[3] The site consists of a large main tell and four smaller mounds, together covering about 38 hectares with a height of around 30 meters.

The main tell (with an area if around 12 hectares) consists primarily of Mittanni, Akkadian, Early Dynastic, and Ninevite 5 layers with the latter two including monumental buildings.

[4][5] A survey was done at the site in the 1990s by Bertille Lyonnet of the Centre National de Recherches Scientifiques in Paris.

[10][11] During 2000 they were assisted by a joint American/Austrian team from the Oriental Institute of the University of Vienna and Archeos Inc led by Gebhard Seltz and David Nelson Gimbel which focused on the North slope.

[12] From 2008 to 2010 a team led by Rafal Kolinski excavated a cemetery area on the Eastern slope of the site.

In the cemetery, dating from Middle Bronze II, a skeleton was found showing hallmarks from a lifetime of grain grinding labor.

[18] The excavations at Tell Arbid yielded a rich assemblage of 577 zoomorphic and 67 anthropomorphic clay figurines, dated to the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC.