Hamrin dam

The Hamrin region

Project

The research’s main purpose was the reconstruction of the chronological and occupational sequence of settlements inside the area of Tell Yelkhi and, also with the aid of palaeobotanical, geomorphological and hydrological studies, of the environmental context’s characteristics. The environment’s main physical transformations were brought to light through the analysis of satellite imagery and the surveys of the territory completed by mechanical soundings, the so-called core samplings.

The resulting map of watercourses and the modifications of their beds through the centuries, which greatly influenced the environmental conditions and, consequently, the possibility of intensively exploiting the land, are therefore useful in explaining the significance of the diverse distribution of ancient settlements. The joint study of the data obtained from stratigraphical excavations, architectural structures, funerary customs and artefacts, anthropological analyses and analysis of vegetable and animal remains and from the interpretation of epigraphic material, the cuneiform tablets from Tell Yelkhi, enables us to have a quite precise idea of the entire region’s material culture, economy, funerary and religious beliefs and, occasionally, of historical events.