Tell Qarassa: Dolmens and a Bronze Age Mound in Southern Syria

A mound and the megalithic cemetery around it, beside the village of Qarassa north-west of Suwayda, on the southern edge of the Lajat basalt plateau. The sequence of settlement here runs from the Natufian to the Iron Age. Between 3600 and 3000 BC the people of Qarassa built double-apsed houses, animal pens and dolmens for their dead. Excavation documented these structures, but fieldwork was cut short.

Why it was chosen for excavation

Qarassa was picked for excavation after a regional survey of the Lajat basalt plateau. The reason was the length of its sequence. It reaches from the Natufian, the last hunter-gatherer culture before farming, to the Iron Age, which made Qarassa the first long chronological reference for the basalt zone. The southern mound was occupied from the middle of the fourth millennium BC to the second quarter of the first, and in the Early Bronze Age it was a fortified settlement. Frank Braemer and his team published the first results in the journal Syria in 2011.

What the dolmens tell us

In the Early Bronze Age I, between 3600 and 3000 BC, the people of Qarassa used weathered basalt flows. Depending on the spot, this stone splits easily into small blocks or large slabs. With it they built houses with an apse at each end, pens to protect their resources and dolmens for their dead. Blocks weighing several tonnes were moved into place.

The tombs stand in single rows or in clusters, and their shapes vary. According to a 2017 study by Tara Steimer-Herbet and Marie Besse, this variety was a way of showing that a family or clan belonged together. The cemetery was not reserved for the dead alone. Traces of destruction and rebuilding show it stayed in use for several hundred years. The researchers describe a hierarchical society, with patrons able to mobilise large groups of builders.

What not to miss

The layout of the tombs. Instead of looking at the dolmens one by one, notice which ones share a row or a cluster, and the cemetery reveals itself as organised by family group. Because fieldwork stopped, that picture is still incomplete.

Current situation and access

Qarassa lies in the north-west of Suwayda governorate, near the al-Mazraa–Najran line. Fighting took place along this line in July 2025, and no access report from the last twelve months mentioning the village was found; the present condition of the site could not be confirmed by an independent source. On 23 August 2026 the newspaper Al-Watan reported that the Damascus–Suwayda road had been cut at the Umm al-Zaytoun checkpoint. Snack Syrian reported on 2 and 10 September 2026 that entry to and exit from the governorate were effectively restricted. This page describes what Tell Qarassa is; it does not say the site can be visited today. Anyone thinking of going should first check the current situation with official sources.