Arpad (Syria)
Arpad (probably modern Tell Rifa'at, Syria) was an ancient Aramaean city located in north-western Syria, north of Aleppo. In 743 BC, the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III led a military expedition to Syria, defeating there the Uraratian army. But the city of Arpad, which had formed an alliance with Urartu, did not surrender easily. It took Tiglath-pileser three years of siege to conquer Arpad, whereupon he massacred its inhabitants and destroyed the city.
The city is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible several times:
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[edit] Archaeology
'Tell Rifa'at' is an oval 250 by 233 meters. Within this, the main citadel is 142 by 142 meters with a maximum height of 30 meters. The defensive wall surrounding the site is about two miles long.
The site has been worked by a team from the Institute of Archaeology or the University of London. After a preliminary examination in 1956, Tell Rifa'at was excavated for two seasons in 1961 and 1964. The team was led by M. V. Seton Williams.[1][2]
In 1977, an archaeological survey was conducted of the area around Tell Rifa'at, also by the Institute of Archaeology.[3]
[edit] Notes
- ^ M. V. Seton Williams, Preliminary Report on the Excavations at Tell Rifa'at, Iraq, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 68-87, 1961
- ^ M. V. Seton Williams, The Excavations at Tell Rifa'at: 1964 Preliminary Report on, Iraq, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 16-33, 1967
- ^ John Matthers, Tell Rifa'at 1977: Preliminary Report of an Archaeological Survey, Iraq, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 119-162, 1978
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- P. A. Clayton, The Coins from Tell Rifa'at, Iraq, vol. 29, pp. 143–154, 1967
- Alan R. Millard, Adad-Nirari III, Aram, and Arpad, Palestine Exploration Quarterly, vol. 105, pp. 161–164, 1973
