 After some minor soundings done by Austen Henry Layard around 1850, Tell Billa was excavated between 1930 and 1934 by a team from the University of Pennsylvania and the American Schools of Oriental Research.The excavation was led by Ephraim Avigdor Speiser with Charles Bache.The work was complicated by the fact that the mound was divided up among 18 owners including
a Jacobite church.