Bioarchaeology of the Near East, 17:1-26 (2023)

Modern Era burials from Tell Abu Hureyra, Syria

Theya Molleson*, Tim Compton, Dawn Hodgson
Department of Earth Sciences (Palaeontology),
Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK
email: t.molleson@nhm.ac.uk (corresponding author)

Abstract: Rescue excavations in 1972 and 1973 on the summit of Tell Abu Hureyra, Northern Syria, undertaken in advance of flooding by the Tabqa dam downstream on the Euphrates River, recovered over a hundred burials from the Modern Era. The 142 burials recovered comprise males, females and subadults from five of the seven trenches opened on top of the Neolithic mound. The health, and identity of the people who selected the mound to bury their dead is explored and, in particular, whether the burials were of Islamic, nomadic or non-Islamic communities. The question of what would be the best indicators to distinguish such burials and would they be the same for all burials is also addressed.

Key words: Christian; Islamic; nomad; Ottoman Period

https://doi.org/10.47888/bne-1701 | Received 16 October 2019; accepted 21 October 2023; published online 19 October 2025.

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