Current Fieldwork

Jebel Khalid on the Euphrates

General Information

North Syria, approximately 60 km from the Turkish border.

Run jointly by the Australian National University and the University of Melbourne, from 1985- 2005.

Funded by successive grants from the Australian Research Council, with the current grant extending to 2006.

Australian National University: Professor Graeme Clarke (Director)
University of Melbourne: the late Peter Connor 1985-1996 (Co-Director); 1997-2005: Dr. Heather Jackson (Deputy Director).

About the Site

Jebel Khalid is a Hellenistic site, built to protect river traffic and trade on the Euphrates, probably in the early 3rd century BCE in the reign of Seleucus I, one of Alexander’s generals. It was abandoned in the first part of the 1st century BCE and, uniquely, not re-settled by the Romans. It is situated on a limestone plateau and its 50 hectares was strongly defended by 3.4km of city wall and 21 towers, with its Akropolis further defended by an inner wall and 9  towers. To date, the governor’s residence and administrative centre has been excavated, also the twin-towered Main Gate, the foundations of the Temple and the traces of two other large public buildings. The Melbourne interest, since 1995, has been concentrated on the housing area, where a whole block of houses, measuring 35 x 90 m, has now been excavated, providing ample material evidence (architectural, ceramic, faunal, botanic, as well as glass, metal, figurines and other artefacts) for researching the life of the inhabitants of the houses and their use of domestic space. There is particular interest in the evidence for a mixed society of Greek/Macedonian settlers and indigenous Syrians.

Publications on the Site

A full list of publications up to 2001 may be found in G.W. Clarke, P.J. Connor, L. Crewe, B. Frohlich, H. Jackson, J. Littleton, C.E.V. Nixon, M. O’Hea, D. Steele, Jebel Khalid on the Euphrates, Report on Excavations 1986-1996, Mediterranean Archaeology Supplement 5, Sydney 2002, pp. ix – xi.

Publications subsequent to 2001

G.W. Clarke, H. Jackson: Jebel Khalid, 2000 Season, Mediterranean Archaeology 13 (2000), 123-149 and Plates 16-20

G.W. Clarke, H. Jackson ,Jebel Khalid, 2001 Season, Mediterranean Archaeology 15 (2002), 116-126 and Plates 20-24.

G.W. Clarke, A. Fairbairn. H. Jackson. L. Mairs, Jebel Khalid, 2002 Season, Mediterranean Archaeology 16 (2003), 171-189 and Plates 13-17

G.W. Clarke, H. Jackson, Jebel Khalid on the Euphrates: an overview, Les annales archéologiques arabes syriennes,  XLV-XLVI (2002-2003), 189-206.
G.W. Clarke. A Seleucid Governor’s Palace: Jebel Khalid on the Euphrates, in The
Royal Palace Institution in the First Millennium BC, (ed. Inge
Nielsen), Copenhagen, 2001, 215-247.
              
G.W. Clarke, H. Jackson, Jebel Khalid on the Euphrates, North Syria in ARX World Journal of Prehistoric and Ancient Studies (to appear), reprinted in Archaeology from Australia (ed. T. Murray), Australian Scholarly Publications, Melbourne, 2004, pp 342-360 and Figures 20.1-.5.

H. Jackson, Two Engraved Gems from Hellenistic Jebel Khalid, in Antike Kunst 47, 2004.

To appear in Mediterranean Archaeology 18 (2005)

G.W. Clarke, H. Jackson, Jebel Khalid Graffiti and Dipinti 2000-2005 (with G.W. Clarke, Jebel Khalid Stamped Amphora Handles 2000-2005 (with an
Appendix by Heather Jackson),

G.W. Clarke, H. Jackson et al. Jebel Khalid: 2004 Study Season.

G.W. Clarke, L. Cougle, H. Jackson, M. Mc Conchie, R. Thornley, J. Tidmarsh, Jebel Khalid: 2005 Season

Books in Progress

Four further volumes in the Jebel Khalid on the Euphrates series are planned as supplementary volumes of Mediterranean Archaeology:

In press: H. Jackson, Jebel Khalid on the Euphrates Vol.2: The Terracotta Figurines.

H. Jackson, J. Tidmarsh, Jebel Khalid on the Euphrates .Vol.3: The
Ceramics [completed];

H. Jackson, Jebel Khalid on the Euphrates Vol.4: The Housing Insula (in preparation);

G.W. Clarke et al. Jebel Khalid on the Euphrates, Vol.5: The Public Buildings.