Tell Taban
archaeological site in Syria
Tell Taban is an archaeological site in north-eastern Syria in the Al-Hasakah Governorate, near the Habur river. It is the site of the ancient city of Ṭābatum/Ṭābetu (rarely Ṭabēte).
Archaeology
The site was first excavated by a Kokushikan University Archaeological Mission team led by Hirotoshi Numoto from 1997 until 1999 as a salvage operation in response to the effects of the Hassake dam. A number of inscribed objects, mostly building inscriptions, were found. The site was again excavated in 2005 through 2010. More inscriptions and an archive
containing over 100 cuneiform tablets were found, dating to the Old Babylonian and Middle Assyrian Periods.
History
Middle Bronze Age
The city was mentioned in 18th century BC as a regional center named Ṭābatum in the tablets of the kingdom of Mari, and was destroyed by Samsu-Iluna of Babylon. In a text from the time of ruler Zimri-Lim found at Mari an official was sent to Ṭābatum which was being incorporated into the province of Qattunan. He traveled through Saggarâtum and on arriving found that the city had been completely evacuated before some unstated menace. Although it was about 200
kilometers away from Mari it is known the Zimri-Lim maintained a large estate at Ṭābatum.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Tell Taban” is archaeological site in Syria. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Tell, Taban and archaeological, not as a finished interpretation.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q22935924. Authority coordinates are 36.336, 40.788. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1997, 1999, 2005 and 2010.
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This entry incorporates text from “Tell Taban” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.