[2][3] His work has resulted in an international reputation, particularly for discoveries at Umm el-Marra, such as elite burials provisioned with gold, silver, and lapis lazuli artifacts,[4][5] now-extinct royal equids,[6][7] and evidence of the world's oldest alphabetic script.
[1] He has directed several prominent archaeological projects: Schwartz’s early investigations focused on the excavation of Tell al-Raqa’i, a small, rural settlement dating to the third millennium BC, to explore the dynamics of rural-urban relationships in ancient Syrian communities.
[14] His next project shifted focus to investigate Umm el-Marra, a medium sized Bronze Age city located on the Jabbul Plain of Northern Syria.
Situated at the heart of the community, the complex contained human remains buried alongside luxury goods made of gold, silver, and lapis lazuli, as well as the elaborately arranged burials of both mundane and high-prestige animals.
[16] The overall findings are unparalleled in third-millennium BC Syrian archaeology and illuminate the roles of ancestor veneration, social memory, and animal symbolism in shaping early urban communities.