Iron Age Syria

Rohmer J. (2020), D'Aram à Rome. La Syrie du Sud de l'âge du Fer à l'annexion romaine, Beirut: Presses de l'Ifpo (Bibliothèque archéologique et historique 217). In French, with English summary.
In the vast basaltic region of Southern Syria commonly known as Ḥawrān, the long period spanning the Iron Age to the so-called ‘pre-provincial’ period (12th cent. BC – late 1st cent. AD) remains poorly known, especially compared to the neighboring regions of the Southern Levant. Based on excavations and surveys carried out in the region for nearly forty years, in particular by the French Archaeological Mission in Southern Syria, this study combines an archaeological approach with a critical review of relevant written sources in order to attempt a first comprehensive historical account of these South Syrian "dark ages". Regardless of the conventional division between the Iron Age and the Hellenistic period, it adopts a longue durée approach in order to better characterize the continuities, evolutions and disruptions in the region’s settlement patterns and material culture between the end of the Late Bronze Age and the integration to the Roman Empire. Based on a chronological framework and dating criteria established in Chapter 1, this study provides a catalogue of Iron Age to pre-provincial sites identified in the different areas of Ḥawrān (Chapters 2 to 4), before presenting a first overview of the region’s history, historical geography, settlement cycles and material culture in the Iron Age (Chapter 5) and Hellenistic/pre-provincial periods (Chapter 6).

Desde diversas perspectivas teóricas se le ha adjudicado a la guerra un rol como catalizador de transformaciones sociopolíticas. Se piensa frecuentemente que la presencia de estados expansivos impulsa la integración de grupos previamente segregados y la jerarquización en el seno de las comunidades de sus periferias. [...] A continuación abordaremos la información relativa a los modos de articulación política de Bīt-Agusi así como sus transformaciones, prestando atención a los procesos de expansión y jerarquización. Seguidamente, evaluaremos las condiciones bélicas locales y sus cambios, teniendo en cuenta una serie de indicadores. Esto nos permitirá considerar, al final del texto, los posibles condicionamientos mutuos entre las esferas de lo político y de lo bélico en los contextos específcos de Bīt-Agusi.

Published in:
De la guerra y otras formas de violencia en el Cercano Oriente antiguo ; editado por Marcelo Campagno; Augusto Gayubas. - 1a ed. - Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires: Editorial de la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras Universidad de Buenos Aires, 2021.
ISBN 978-987-8363-99-8

Download full book at:
http://publicaciones.filo.uba.ar/de-la-guerra-y-otras-formas-de-violencia-en-el-cercano-oriente-antiguo?fbclid=IwAR3wNjAA9JxPh2-qVe_w6TqqsA1cszwiJfNboS3Spwg-XquwGSNetfshgpw

This dissertation analyzes the material culture, paleobotanical, and faunal remains excavated at the site of Tell Qarqur, Syria, recovered from occupational levels dating from the end of the Late Bronze Age to the Iron II period (from approximately 1200 to 700 BC). Based on archaeological evidence and ancient textual sources, many ancient Near Eastern kingdoms and polities endured social and political turmoil during the late 13th and early 12th centuries BC. Most likely caused by an unknown hostile group or groups, the destruction of monumental scale architecture and the disruption to the people of Qarqur’s agricultural and animal husbandry practices demonstrate that the residents of Qarqur did not escape the effects of the instability that occurred throughout much of the wider region. However, in the subsequent Iron I period, the archaeological record shows that the inhabitants adjusted to these new realities through the adoption of alternative subsistence strategies, and eventually began the gradual recovery of architectural complexity. During the Iron II period, regional survey data and the foundation of new domestic architecture over most of the area of Tell Qarqur indicate significant population growth in the Ghab Basin in general and on-site in particular. Fortification building initiatives by the kingdom of Hamath and the resettlement practices of an expansionist Neo-Assyrian Empire may have been contributing factors in these demographic changes.

The progression, from an established societal system disrupted by sudden changes caused by exogenous forces, to the adaptation, reorganization, and recovery engendered by Qarqur’s inhabitants in reaction to those changes, and the subsequent expansion of the settlement area and population beyond their previous levels, is analogous to what ecologists alternatively call the adaptive cycle or the progression of the four ecosystem functions, concepts that are integral to resilience theory. This theoretical approach forms an interpretive framework that further illustrates the inhabitants of Qarqur’s ability to adjust to changing conditions at the settlement and to exploit various resources from the surrounding environment throughout the duration of the Iron I and Iron II periods.

