A model of mass tombs in the Middle Bronze Age at Salamieh city

Abstract

The research focuses on the tomb discovered in the eighties of the last century during the implementation of the road works in preparation for the opening of an international road between Hama Governorate and Salamieh city, when a collapse in the soil occurred about /5.7/km. to the city. The tomb was a complete one with all the funerary items related to the dead people buried there. it is still far from the hands of antiquities thieves.

The study of the pottery recipients, which exceeded two hundred

artifacts, shows that it carries the technical characteristics of the Middle Bronze Age II, and this is extremely important, as the region was restored in the middle of the second millennium BC widely, and played an important role in the events of the central region, This was mentioned in several previous studies. The tomb is divided into entrances and two burial spaces, in which eleven bodies were laid down with their funerary equipment consisting of pottery utensils, metal and jewelry.

The tomb until now was the only model for a collective tomb in the region from the middle bronze age II, so the architectural model is unique and thus we should study it to understand the rituals related to life and death in that era in the eastern part of the middle internal region, and the importance of the tomb not stopped on its important period, but goes through the artistic importance of the discovered finds, as the area has not been subjected to archaeological excavations covering the Middle Bronze Age in a peaceful area, so the pottery finds discovered in the tomb gave a good picture of the pottery industry in the region during the Middle Bronze Age, in addition to some metal models (axes) and bracelets.