Tell Taya, Archaeological site in Nineveh Province, Iraq
Tell Taya is an archaeological site in Nineveh Province in northern Iraq. It spreads across roughly 155 hectares on both sides of Wadi Taya, with a central mound rising about 9 meters above the surrounding land.
The settlement reached its height between 2500 and 2000 BC under a Hurrian population, then declined before being reoccupied around 1900 to 1800 BC as the village of Samiatum.
The site reveals itself through administrative tablets and cylinder seals that point to an organized society. These objects offer insight into how power and trade functioned among the people who lived there.
The site sits roughly 20 kilometers southwest of Mosul at an elevation of about 369 meters. Excavations have revealed nine distinct occupation layers that help visitors understand how the settlement developed over time.
Excavations uncovered cucurbit seeds from the Old Akkadian period, providing the earliest known evidence of melon farming in the region. This discovery reveals how diverse farming practices were at this location thousands of years ago.
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