A third season of a new programme of excavations at Tell Brak in north-eastern Syria took place from late March to mid-May 1996. Our continuing gratitude for support goes to the Syrian Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums, especially in Damascus to the Director-General, Professor Dr Sultan Muhesen, and the Director of Excavations, Dr Adnan Bounni, in Hasake to Sd Jean Lazare, and in Der ez-Zor to Sd Assa'ad Mahmud. Our representative in 1996 was Sd Ibrahim Murad, who not only assisted with much practical advice and support but also took an active and much appreciated part in the conduct of fieldwork on site. We are very grateful to them all. Funding for the 1996 season was generously provided by the British School of Archaeology in Iraq, the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research of the University of Cambridge, and the British Academy, to all of which we express sincere thanks.

The excavation team in 1996 comprised Dr Roger Matthews (excavations director), Ms Helen McDonald (registrar and pottery specialist), Dr Susan Colledge and Ms Seona Anderson (palaeo-botanists and environmentalists), Dr Keith Dobney and Ms Deborah Jaques (zooarchaeologists), Dr Wendy Matthews (micromorphologist), Dr John MacGinnis (archaeologist and epigraphist), Dr Murray Eiland (pottery technologist), Ms Fiona Macalister (conservator), Ms Sarah Blakeney, Ms Candida Felli, Mr Jon Gower, Mr Nicholas Jackson, Mr Richard Jennings, Mr Tom Pollard, Mr Thomas Raben and Dr Caroline Steele (archaeologists).