News – Wilkie Emergency Fund Update: Tell Achanna

September 30, 2024

Archaeologists at Tel Achana have discovered a 3,500-year-old clay tablet, a remarkable discovery after the earthquake in Turkey and Syria.

In 2023, the AIA established the Nancy Wilkie Emergency Conservation Funds to provide immediate assistance to threatened conditions at some of the world's most valuable archaeological sites. We have received over $100,000 in donations from generous donors to help fund this program.

Wilkie's 2023-2024 emergency funds were used to support the preservation of two sites affected by the same geological disaster, the February 2023 earthquake between Türkiye and Syria.

Dr. Murat Akar and his team, recipients of a 2023 Wilkie Emergency Grant, were featured on CNN for their recent discovery of a Late Bronze Age cuneiform tablet. Dr. Akar's team took quick action after the earthquake in Türkiye and Syria, which posed a serious threat to the ancient site of Tel Acana, the capital of the regional Mukesh Kingdom. AIA-Wilkie Funds played a critical role in this urgent project by providing essential support for the restoration work, including the preservation of the remaining adobe walls that partially collapsed during the earthquake. Click here to read the full CNN article.

AIA reached out to Dr. Akar to find out how Wilkie Funds will impact the project:

Why were emergency funds needed in a quick and timely manner?

Tell Achana, Alalakh is an important Bronze Age site initially excavated by British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley. His wide-ranging exposures at the site revealed palaces, gates and temple complexes from the Middle and Late Bronze Age. Both palaces suffered severe burns allowing the adobe architecture to remain up to 4 meters high in some parts. However, due to the nature of the adobe construction, most of the walls have eroded over the past 80 years. Conditions worsened with the February 6 earthquake in Kahramanmaraş. We, as the excavation team at Tell Atshana, were already working to preserve the site before the earthquake occurred, but now it has become a major necessity as many of the palace walls collapsed during the earthquake.

How were funds used to maintain the site?

We have embarked on a massive conservation project that requires multiple steps to be achieved. We clean collapsed and dilapidated walls to prepare for restoration work. At the same time, we are also re-excavating the 1930s fossil dump, screening it and turning it into new clay bricks produced on site using a mixture of straw and water. The third step is capping which means we seal the original adobe walls first with geotextiles and build the walls around them with newly produced mud bricks to Bronze Age standards. Details of the restoration work that began last year were published in the journal Field Archeology.

What impact will the funds have on the site/project?

The main impact is the possibility of a long-term field season. We have been on site from May onwards thanks to multiple funding sources. Each process requires a tremendous amount of hard work, so every part of the funding source is extremely important to us. Another important aspect is location recognition. Achana Hill deserves to be a World Heritage Site, which was unfortunately left to deteriorate for almost a century. So finds such as a new tablet during restoration work increase the visibility of the site.

I will be at the Getty Institute at the end of this month for about 3 months to follow up on matters related to the preservation of earthen architecture. So I would be happy to present the results as a lecture at AIA if requested.

We have a social media account detailing the on-site restoration process. I would also be happy to provide more pictures. Please check out @tellattchana on Instagram!

📸 Murad Akkar/Mustafa Kamal University

Sources 1/ https://Google.com/ 2/ https://www.archaeological.org/wilkie-emergency-funds-update/ The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article

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