14 DAY TRIAL // Archaeologists have unearthed during the last 5 years an ancient, untouched complex of 8 tombs full of treasures dated from the Bronze Age, at Umm el-Marra, 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of the city of Halab (Aleppo), northern Syria.
Though the complex is less spectacular than those from the same period found at Ur in Mesopotamia (now Iraq), this is the solely known Syrian complex of the time. The complex age stretches between 3000 B.C. to about 2200 B.C.
Tomb 6 - amongst the oldest - was partly destroyed and contained a wooden coffin of an adult male with gold and silver toggle pins and beads of lapis lazuli, gold, and carnelian (a reddish gemstone). In tomb 4, three adults (two females and one male) were found buried with gold and silver ornaments and vessels, ivory combs, and furniture inlays of ostrich eggshell, plus 120 ceramic vessels dated 2400 to 2350 B.C.
Some tombs were disturbed and with the entry blocked, but still containing adult bones and pottery, 2450 B.C. old. Scientists think this was not the work of modern grave looters. "We hypothesize that these disturbances were perpetrated intentionally by powerful individuals acting to impede further ritual honoring the individuals buried within," said Glenn Schwartz, Whiting Professor of Archaeology in the Department of Near Eastern studies at Johns Hopkins University of Baltimore, Maryland.
"Perhaps such actions to sever the connection between the interred persons and the living community were taken because of political or dynastic changes."
"A previously unseen variety of non-cuneiform writing was carved into four small clay cylinders, a very interesting find requiring further evaluation".
There were found no more than eight skeletons per tomb, so the tombs must have belonged to different families or dynasties. "The tombs were built on the highest and most central part of the city and thus would have been visible from everywhere else and would have dominated the local landscape," Schwartz said.
Inside the tombs were found skeletons of puppies, decapitated donkeys and three human infant skeletons in a jar. "The newly discovered tombs contain signs of the ritual sacrifice of humans and animals" Schwartz said.
The animal skeletons found are predominantly of donkeys or onagers (a kind of Asian wild donkey), with 27 complete individuals recovered, often found standing upright. "The equid (donkey) remains were sometimes found adjacent to baby bones, perhaps indicating that infant sacrifice went along with equid sacrifice in rituals honoring the important people buried nearby," Schwartz said.
Puppy bones were found in several brick structures. "Animal sacrifices were certainly a big part of this culture in that offerings of sheep and other animals are given to the gods to eat and also given to deceased royal ancestors," Schwartz said.
"I suspect that the sacrifice of these equids in our tombs has something to do with their association with the highest rank of society".
"Clearly, the interment of animals, especially equids, as well as infants, accompanied by rituals of libation implied by the spouted vessels, was a component of the procedures enacted in the mortuary complex," Schwartz said.
"While modern society might not find as much value in them, donkeys were thought of as royal animals and superior to horses, which were newly domesticated in those days" he said.
"Given these discoveries, it's likely that the tomb complex is a royal cemetery"
Donkeys had been domesticated in North Africa during the fourth millennium B.C. spreading quickly to the desert areas of the Near East, while the domestic horse penetrated later that area. Umm el-Marra is located in the Jabbul plain, west of the Euphrates River, on an ancient important west-east trade route, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to places as far as India.
Probably here agricultural people from the west traded with the pastoral people of the eastern steppe grains for dairy products and wool. "Umm el-Marra's close proximity to one of Syria's largest salt lakes must have added to its economic importance," Schwartz said. "That northern Syrian city is believed to be the site of ancient Tuba, one of Syria's first cities and the capital of a small kingdom."
"As urban centers began to form in Mesopotamia and what is now Syria, the newly emerging elites had to cement the legitimacy of their rule," Schwartz says.
And "royal cemeteries" were one of their tools. "One of the ways they did it, it would seem, was by venerating rulers and burying them in the middle of the community. This made them constantly present" Schwartz explained.
The tombs were also a sign of political and economical power addressed to rival city-states. "These tombs are not subterranean-everyone can see them all the time." Schwartz said.
But the reason of puppies and babies burial remains unknown. "There is almost no archaeological evidence to shed light on ancient Syrian society's rituals and beliefs," said Augusta McMahon, a lecturer in Mesopotamian archaeology at England's University of Cambridge.
She thinks babies mass burials in the royal tombs might have been due to the high infant mortality of those times. "If there is an aspect of child sacrifice, you get to questions like: Which children were they? Were they the children of upper classes, the elite, the people in power who belong in the tomb? Or are they children of lower classes who were forced into this? You are confronted by a whole lot of uncomfortable questions which demand explanations," McMahon said.
But Schwartz stays firm: "There is evidence of human sacrifice in other burial contexts. The most famous is the city of Ur in southern Mesopotamia."
"We don't know for sure if these infants [in Umm el-Marra] were sacrificed. But I think it seems to be likely, because they are found in architectural features that otherwise contain the skeletons of animals that clearly were sacrificed."
"There is still much to be explored and analyzed before the archaeologists fully understand the tomb complex and all it can teach them about rulership and ritual in early urban Syria," Schwartz said.
Photo credit: Glenn Schwartz