Archaeologists Unearth a War Zone 5,500 Years Old

NY Times ^ | December 16, 2005 | JOHN NOBLE WILFORD

[Pharmboy]

University of Chicago
Architectural remains in Syria from the fourth millennium B.C. Those at lower left were excavated in 2001,
and those at top center this year. The location is said to be the oldest known excavated site of a large battle.

In the ruins of an ancient city in northeastern Syria, archaeologists have uncovered what they say is substantial evidence of a fierce battle fought there in about 3500 B.C.

The archaeologists, who announced the find yesterday, described it as the oldest known excavated site of large-scale organized warfare. It was a clash of northern and southern cultures in ancient Mesopotamia, the land where urban civilization began, in a region that includes Iraq and parts of Syria.

snip... The ruins are in the upper fringes of the Tigris and Euphrates Valleys, near the Iraq border and within sight of the Taurus Mountains of southern Turkey.

"The whole area of our most recent excavation was a war zone," Dr. Reichel said in the announcement, made jointly by the University of Chicago and the Department of Antiquities in Syria.

snip...

It was previously thought that the culture had spread north through colonization, trade or conquest.

The new research revealed that relations between north and south were not without major conflict.

The archaeologists reported finding collapsed mud-brick walls that had undergone heavy bombardment and ensuing fire. All around, they collected more than 1,200 oval-shaped "bullets" used with slings and some 120 larger round clay balls. The layer of ruins from that time also held vast amounts of pottery from the Uruk culture of southern Mesopotamia.

"The picture is compelling," Dr. Reichel said. "If the Uruk people weren't the ones firing the sling bullets, they certainly benefited from it. They took over this place right after its destruction."

[Babu]

What? The DNC Times printed this story about ancient warfare??

The only possible explanation is that they must've thought a Democrat was the leader of the conquerors, so therefore war was justified and a good thing.

[indcons]

Of course he was not. I agree....Operation Barbossa and Operation Citadel were carried out under the command of a mediocre military mind.

I was also replying to that poster's comment that Hitler and Alexander did not go searching for resources.

[patton]

Power is a resource - above all, hitler was out for power. In my mind, it still comes down to a war for resources.

Thank G_D he was so bad at it.

[indcons]

Thanks for replying. Do you know of a military history ping list here? I tried searching for one on the "List of Ping Lists" and have asked around but haven't been able to find one so far.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks. Here are some related old ones from the hard drive...

6,000-Year-Old City Found in Syria
Tuesday May 23 12:35 PM ET

Scientists from the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute found a protective city wall under a huge mound in northeastern Syria known as Tell Hamoukar. The wall and other evidence indicated a complex government at an early date... [I]deas behind cities may have predated the Sumerians, said McGuire Gibson of the Oriental Institute. Among the features indicating the site was a full-blown city, not just a town: thin, porcelain-like pieces of pottery, indicating a sophisticated manufacturing technique, and huge cooking ovens, big enough to feed large numbers of people. There also were stamps to make impressions in wet clay - like primitive hieroglyphics - used to make tokens that served as records for trade transactions. The stamps were in the shapes of animals, including bears, dogs, rabbits, fish and birds.

Discovery Challenges Urban Theory
May 23, 2000

The discovery of a 6,000-year-old city in Syria is challenging long-held beliefs about the beginning and spread of urban civilization. Archaeologists from the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute uncovered the settlement last year while excavating a huge mound known as Tell Hamoukar. A protective city wall and artifacts indicate a complex government was in place as early as 4,000 B.C. Scholars had long believed the development of cities began in Sumeria in southern Mesopotamia and then spread north around 3500-3100 B.C... But the Hamoukar settlement apparently developed independently at the same time as its southern neighbors, researchers said.

'Oldest city' unearthed?
by Sally Suddock
July 3, 2000 08:40 CDT

The Independent newspaper, based in London, said archaeologists believe that the city, called Hamoukar, may date as far back as 6,000 BC... Hamoukar, between the legendary Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, spreads over 750 acres and the population may have reached 25,000 people in the ancient period when the region was known as Mesopotamia. Dr Mouhammed Maktash, director of the Syrian-American joint excavation... told the UK newspaper that "one of the most astonishing finds has been of double-walled living quarters to encourage air flow, suggesting the inhabitants had designed their own air-conditioning system to combat summer temperatures of more than 40 degrees Centigrade." ...Textbooks and historians have theorized that is was the Sumerians who established the oldest known "modern" civilizations of the Babylonian and Mesopotamian era, at about 3500 BC. Hamoukar is thought to have predated the birth of the Sumerian civilization by 2500 to 3000 years.

