Syria: a new cemetery discovered dates back to 4300 years
Syria, History, 10/5/2000

Researchers from John Hopkins university in Baltimore (Maryland- USA) said that a cemetery dating back to 4300 years was discovered at " Um al-Mara" area near the city of Aleppo in the North of Syria.

The university said that the cemetery is " remarkably in a good condition" and that it includes the skeletons of three children and five persons some of which are covered with gold and silver."

Archaeologist Glen Shwartz, the official in charge of the excavation team who found these monuments said that " the cemetery indicates that findings of one of first urban civilizations in the world" in this area which used to be known in the past as the city of Touba.

He continued " that this new discovered is considered an important addition to understand how cities, writings, states and social strata developed " in this area.

Glen added that the skeletons were placed inside three beds. In the first bed there are the remains of two bodies and in each there is a child and a woman putting all her jewelry of gold, silver and lazuli.

In the second bed there is a child and two men one of them carries a wreath of silver.

The third bed contains a body of a man with a cup and silver monuments.

The excavators also found near the skeletons copper utensils dating back to 2300 years BC, the era when the pyramids were built. Writings deciphered which dates back 2 or 3 thousand years BC indicate that Touba was situated on the road linking the Mediterranean to Mesopotamia.

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