Guzana

   A small but influential city that existed on the fringes of northern Mesopotamia, situated near the modern border between Syria and Turkey. The site of Guzana (modern Tell Halaf) was first inhabited in the sixth millennium b.c. at about the time that people were moving southward from the Fertile crescent onto the Mesopota-mian plains. Modern scholars call the people of the town and those who were culturally similar to them in northwestern Mesopotamia the Halaf culture. They used a distinctive form of pottery, called Halaf-ware, that spread as far away as southern Iran. In the second millennium b.c.Gu-zana briefly became the capital of a small kingdom established by the Aramaeans, which was soon absorbed by the expanding Assyrian Empire. The site was first investigated by German engineer Max von Oppenheim between 1911 and 1913. Further excavations were conducted by a French team from 1927 to 1929. In addition to a good deal of Halaf-ware, the diggers found a small palace featuring sculpted scenes of war, hunting, and mythical creatures, including a scorpion man, perhaps inspired by a character in the Epic of Gilgamesh.

   See also: Assyrian Empire; Fertile Crescent; Halaf culture