and accompanying stone tablet bearing the earliest known text in
Hurrian The entire site covers around 135 hectares, mostly made up of the outer city. The high mound covers about and rises to a height of 25 meters, with 5 sub-mounds. The maximim area was reached in the 3rd millennium BC and on most of the site the 3rd millennium BC material lies just below the surface, without later occupational overburden. The high mound is surrounded by a mudbrick city wall that was roughly 8 meters wide and 7 meters high. Soundings at the site were first made by
Max Mallowan during his survey of the area.
Agatha Christie, his wife, wrote that they chose not to continue at the site because it seemed to have
Roman material. No trace of Roman occupation levels have been found in later excavations, however. Mallowan went on to excavate
Chagar Bazar, another site to the south of Mozan/Urkesh. Excavations at
Tell Mozan began in 1984 and have been conducted for at least 17 seasons up to the present time. The work has been led by Giorgio Buccellati of
UCLA and Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati of
California State University, Los Angeles. The 2007 season was primarily dedicated to working on publication material, primarily excavation units A16, J1, J3 and J4. A small sounding was done in J1 to clarify the transition between
Mittani and
Khabur. From 1998 to 2001 the excavations were joined by Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft (German Oriental Society) team directed by Peter Pfrilzner of Tubingen University. Important excavated structures include the royal palace of Tupkish, an associated necromantic underground structure (Abi), a monumental temple terrace with a plaza in front and a temple at the top, residential areas, burial areas, and the inner and outer city walls. The temple at Urkesh sits on a raised platform at the center of the mound. The platform has a stone revetment wall and a monumental staircase gives access from the surrounding plaza. It was begun roughly in the Early Dynastic III to Akkadian Empire period. The plaza, encompassed by another wall, during the Akkadian Empire period became the site of the large palace of Tupkish. The temple itself (Area BA) is of the standard "bent-axis" form and had four major building phases with the later phases more subject to erosion. Phase 1, the old and proposed to date to Early Dynastic III, was destroyed by fire. The limited nature of later phases make uncertain if the area was still being used as a temple. The deity worshiped in the temple is uncertain and both
Nergal and
Kumbari have been proposed. The palace had a service area and a residence area, the later being two meters higher. One of the most important fixed points of reference for chronology are impressions on door sealings of the seal of Tar'am-Agade, the daughter of Naram-Sin, which because of stratigraphy can be firmly linked to phase 3 of the AP palace occupation. Small finds included a number of terracotta animal figurines. Finds from the excavations at Tell Mozan are on display in the
Deir ez-Zor Museum.
2011 to present Excavations are on hold during the
Syrian Civil War since 2011. The site lies close to the Turkish border, and is protected by Kurdish troops and a team of local workers. Conservation activities continue at the site. ==Rulers==