Hamoukar (Arabic: حموكار, known locally as Khirbat al-Fakhar) is a large archaeological site located in the Jazira region of northeastern Syria (Al Hasakah Governorate), near the Iraqi and Turkish borders.

[2] In the Late Chalcolithic 2 period (5th millennium BC) the site sustained a seasonal or dispersed occupation covering about 280 hectares.

[6][7] The site was first examined and described by Van Liere and Lauffray in the 1950s noting a two stepped plateau with a ditch 100 meters from the foot of the mound.

[9] Excavation by a joint Syrian-American expedition (by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago and the Syrian Directorate General of Antiquities) was conducted beginning in 1999 and ending in 2010.

[18] During the 2001 excavations a 400 square meter trench opened in the residential area of the lower town found that it was prosperous and had been sacked and abandoned at that time.

[23] The findings were a surprise for many archaeologists, since they indicate the existence of independent trading networks in the northern Mesopotamia outside of the influence of southern cities, such as Ur and Uruk.

[24][25] Considerable social complexity had developed in northern Mesopotamia during the LC1-2 periods (4400-3800 BC), involving also the metalwork and ceramic styles.

The early urban settlement of Hamoukar (Khirbat al-Fakhar) at this time has been described as "a vast low or flat scatter of pottery and obsidian".

Both were extensive “proto-urban” settlements of low or variable density, with few other parallels elsewhere in the Near East.During these Late Chalcolithic 1 and 2 periods (LC1-2), Khirbat al-Fakhar already reached a massive size of 300 ha, or larger than Uruk itself at the same time.