Hama (Ancient Hamath)

The tell of Hama was excavated by the Danes in the 1930s. They uncovered a long sequence of occupation going back to the 4th millenium BC, continuing though the Bronze Ages (3rd and 2nd millennia BC), the Iron Age (1st millennium BC) and the Classical and Medieval periods from the 3rd Century BC through to the Mongol invasion of AD 1260. The resulting ‘Hama Sequence’ is one of the lynchpins of Syrian archaeology, giving a chronological structure and a type-site for the region. 

The city today is famous for its Roman water wheels, or nouria, which lead up to aqueducts. The system was undoubtedly designed to transport the abundant waters of the Orontes to the fields surrounding the town, where irrigated agricultural industries would have flourished, as they do today.

Repairing the Water Wheels at Hama, early Summer, 1933  (O. Tufnell, 1933) This photograph was probably taken by H.H. Williams, a fellow traveller with Olga Tufnell during a trip to Eastern Europe, Turkey, and Syria which was made with members of the Welcom-Marston Expedition to Tell Duweir (Lachish). Though the wheels are Roman in origin, this photograph illustrates the continual repairs that have maintained them as working wheels to this day.

Filling water skins from the Orontes at Hama. Early Summer, 1933  (O. Tufnell, 1933) Olga Tufnell probably took this photograph during a trip to Eastern Europe, Turkey, and Syria, which she made with other members of the Welcom-Marston Expedition to Tell Duweir (Lachish).  The Orontes River Valley is the core area of central inland Syrian civilization in the Bronze and Iron Ages BC, with a string of tell sites running along its length, taking advantage of the water supply in a region having a relatively low rainfall.