🇱🇧 Archaeologist, M.A.•Illustrator•Designer• 👇🏼 Syro-Anatolian & Mesopotamian art history & visual culture X #digitalhumanities. Tell Tayinat & Tell Burak ⛏
The ravages of WWI extended into the area of Ras al 'Ain, and von Oppenheim detailed how fighters ended up barricading themselves in the Tell Halaf expedition house at some point, leading to its destruction, and also dug trenches on the Tell itself.(1) 
On November 19, 1899, von Oppenheim first stepped onto Tell Halaf. Using the help of some local men, he hit the recently disturbed earth at the spot where the Bedouins had wanted to bury their dead. It was were the sculptures were supposedly at.(1)
Tell Halaf is an ancient mound situated by the Khabur, a major tributary of the Euphrates in Northern Syria. It's importance comes with its strategic location which connected it once with the ancient cultures of Upper Mesopotamia and those of the Mediterranean.(1) 
2/ Mari is the name of an ancient Syrian kingdom whose existence spanned between 2950 and 1760 BCE. Today, it is known as Tell Hariri, and constitutes a now low-lying mound bordering Syria and Iraq along the valley of the river Euphrates.
The temple of ‘Ain Dārā was only unearthed after the chance discovery of this colossal portal lion sculpture by a shepherd in 1954. By then, only the lion’s head was visible, and after preliminary excavations, the portal lion was found to have fallen on its side in antiquity. (2) 