalte)

Tell Munbaqa is an ancient town on the east shore of Lake Assad, on the steep slope above the old Euphrates valley. It was a rectangular town of 400 by 500 metres, once ringed by strong walls. In the Late Bronze Age it was called Ekalte. The Tabqa Dam partly flooded its lakeside sections, but the high main mound still stands. The tablets found here are read together with those from Emar.

Where it is and getting there

The mound lies in the Jarniyah subdistrict of Tabqa, on the east shore of the lake. Jebel Aruda stands on the far shore; Tell Hadidi is 5 kilometres to the north and Habuba Kabira 10 kilometres to the south. The east-shore road runs through Tabqa district, but the present state of the track to the site and of the shoreline could not be confirmed. Ask in Tabqa before setting out.

How the town got its name back

In 1907 William M. Ramsay and Gertrude Bell came to the site. Bell drew a plan, described the double line of walls and mistook the place for Ptolemy’s Bersiba. The real name came from the tablets. About 96 cuneiform tablets were found, and the name that appears on 15 of them is accepted as proof that the town was Ekalte.

What the tablets say

Most are financial documents such as property sales. On one tablet a woman is sold for 1000 sheep and goats; on another, 140 donkeys are bought from the Sutean tribe. Years were counted by the name of the town’s mayor. The town god was Ba’laka. Four temples have been found: three on high ground facing the Euphrates, one at the town gate.

Do not miss: the temples facing the Euphrates

The high ground where three of the temples stood is where the town commanded the old valley most. There is a lake below today instead of a river, but standing on the slope makes it clear why the temples went there. Excavation concentrated on the northern temple quarter and the south-western residential area.

Beginning and end

A bronze vessel bearing the name of the Akkadian king Shar-kali-sharri dates the town’s early phase to the end of the 3rd millennium BC. The Late Bronze Age phase closes with a destruction layer. Who caused it is disputed: Thutmose III, Suppiluliuma I or a siege of Emar have all been suggested.

Excavation and the site today

In 1964 the Syrian antiquities service surveyed the dam area. In 1969-1970 Ernst Heinrich of TU Berlin surveyed the site; Winfried Orthmann dug in 1973-1974 and Alfred Werner Maurer in 1977. From 1979 Dittmar Machule led the excavation. Seasons between 1999 and 2010, with Felix Blocher, worked on the upper mound, the inner town and the north gate. The finds were kept at the Raqqa Museum and at the dig house, and both were looted during the war years. Stones were pulled out of the excavated areas for building.