Terqa
Terqa is the name of an ancient city discovered at the site of Tell Ashara on the banks of the middle Euphrates in Deir ez-Zor Governorate, Syria, approximately from the modern border with Iraq and north of the ancient site of Mari, Syria. Its name had become Sirqu by Neo-Assyrian times. History. Little is yet known of the early history of Terqa, though it was a sizable entity even in the Early Dynastic period. In the 2nd millennium BC it was under the control of Shamshi-Adad, followed by Mari in the time of Zimri-Lim, and  then by Babylon after Mari's defeat by Hammurabi of the First Babylonian dynasty, Terqa became the leading city of the kingdom of Khana after the decline of Babylon. Later, it fell into the sphere of the Kassite dynasty of Babylon and eventually the Neo-Assyrian Empire. A noted stele of Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta II was found at Terqa. The principal god of Terqa was Dagan. Proposed Rulers of Terqa Archaeology. The main site is around in size and has a height of . The remains of Terqa are partly covered by the modern town of Ashara, which limits the  possibilities for excavation. The site was briefly excavated by Ernst Herzfeld in 1910. In 1923, 5 days of excavations were conducted by François Thureau-Dangin and P. Dhorrne. From 1974 to 1986, Terqa was excavated for 10 seasons by a team from the International Institute for Mesopotamian Area Studies including the Institute of Archaeology at the University of California at Los Angeles, California State University at Los Angeles, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Arizona and the University of Poitiers in France. The team was led by Giorgio Buccellati and Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati. After 1987, a French team led by  Olivier Rouault of Lyon University took over the dig and continued to work there until local conditions deteriorated around 2010. There are 550 cuneiform tablets from Terqa held at the Deir ez-Zor Museum. Notable features found at Terqa include Temple to Ninkarrak. Ninkarrak was the ancient goddess of healing. Her temple was identified based on a tablet with a list of offerings which starts with her name, and by seals mentioned the goddess. Thousands of beads made out of precious materials such as agate, carnelian, and lapis lazuli were found here. Archaeologists also found a number of small bronze  figurines of dogs inside the temple as well. Dogs were the animals sacred to Ninkarrak. A ceremonial axe and a scimitar with a devotional inscription mentioning Ninkarrak, both bronze, were also found. Early occupation of the structure has been dated to roughly the same period as the reigns of three kings of Terqa. The earliest of them was Yadikh-abu, a contemporary of Samsuiluna of Babylon, defeated by the latter in 1721 BCE. Kashtiliash, and Shunuhru-ammu also ruled during this period. The temple was remodeled multiple times. The Egyptian scarabs found in the temple of Ninkarrak represent the easternmost  known example of such objects in a sealed deposit dated to the Old Babylonian period. They are attributed to around 1650-1640 BC, or the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt. The hieroglyphs inscribed on them are regarded as "poorly executed and sometimes misunderstood," indicating Levantine, rather than Egyptian, origin. Similar scarabs are also known from Byblos, Sidon and Ugarit. Temple to Lagamal. Lagamal was a Mesopotamian deity worshiped chiefly in Dilbat, but it was prominent in Terqa as well, and also in Susa. This was a deity associated with the underworld. In the majority of known sources Lagamal is a male  deity, but it was regarded as a goddess rather than a god in Terqa. Icehouse. The oldest attested ice house (building) in the world may have been built in Terqa. It is recorded in a cuneiform tablet from c. 1780 BC that Zimri-Lim, the King of Mari ordered such a construction in Terqa, "which never before had any king built." Trade. Evidence of trade contacts with the Indus valley has been found here. Archaeologist Giorgio Buccellati found cloves, an important spice, in a burned-down house which was dated to 1720 BC. Since this house was described as being  of a medium size, it seems that, at that time, cloves were already accessible to the common people of Terqa. Cloves are native to the Molucca Islands off the coast of Indonesia, and were extensively used in ancient India. This was the first evidence of cloves being used in the west before Roman times. The discovery was first reported in 1978. Genetics. Ancient mitochondrial DNA from freshly unearthed remains (teeth) of 4 individuals deeply deposited in slightly alkaline soil of ancient Terqa and Tell Masaikh (ancient Kar-Assurnasirpal, located on the Euphrates upstream from Terqa) was analysed in 2013. Dated  to the period between 2.5 Kyrs BC and 0.5 Kyrs AD the studied individuals carried mtDNA haplotypes corresponding to the M4b1, M49 and M61 haplogroups, which are believed to have arisen in the area of the Indian subcontinent during the Upper Paleolithic and are absent in people living today in Syria. However, they are present in people inhabiting today’s India, Pakistan, Tibet and Himalayas. A 2014 study expanding on the 2013 study and based on analysis of 15751 DNA samples arrives at the conclusion, that "M65a, M49 and/or M61 haplogroups carrying ancient Mesopotamians might have been the merchants from  India".