Middle Bronze Age Syria

*Most of the pieces from Acemhöyük are presented in this article for the first time. The interested reader can find C14 dates of the EBA levels of Acemhöyük as well.

This study investigates the faience and frit artefacts of Acemhöyük (Aksaray, Turkey) dated to the Early Bronze Age and Assyrian Trading Colonies Period, when vitreous materials were among the rare materials within Anatolia and its neighbouring regions. The chemical compositions and use of colourants are determined with the aid of portable X-ray fluorescence (p-XRF). Archaeometric analysis demonstrates the use of copper and manganese for blue and black colours, respectively. The results of the elemental analysis suggest at least two different workshops for the Acemhöyük vitreous materials. The archaeological and archaeometric data strongly support the existence of an Anatolian workshop for vitreous materials in the early Second Millennium BC.

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Bu makalede Acemhöyük’te bulunmuş Eski Tunç Çağı ve Asur Ticaret Kolonileri Çağı’na tarihlenen fayans ve frit buluntular ele alınmıştır. Anadolu ve yakın komşularındaki benzerleri ile arkeolojik olarak karşılaştırılan eserlerin, kimyasal içerikleri ve renklendirici kullanımları taşınabilir X-ışını floresansı (p-XRF) yöntemiyle tespit edilmiştir. Bu analizler, Acemhöyük’te bulunmuş vitrifiye mallarının renklendirilmesinde mavi renk için bakır, siyah renk için ise manganez kullanıldığını ortaya koymuştur. Buluntuların elementel analiz sonuçları, Acemhöyük’te vitrifiye objelerin en az iki farklı üretim merkezinden geldiğine işaret etmektedir. Arkeolojik ve arkeometrik verilerin beraber değerlendirilmesi ile ortaya konan veriler, MÖ İkinci Binyıl’ın erken dönemlerinde vitrifiye malzemeler için Anadolu’da bir üretim atölyesinin varlığı ihtimalini güçlendirmektedir.

From 2200-1900 BC, Northern Mesopotamia experienced depopulation and a loss of political complexity. Understanding the resettlement of this region—the recovery of complex societies following collapse—has emerged as a major research question in Near Eastern archaeology. Recent studies have employed two models of political regeneration: 1) “template regeneration,” whereby the renewed society follows the same pattern that a society in the same area had before the collapse and 2) “rural resiliency,” whereby the collapse of urban settlements was epiphenomenal and a resilient rural and tribal base allowed for settlement continuity and the regeneration of urban society. This article proposes a different model and argues that this resettlement involved the creation of a new type of polity, the tribal kingdom, which employed novel political, economic and cultural strategies. Tribal kingdoms were characterized by the rise of tribal confederacies, changing mobility patterns, changes in social structure, and new economic systems that used the steppe in different ways, all of which transformed settlements of all sizes as well as the relationships between them. Although these tribal kingdoms sought to establish their hegemony (in a Gramscian sense) partly by appealing to historical precedents, particularly the Akkadian Empire, they did not simply revive third millennium political practices. Similarly, although continuity is evident in some centers, survey and excavation data reveal that the overall settlement systems in Northern Mesopotamia were transformed between the third and second millennia. As a result, this article emphasizes the importance of discontinuity in the archaeological and historical record, in contrast to the usual emphasis on continuity, maintenance and the longue durée in complex societies following their emergence.

The transition from the Middle to the Late Bronze Age in Kamid el-Loz, ancient Kumidi, has challenged both the urban landscape and the established political system. The architectural as well as functional history of iconic places inside the urban layout of the largest known city in the southern Beqaa suggest political changes that – eventually – had been overcome or have even lead into the transformation that we call Late Bronze Age. In this vein, the archaeological findings of palace and temple shed light on the assumed intersection between Middle and Late Bronze Age. The tight chronostratigraphic sequence allows to closely monitor the lifespan of distinct pottery types and findings. This, in turn, enables us to establish and discuss possible relations between changes in material culture and political establishment. Therefore, and in search for the integration of Kamid el-Loz into the economic and political interrelations to both the southern and northern Levant, the paper takes a diachronic view focusing on the chronostratigraphic presentation of the pottery findings and their architectural contexts during this important transitional period.

