Til Barsib
Syria

Til Barsib, SyriaBarsib, Barsip ..... To-may-to, To-mah-to

Til Barsib also spelled Til Barsip; also called Tell Ahmar, is located along the eastern bank of the Euphrates River, c.100km northeast of Aleppo, Syria. The site is situated on the edge of a terrace, on elevated ground, overlooking the alluvial plain of the Euphrates.

Excavations indicate that the site has been occupied from Ubaid period onward. The site became the capital of the Aramaean kingdom of Bit-Adini in Upper Syria. It was conquered by Shalmaneser III in 856 BCE. He then renamed the site Kar Shalmaneser and built a palace on the acropolis, probably as a provincial residence. The Palace's final form is likely by Ashur-bani-pal.

Only about 88 x 132m of the Palace area has been uncovered. It was considerably larger, but much of the building has now eroded away, primarily due to encroachment by the Euphrates River.

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Shaded plan

Shaded plan
Throne Room as excavated, view NW; source: F. Thureau-Dangin and Maurice Dunand, Til-Barsib , Paris: Paul Geuthner, 1936.

Throne Room as excavated, view NW; source: F. Thureau-Dangin and Maurice Dunand, Til-Barsib , Paris: Paul Geuthner, 1936.

Photograph looking north in Room 47 (the so-called Queen’s reception room) of the Palace at Til Barsib, Syria; plate 39.2 in Thureau-Dangin, F. and Maurice Dunand, Til-Barsib , Paris: Paul Geuthner, 1936.

Photograph looking north in Room 47 (the so-called Queen’s reception room) of the Palace at Til Barsib, Syria; plate 39.2 in Thureau-Dangin, F. and Maurice Dunand, Til-Barsib , Paris: Paul Geuthner, 1936.

Reference
Page Created: January 10, 2012
Page Updated: June 2, 2012
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Page Author: The Institute for the Visualization of History