Archaeological museum of Rakka:

A witness on Euphrates valley successive civilizations since the 5th millennium BC

Rakka Archaeological museum sits on the Euphrates river valley with exhibitions and archaeological masterpiece dating back to different eras since the fifth millennium BC. The museum was built in the second half of the nineteenth century,  with a total area of 450 square meters divided into 4 halls with thousands of archaeological discoveries, that have been found by foreign and national archaeological missions through successive excavations since the early seventies and until the present time. It is divided into two floors the ground floor include the relics detected outside the city, whereas the second floor contains the relics within the city walls. Ja’bar castle museum warehouse and repositories of the archaeological city of Rusafa administratively follow Rakka museum.

The archeology directorate of Rakka,  opened an exhibition of the national archaeological mission in Tel Almmbagp discoveries, in April 2013 which date back to the Bronze Age.

The museum’s garden amounts to an area of 800 square meters, comprising exhibits of large archaeological finds in the open outdoor, like basalt statues, crown columns, and 4 plates of mosaic which were found in Al-Heloo village dating back to 470 AD. The largest painting displayed on the west wall at the museum main entrance depicts a bull in the way of movement as this code was common in the mosaic imagery of that period, whereas the rest of the paintings have pictures of the holy trees and the famous Ephrates hyena.  In addition to exhibits belonging to different periods in the first millennium BC and the roman era.

Rusafa Cupboard represent Rusafa treasure with a green glazed coffin which represents a relief’s face for a man who has two short horns which is believed to be Alexander of Macedonia, with a Latin engraving at the bottom saying this graft by one of the Baalbek merchants is presented to Jupiter temple.

The second hall contains the discoveries of Tel Sheikh Hassan on the Euphrates and it is a set of handmade dishes from the Uruk era which dates back to 3500 BC. In addition to a giant spoon of pottery, pieces of the sacred stone and archaeological findings dating back to Hellenistic times and the late Romanian.  The second room contains discoveries of Tel Khweirah which are pottery jars and some ancient amulets from the second and third millennia BC. In addition a group of animal puppets representing dogs, hyenas and wolves and some mammals pets,  besides various forms of glass beads and models of vehicles made of pottery.

The third hall contains the discoveries of Al Mmbagp and Al-Heloo Hills on the Euphrates,  alongside Turkmen and White Boy Hills on the Balikh river. The contents of these cabinets are precious jewelry, stone and mud cylinder seals, a wide range of beads, amulets, and clay figurine. They also contain a number of cuneiform writing discovered at the Almmbagp site, describing the daily life of this kingdom which was named Okalta, as well as information on trade relations in the daily market bazaar. The fourth hall contains the finding of the White Boy’s hill and Turkmen bath, like decorated pottery jars from 5800 up to 4500 BC, in addition to collection of archaeological objects and the most important one is a great elephant knee.

The second floor of the museum contains findings of Totol city and the Arab-Islamic discoveries within the walls of the Islamic city. These findings are displayed in a range of cabinets, distributed onto 6 rooms which contain glass pieces of the Byzantine and Arab eras, at the time Rakka was famous in ceramics and glass production, as well as ornate plaster frames that decorated Harun al-Rashid palace facades in Rakka.

Most of the archaeological discoveries in the museum carried many implications of the nature of life that was experienced by people in that region. However there is an important signal in one of the discoveries from the Balikh valley basin showning that elephants were living before they become extinct in all areas of northern Syria in 1700 BC.

Haifaa Mafalani