Tell ʿAbr 3
تل عبر 3 · Tell Abr 3 · Tell el-Abr · Tall Abr
Early Neolithic PPNA (c.9600–8800 BCE)·PPNA Euphrates village culture (with Jerf el Ahmar and Tell Qaramel)·🇸🇾 Aleppo Governorate, Middle Euphrates (opposite Faq'ous), Syria
About
About Tell ʿAbr 3
Benchmark PPNA farming village (c.9600–9000 BCE) on the Euphrates levee where Thierry Yartah uncovered a communal building with plastered bench, wall paintings (geometric in red ochre) and a cache of 60 clay figurines — earliest communal art after Jerf el Ahmar. Botanical work proved cultivation of wild rye and einkorn before domestication at the very moment Natufian gathered turned to PPNA sown fields; the village was drowned in 1999 under Tishrin reservoir and is now known only from rescue publication.
Why it mattersFirst Euphrates proof of pre-domestication cultivation (Willcox et al. Veget Hist Archaeobot 2008 assemblage).
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Red-ochre geometry — earliest wall art?
- 02Why 60 figurines cached in one building?
Theories
- 01Seed-sowing experiment stage before morphologically domestic cereals
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.9600–9000 BCE (late Natufian to PPNA)
- Period
- Early Neolithic PPNA (c.9600–8800 BCE)
- Culture
- PPNA Euphrates village culture (with Jerf el Ahmar and Tell Qaramel)
- Builders
- Middle Euphrates late forager-cultivators
- Purpose
- Sedentary riverine farming hamlet with communal ritual structure
- Abandoned
- c.8800 BCE; drowned 1999 (Tishrin Dam)
- Rediscovered
- 1990s rescue survey for Tishrin Dam; 1996–1999 Yartah excavations (DGAM)
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
c.9300 BCE
Communal building with paintings built
1999
Site submerged under Lake Tishrin
On the ground
Structures & features
36.2200° N · 38.0500° E · 340 m · 3 mapped features
Painted communal building
housePPNA hall with plaster bench, red ochre geometric wall painting
36.2202° N · 38.0502° EFigurine cache pit
cachePit with 60 seated clay figurines under bench
36.2198° N · 38.0498° EPit-house cluster
houseConcentric pit-houses around communal hall
36.2200° N · 38.0500° E
Gallery