EMAR (TELLMESKENE)

   Town in Syria, some 100 kilometers east of Aleppo, excavated by Jean Margueron in the 1970s and by a SyroGerman mission under Uwe Finkbeiner since 1996. Situated on a bend on the Euphrates river, it was an important trade center between Syro-Mesopotamia, the Mediterranean, and Anatoliafrom the mid-third millennium. It was mentioned in the Ebla archives and those of Mari, which show that it belonged to the kingdom of Yamhad.According to mainly Akkadiansources from the site itself, it was under Hittite domination during the 13th and early 12th centuries. Acollection of tablets within the house of a priest yielded important information on local rituals.