Evidence from two soundings to virgin soil in the Acropolis North and Acropolis East indicates that Umm el-Marra was founded ca. 2700 BC, in the earlier part of the Early Bronze Age (Umm el-Marra Period VI). This date is suggested via ceramic parallels to earlier third millennium BC occupations at Tell Sweyhat and Amuq G-H....
In the late 3rd and early 2nd millennium BC, many Syrian cities suffered a reduction in their size or were abandoned altogether. Debate over the nature of this “collapse” and the reasons for it is vigorous and ongoing. At Umm el-Marra, urban troubles are attested by an abandonment of the Acropolis East and other locations...
Major change occurs in Middle Bronze II, probably at the same time that the powerful Yamhad kingdom based at Aleppo makes its appearance. At Umm el-Marra, excavations revealed an energetic program of public works including new earth and cobble ramparts encircling the site and evidence of a mudbrick city wall on top. Inside the city...
Western Syria was incorporated into large, multi-regional empires in the mid-late second millennium BC. First to conquer the Jabbul region was Mitanni, centered in the Khabur area, later to be displaced in the later 14th century by the empire of the Hittites from Anatolia. In this period at Umm el-Marra, there is no evidence of...
Umm el-Marra was abandoned by the end of the Late Bronze period. While there is little reason to suppose that the site was occupied on any scale in the Iron Age, the discovery of a basalt receptacle with bull head protomes of Iron Age type in the North Area) as well as some Iron II...
