The Cemetery

While tombs were found on the northern slopes of the jebel overlooking the Euphrates, south of the jebel on high ground separated from the jebel by a wadi, and in the eastern ravine leading from the centre of the settlement down to the river, by far the majority were on the ridges of the valley floor to the west of the jebel. This cemetery was estimated to be about 1.5 km north-south and 0.8 km wide.

In 1993, 1995, 1996 and 1997 Bruno Frohlich and Judith Littleton trialed use of a non-penetrating electromagnetic scanner, which measures ground conductivity, to locate burials. Test excavations showed that no single rule for the interpretation of variations in conductivity could be arrived at; there was, however, a correlation between robbed tombs and a high conductivity pattern. In 1997 another approach based on the density pattern of the tombs was tested. It proved to be almost as efficient as the conductivity method used in one area of the cemetery but both were far less efficient than the conductivity method in another area.

In 1996-1997 forty-two graves were excavated. All but one had been robbed, some soon after the burial but most much later.

With few exceptions, the tombs are cist-style with a pit leading down to a chamber cut into solid rock or dug out of the hard-packed limey soil. The pits are around 240 cm long and 120 cm wide, the chambers just a little shorter but only around 70 cm wide, thus having a ledge on either side upon which rested the capstones. These were 10-20 cm thick, 50-90 cm long and 30-70 cm wide; few were dressed. In most cases wooden coffins were used. The graves contained a single individual, most probably adult, lain supine in an extended position.

Graves appear to cluster around high points in the landscape. Within these clusters, the spacing system was roughly regular and graves tended to run in parallel rows running south-south-east to north-north-west.

Heather Jackson found that ninety percent of the small corpus of pottery from the Cemetery belongs to Hellenistic burials of the second century BCE, the rest dating to the 6th or 7th centuries CE, when it is thought that the tombs were first robbed. There is no sign in the pottery of a separate indigenous culture. But the combination of rough construction methods and some burnt pumice fragments found above capstones together with Hellenistic refinements such as basins at the ends of chambers and niches in the walls might suggest the overlay of a basic local grave tradition with Hellenistic refinements (or an elaborate Hellenistic form translated into a local type).

Major reports:

  • G. Clarke, 'Syriac inscriptions from the Middle Euphrates', Abr-Nahrain 23 (1984/1985) 73-82, pls. 5-8. Clarke84SyriacInscriptions.pdf
  • G.W. Clarke, P.J. Connor, L. Crewe, B. Frohlich, H.M. Jackson, J. Littleton, C.E.V. Nixon, M. O'Hea & D. Steele, Jebel Khalid on the Euphrates, Volume One: Report on Excavations 1986–1996. Mediterranean Archaeology Supplement 5 (Sydney, 2002):
    • J. Littleton & B. Frohlich, 'Excavations of the Cemetery - 1996 and 1997', 49-69.
    • H. Jackson & J. Littleton, 'Inventory of graves excavated in 1996 and 1997', 71-100.
    • H. Jackson, 'The Cemetery pottery - 1996 and 1997', 101-124.

Other publications
Location of tombs in the eastern ravine (1984)
Plan showing areas of robbed tombs

The Australian Mission to Jebel Khalid is a joint project of the
Australian National University and the University of Melbourne.