About the project

Tell Halaf, situated in Northeast Syria, is one of the most interesting sites in the Near East. It has a long history of excavation, starting with its discovery by the famous diplomat and scholar Max Freiherr von Oppenheim in 1899.

In 2006, a new Syrian-German research team resumed the excavations at Tell Halaf, and, for the presentation of the results of their campaigns, we were commissioned with the official website and logo design.

Our challenge was to present a large amount of scientific information, including pictures, plans and maps, in a well-organised and easily accessible way. We therefore put a lot of effort into a clear structure of the different topics and a clearly arranged navigation.

As a prominent feature, we added an interactive map, which invites visitors to virtually explore the excavation site. In this way, one can follow the development of excavations since 2006 and get a clearer picture of the current and antique building activities on and around the Tell Halaf.

In order to satisfy scientific demands, every article on the website is properly citable and downloadable as a PDF file. The project’s extensive bibliography is also sortable thanks to an interactive filter. A content-management-system is additionally available to offer the possibility to create news entries by the Tell Halaf team themselves to keep the site up-to-date.

Also, we designed and created a logo for the excavation project. For this, we remodelled a depiction of the “throned godess”, the favourite object of Max Freiherr von Oppenheim and the most prominent find of the Tell Halaf. We combined the redrawing with a clear and modern characters forming the name of the project. The colors are a mix of ancient appearing backgrounds with new and highlighted buttons and fonts.

Literature

• Baghdo, A.M.H. /Martin, L./Novák, M./Orthmann, W. (Eds.) 2009: Ausgrabungen auf dem Tell Halaf in Nordost-Syrien, Teil 1. Vorbericht über die erste und zweite syrisch-deutsche Grabungskampagne auf dem Tell Halaf, Wiesbaden (= Vorderasiatische Forschungen der Max Freiherr von Oppenheim-Stiftung 3).
• Cholidis, N. 2002: The Return of the Gods. The Tell Halaf-Restoration-Project, Occident & Orient. Newsletter of the German Protestant Institute of Archaeology in Amman, Vol. 7, No. 1, March 2002, 5-6.
• Cholidis, N./Martin, L. (Eds.) 2011: Die geretteten Götter aus dem Palast vom Tell Halaf. Begleitbuch zur Sonderausstellung des Vorderasiatischen Museums „Die geretteten Götter aus dem Palast vom Tell Halaf“, vom 28.1.-14.8.2011 im Pergamonmuseum, Berlin/Regensburg.