Catal Huyuk was abandoned by 5600 BC.

To quibble -- had Hitler concentrated instead on winning in North Africa and the Middle East, and not invaded the USSR (at least, not right away; he made war by timetable rather than by achieving objectives), he would have been able to choke off Britain's oil supply, and that would have meant, no fleet. As someone noted, he was not only not a great general, he probably cost Germany the victory (among many other things). OTOH, it was his political ability that permitted him to lead Germany to war in the first place, and over time, that led to Ronald Reagan and to the destruction of the USSR.

It also led to the foundation of modern Israel.

[patton]

Oddly enough, I do not know of one. That seems strange.

Why don't you start one? Put me on it.

[SunkenCiv]

Oops, let me clarify that... Hitler's initial political victory led to the military defeat of Germany, partition of Europe, the Cold War, various "brush fire wars" in eastern and SE Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Caribbean, Central and South America, and finally the rise of Islamofascism (bankrolled by OPEC fortunes), the seizure of the US embassy in Iran, the overthrow of that cipher Jimmy Carter, and the election of Ronald Reagan, who not only dismantled the USSR, he dismantled the Cold War. Putin is however trying to reassemble both.

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

I was also replying to that poster's comment that Hitler and Alexander did not go searching for resources.

Hi... "that poster" here.

Okay, I'll grant that these guys sought resources in the course of their military adventures. However, I maintain that the quest for resources was not the primary motivator for their adventures. Empire was (plus revenge, in Hitler's case).

[indcons]

Good idea, patton....You're on the list.

I'll also post a vanity on FR announcing the new ping list.

Sunken Civ: hope I won't be duplicating your efforts....this ping list will be for purely military history topics.

[indcons]

Hi, Constitutionalist Conservative :)

We are thinking of a new ping list for military history. Are you interested in joining?

[patton]

Revenge may be the exception - one can draw links between the napoleonic wars, WWI, and WWII, with the root causes all originating in Versailles.

However, look at the german invasion of russia - purely motivated by Uncle Joe's offer to cut off the German oil supply.

resources.

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

Sure! Sign me up.

[SunkenCiv]

Brian's Military Ping list
VaBthang4

There's also a military history ping list of sorts, as I've seen a number of the topics. But I don't know what it's called, or who keeps it.

Here's Seamole's excellent, concise, list of ping list links:

http://www.freerepublic.com/~seamole/

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

However, look at the german invasion of russia - purely motivated by Uncle Joe's offer to cut off the German oil supply.

General, thanks for the chance to refine my original assertion in the following way: Resources may have been a large factor in these wars, but not until the wars were already underway. The three leaders I mentioned did not start their aggressive wars because of a desire for resources.

I'm open to evidence to the contrary.

[SunkenCiv]

Help: Old Time Bump List
http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

Help: Free Republic "Bump List" Register
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/536123/posts

Help: List of Ping Lists and Their Keepers
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1328605/posts

Help: List of Ping Lists and Their Keepers #2 (thanks Asphault)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1461671/posts

Help: Ping List Envy -- How big is your Ping List? (thanks PJ-Comix, and Farmfriend)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1278474/posts

[indcons]

Thanks for the excellent info, Sunken Civ; appreciate it. From what I checked, the list of ping lists has the GGG list, the history (only) list, and the miltech list. Unfortunately, they don't seem to fit the bill.

I think I'll post a vanity and find out. If there is a ping list after all, then we can just add the new names.

[brazzaville]

Good morning.
"Do humans go to war for any other reasons?"

Entertainment? Just for the hell of it, or just because it seems like a good idea at the time?

Michael Frazier

[patton]

I'm not a general, just a jumped-up private with a fancy name.

2nd treaty of versailles required germany to pay war reparations to france, to the extent that it bankrupted the weimarer republic, and led to hitler's rise to power. Ipso facto, WWII was started to prevent a LOSS of resources.

[patton]

those would be viking raids, not war.

[BJClinton]

Very interesting. Any relation to Archaeological Dig Uncovers Ancient Race Of Skeleton People