His films include a trilogy of documentaries concerning the Tabqa Dam on the Euphrates.
In 1972 and 1973, Matthiae co-directed the excavation of Tell Fray in the Euphrates Valley that was to be flooded by Lake Assad, the reservoir of the Tabqa Dam which was being constructed at that time.
Slightly earlier, Turkey had started filling the reservoir of the newly constructed Keban Dam, and at the same time the area was also hit by significant drought.
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On the southeastern shore, some areas have been reforested with evergreen trees including the Aleppo pine and the Euphrates poplar.
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There were missions from the United States on Dibsi Faraj, Tell Fray and Shams ed-Din-Tannira; from France on Mureybet and Emar; from Italy on Tell Fray; from the Netherlands on Tell Ta'as, Hadidi, Jebel 'Aruda and Selenkahiye; from Switzerland on Tell al-Hajj; from Great Britain on Abu Hureyra and Tell es-Sweyhat; and from Japan on Tell Roumeila.
dam | Hoover Dam | Aswan Dam | Grand Coulee Dam | Kinzua Dam | Bonneville Dam | Grand Rapids Dam | embankment dam | Beaver Dam, Arizona | Merowe Dam | Beaver Dam, Wisconsin | Three Gorges Dam | Mangla Dam | Beaver Dam | Aswan Low Dam | Akosombo Dam | Shasta Dam | Itaipu Dam | Fort Peck Dam | Fontana Dam | Dam Square | Chickamauga Dam | Yacyretá Dam | Wilson Dam | Tiga Dam | Temenggor Dam | Tarbela Dam | Tai Dam | Tabqa Dam | Safe Harbor Dam |
These excavations were part of the Tabqa Dam Salvage Project, initiated to save sites threatened by the formation of the impound lake, Lake Assad, behind a hydroelectric dam on the Euphrates River near the town of Tabqa.
In anticipation of the flooding of the Tabqa Dam reservoir, an intensive, international program of archaeological rescue excavations was carried out in the threatened area between 1963 and 1974.