Excavations were begun in 1958 by a team from the Free University of Berlin led by Anton Moortgat.
After the death of Anton Moortgat in 1977, who was a professor of near eastern archaeology at the Free University of Berlin, Orthmann continued the excavations of the ancient settlement at Tell Chuera (in northeast Syria) from 1982 to 1983 together with Ursula Moortgat-Correns of Berlin.