Periods of Settlement

Tall al-Hamidiya has been settled from the Neolithic (Halaf-period) to modern times. Its most important structures date to the Late Bronze Age. Taidu is known from a variety of texts mainly during the Middle Bronze and Late Bronze Periods.

Taidu is already mentioned in Early Bronze Age texts from Ebla (TM. 75. G. 2359), and Tall al-Birak (F 1153, TB 8003).

In the Old Babylonian period it plays a marginal role under its king Ibni-Addu (TH3, 169f), even though Zimri-Lim of Mari once stayed there (ARM 7: 104, 117+. ARM 28: 95).

In the Mittanian period, Ta´idu evolves to unexpected size: the mound is transformed into a residential terrace and the core of a city with an extent of 245 ha. Later the Central Palace is rebuilt by the victorious Middle Assyrian rulers. It is further used by the early Neo-Assyrian kings, but is destroyed by fire in the reign of Shalmaneser III.

In the Hellenistic-Parthian period the mound is resettled on a larger scale.

Later periods – Parthian-Sassanid, Umayyad, Abbasid, Ayyubid, Mongol, Postmongol, Late Islamic and French Mandate – show only small settlements and have not been excavated on a larger scale.