Clay Tablets Capture the Final Days of Ancient Qabra
Some clay tablets in a burned palace were written only days apart. Then the city fell, and the people inside were left where they died.
A team led by the University of Central Florida excavated at Kurd Qaburstan, an ancient site near Erbil in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. The site is identified as the ancient city of Qabra. The team found the first substantial group of cuneiform tablets from the Erbil region, together with destruction layers, fortifications and human remains from the Middle Bronze Age, nearly 4,000 years ago.
Tablets written within days
Researchers recovered 20 cuneiform tablets and more than 100 administrative sealings from the Lower Town East Palace. Project director Tiffany Earley-Spadoni said several tablets are dated within days of each other, matching the timeline of the city’s fall. Most are administrative records that give a snapshot of palace life and the economy, and one appears to come from a high-ranking official in Qabra. Epigraphers Paul Delnero and Parker Zane are studying the texts.
A city under siege
Two layers of destruction match the historical sequence of the siege of Qabra and its conquest by Shamshi-Adad. Earley-Spadoni called the charred debris, the many ceramic vessels and the people buried in the destruction layers the clearest archaeological case of Middle Bronze Age siege warfare found yet in northern Mesopotamia. A magnetometer survey covering more than 80 hectares also revealed a monumental wall with bastions around the site, which matches fortifications shown on the Victory Stele of Dadusha.
17 people left behind
Inside the palace destruction layers, bioarchaeologist Andrea Zurek-Ost studied the remains of 17 individuals. They were not formally buried and had no grave goods. Some appear to have been left where they died, possibly including palace workers, and one person lay face down over a stone basin. Isotopic and ancient DNA analyses are underway to learn about their origins and relationships.
The team also found a preserved street with an engineered drainage system, along with rooms used for food processing and textile production. Earley-Spadoni says the evidence shows northern cities could rival the best-known southern sites in administration, fortifications and infrastructure.