HABUBA KABIRA

Archaeological site on the river Euphrates in northern Syria, excavated from 1969 to 1975 by Ernst Heinrich, Eva Strommenger, and Andre Finet. The large (18 hectare) site yielded well-preserved architectural remains, as well as pottery, archaic clay tablets, and bullae used to seal containers. The southern part was founded on virgin soil in the late fourth millennium and shows characteristics of the late Uruk period culture, in which it may have served as an outpost of the Uruk state, controlling trade with Anatolia. It comprised a walled, carefully laid-out city, with grid-like streets, houses, storerooms, and public buildings. It appears to have been abandoned by 3200 B.C., but another settlement, farther north, can be dated to the third millennium.