Qadesh
From ArchaeoWiki
Qadesh (تل نبﻲ مند Tell Nebi Mend, also Qadesh-on-the-Orontes) is an important archaeological site located some 30 km south-west of the modern city of Homs in present-day Syria. Representing the remains of an extensive city mound rising some 30 metres above the alluvial plain, Qadesh / Tell Nebi Mend is situated on the west bank of the Orontes River, close to the confluence of that river with its tributary, the Mukadiyah. This situation offered distinct defensive advantages to the ancient city, being largely surrounded by water. The strategic importance of Qadesh lay in its control of passage into the northern Beqaʾ Valley and the Homs-Tripoli Gap (the latter one of the few natural passes through the Lebanon range of mountains), thereby linking the Mediterranean littoral with inland Syria and northern Mesopotamia.
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Excavation
Qadesh was first excavated by a French expedition under Pezard from 1921-1922.
A British expedition under the direction of Peter J. Parr (UCL) resumed excavation of the site in 1975.
Bibliography
Excavation Reports
- Pézard, Maurice [1931], Qadesh: mission archéologique à Tell Nebi Mend, 1921-1922, [Haut-commissariat de la République francaise en Syrie et au Liban, Service des antiquités et des beaux-arts, Bibliothèque archéologique et historique t.15], Paris: P. Geuthner, 1931.
Derivative Treatments
- Bourke, Stephen J. [1993], "The Transition from the Middle to the Late Bronze Age in Syria: The Evidence from Tell Nebi Mend", Levant 25 (1993), pp.155-195.
- Mathias, V. T. and Parr, P. J [1989], "The Early Phases at Tell Nebi Mend: A Preliminary Account", Levant 21 (1989), pp.13-32.
- Parr, Peter J. [1983], "The Tell Nebi Mend Project", AAAS 33 (1983), pp.99-117.
- Whincop, Matthew R. [2007], "The Iron Age II at Tell Nebi Mend: Towards and Explanation of Ceramic Regions", Levant 39 (2007), pp.185-212.