Note: PDF download of this dissertation is also available at https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/3075/

In many contexts of ancient Syria, recurring processes leading to the concentration of people in urban centers and their dispersal in smaller settlements, or through mobile practices and/or residential flexibility, are attested. Although in the past the successive crises of cities, urbanism and the State have been related to the decrease of agglomeration and to the population dispersal, the  issue appears more complex and diversified when focused on specific situations. By following the spatial and socio-political conditions of the Jabbul and Jazr plains, in Inner Syria, from the Late Bronze Age to Iron Age II, it becomes apparent that, although processes of agglomeration and dispersal are visible, they do not match some usual narratives regarding the settlement patterns of  these periods. Also, it will be argued that the spatial conditions of the different  contexts, including the agglomeration and dispersal of people, impacted on the social and political practices of human groups.

In the Prologue to the first of our two volumes on this topic, we described their genesis in a series of sessions from 2015-2017 at the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) Annual Meetings, and laid out the research questions and issues we originally wished to address both in these sessions and in our final publication. Cognizant of the historically well-established narratives that have been developed around the Late Bronze Age-Iron Age I transition in the Southern Levant and in Cyprus, we aimed to draw attention to the diversity of the Levantine dataset by considering the evidence from the Northern Levant, spanning southern Turkey, Syria and Lebanon. We wished to evaluate the data from the Northern Levant from an independent viewpoint in light of ongoing discussions around diversity in regional narratives and trajectories, particularly given the rapid evolution and expansion of the regional dataset over the past decade or so. This includes an array of new and renewed excavations focusing on sites occupied in the Iron Age I, as well as emerging information from several sites with long occupation sequences, which have produced Iron Age I evidence for the first time. Beyond this, however, it also necessitates evaluating and incorporating competing perspectives and evolving theoretical approaches from other parts of the eastern Mediterranean. Using this evidence, we wished to evaluate the degree to which existing narratives from other areas of the eastern Mediterranean might (or might not) be applicable to the Northern Levant, and to identify and draw out more nuanced regional patterns worthy of further research and consideration.

Between 1999 and 2010, archaeological excavations by the Syrian-German team in Operation G on top of the acropolis of Tell Mishrifeh (Homs) brought to light a series of buildings and other features which could be ascribed to the Iron Age. The material, mostly potsherds, associated with these structures is of pivotal importance for a better understanding of the role that the city played in the variegated and diverse chessboard of the Northern Levant in the first half of the first millennium BC. This poster displays the preliminary results of an analysis of the ceramic corpus with the purpose of integrating the results of the investigations so far carried out at the site in order to shed a new light on a little known period of the history of Tell Mishrifeh.

The 50 years of excavations at Tell Mardikh-Ebla have documented a complex stratigraphic sequence of the Iron Age Period, revealing a probably significant role of the site in the plain of Idlib. In fact, while, on the one hand the settlement significantly reduces its extension, on the other hand, a significative continuity is attested.
From the archaeological point of view, data concerning the Iron Age phases are mostly attested on the Acropolis, where a new settlement over the Late Bronze Age structures has been documented. Moreover, spot occupations have been recovered in the Lower Town, where the Middle Bronze Age ruins were partially reused. Iron Age levels were excavated and studied since the beginning of the Ebla Archaeological Expedition: in 1965, traces of a rural settlement have been exposed in the northern part of the Acropolis (area E), while in the Lower Town (area B and area A), spotted traces of an Iron Age occupation have been found. Subsequently, the excavation of the area E from 1968 to 1972 and of the western part of the Acropolis (area G), since 1973, allowed the analysis of the Iron Age stratigraphic sequence of the Acropolis itself, proving the existence of a stable rural settlement in this part of the site.
The new extensive excavations on the Acropolis (areas E, F and CC), from 2008 until the last campaign in 2010, allowed the collection of new data relative to the Iron Age sequence.
This paper proposes a careful analysis of the stratigraphic sequence and of the pottery seriation of the upper levels of the areas E, F, G and CC on the Acropolis, together with a review of the old excavations data, in order to shed a new light on the Iron Age settlement at Ebla, defining its evolution from the Iron Age I to the Iron Age III. Moreover, comparisons with the near sites of Tell Afis, Tell Mastuma and Tell Tuqan will be done, in order to define the role of Ebla in the plain of Idlib during the Iron Age Period.