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Bit-Bahiani
In the tenth century BC, one of the earliest known states to be set up by
the encroaching Aramaeans was Bit-Bahiani. It was
centred on ancient Tell Halaf, one of
the main sites of the Neolithic Halaf culture of around 5500-4500 BC in
northern
Mesopotamia (now in the Khabur Valley in modern
Syria). Although the area was one of northern Mesopotamia's earliest
centres of habitation, when the Halaf was replaced by the Ubaid culture
the site was abandoned for a long time. Reoccupied by the Aramaeans in
around the eleventh century BC, it flourished for a time under their control
as it controlled important trade routes through the region. Details about
the kingdom are limited mostly to references from the Bible and
Assyrian
records, as local inscriptions are very limited in number.
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c.1000 BC |
Bit-Bahiani emerges as an
Aramaean territory which is centred on Guzana (Tell Halaf, the Old
Testament's Gozana).
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The modern site of Tell Halaf was, during its existence, later
known as Guzana and it also became the capital of the Aramaean
kingdom of Bit-Bahiani, despite Assyrian attempts to prevent
Aramaeans from settling in Mesopotamia and southern Syria
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fl c.950 - 875 BC |
Kapara / Gabara |
Son of Hadianu. |
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With the city reaching its peak under Kapara, the king
builds a palace at Guzana in neo-Hittite
style from which 187 reliefs would later be discovered by archaeologists and
which at this time decorate the base of the palace's south wall. The reliefs
alternate between red ochre-tinted limestone and black basalt slabs. |
894 BC |
Adad-Nirari II
of
Assyria makes Bit-Bahiani tributary to the empire. The ruling house remains on the throne but
as far as the Assyrians are concerned, they are nothing more than governors.
The city of Sikani seems to be their religious centre, housing the god Adad.
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Sassu-nuri |
King of Guzana and
Assyrian governor. |
fl c.850 BC |
Hadad-yith'i |
King of Guzana, Sikani, & Zarani, and
Assyrian governor. |
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808 BC |
Now an island territory which is surrounded
by
Assyrian conquests, Bit-Bahiani is reduced to a province of the empire.
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609 BC |
Surviving the fall of
Assyria, the city remains inhabited into the
Roman
period.
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