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Abstract
In modern towns with multi-ethnic population and congregations of different religions and variations of religion one can notice the tendency of people of the same background to flock together, forming districts within such communities. This seems to have been also the case in towns of Ancient Egypt, especially in settlements situated near the borders. This article presents data of different communities which lived in Avaris during the late Middle Kingdom, the Hyksos Period and the early New Kingdom. Besides the original Egyptians, immigrants from different parts of the Ancient Near East settled down in the eastern Delta from the late 12th Dynasty onwards. They left the Egyptian community intact within the oldest part of the town. It was a surprise to find also vestiges of Nubians of different cultural background and origin within Avaris. In the time of the 14th Dynasty there is evidence of Kerma people, in the Hyksos Period one encountered mainly other Nubians who seem to have been related to the Pan-Grave Culture and after the conquest of Avaris by the victorious 18th Dynasty, ceramics and arrow tips of the Kerma Culture appeared again. For the Nubians of the Hyksos Period, no specific quarter of the town could be found except that they seem to have lived in symbiosis with palaces where they may have served as mercenaries and in the New Kingdom perhaps as regular part of the army. Their pottery fragments could, however, also be found in the regular parts of the town and a special quarter could be expected for them, but it was not yet discovered. Besides Egyptians and people from Asia and Nubia, it seems that there was also a Cypriot community producing Cypriot ware with Cypriot technology but of Egyptian clay. In the Thutmoside Period, when the site became most likely the major naval base of Peru-nefer, it seems that for some time a Minoan community established itself near a palatial compound which was furnished with Minoan wall paintings. This was in a time when “Keftiu” delega- tions appear depicted in noble tombs in Thebes.

As the first comprehensive study of fortification systems and defensive strategies in the Levant during the Middle Bronze Age (ca. 1900 to 1500 B.C.E.), Walled up to Heaven is an indispensable contribution to the study of this period and of early warfare in the ancient Near East. Although archaeologists and ancient historians alike have discussed a variety of theories regarding the origin and cultural significance of the construction of earthen ramparts during the Middle Bronze Age, only this work addresses these questions in detail. In a tour de force, Burke traces the diachronic evolution and geographic distribution of the architectural features and settlement strategies connected with the emergence of Middle Bronze Age defenses in the Levant. By synthesizing historical and archaeological data from Mesopotamia and Egypt as well as the Levant, he reveals the interconnectedness of the Near Eastern world during the first half of the second millennium to an extent not recently considered. The result is a detailed employment of cognitive, social, and dirt archaeology to reconstruct the political, social, military, and cultural implications of the construction of monumental defenses and the development of defensive networks during the period of Amorite hegemony in the Levant.

Based on author's Ph.D. dissertation: The Architecture of Defense: Fortified Settlements of the Levant during the Middle Bronze Age (2004). Ph.D. Dissertation. Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago.

This article treats architecture and archaeological contexts as signs that help us reach the meaning and function of building assemblages. It therefore falls into the framework of the semiotics of space and architecture (of the abundant literature on the subject, see among others, Eco 1997; Hammad 1984; Lukken 1993). The study concentrates on the Obelisk Temple in Byblos and its predecessors, searching for the connection between these sacred buildings from the Early and Middle Bronze Ages. A hieroglyphic inscription on one of the obelisks of the so-called Obelisk Temple in Byblos may help to conclude that the numerous upright stones in the sacred precinct were in accord with the widespread custom of erecting standing stones in the Levant and Asia Minor. They are thought to have been memorial stones (massebot, betyls) for specific individuals, set up all around this temple. It is also understood in scholarship, based on an obelisk inscription, that this temple was
   
devoted to the Egyptian god Herishef-Re‘ as an interpretatio aegyptiaca of the Canaanite god Reshef. The syncretism with the Egyptian sun-god Re‘ and the form of the stones as obelisks shows that this temple also served a solar religion. The architectural history of the predecessors of the Obelisk Temple seems to confirm this. The central of the tripartite shrines of the Temple en L of the Early Bronze Age forms an east–west axis opening toward the east. A large obelisk, an Ancient Egyptian symbol of the sun’s resting place on its daily course from east to west across the sky, once stood at the eastern end of this axis. This idea seems to have been taken over by the Byblites.

This paper constitutes a synthesis of a technological investigation on copper base alloy weapons from Byblos. Most of the weapons are typical of the Middle Bronze Age in the Levant. Methods such as metallographic examination and chemical analyses by EDS were used to identify the different stages of the chaîne opératoire used in the making of these weapons. The results reveal precise information regarding the production of several types of weapons such as the type and performance of the molds used for casting and the deformation process. Furthermore, these results highlight the contribution of economical and cultural factors in the choice of components in a copper alloy recipe. Finally, the use of silver-copper brazes for joining copper base alloy objects is recorded for the first time for the concerned period and region.

Cult buildings in the Southern Levant during the mature Middle Bronze II-III (1800-1500 BC) represent a homogenous architectural tradition, closely linked to the Syrian prototypes, well known, among the others, through the archaeological discoveries at Tell Mardikh, ancient Ebla, in north inland Syria. On the other hand, the first, formative phase of the Middle Bronze Age in the Southern Levant, Middle Bronze I (1950/1920-1800 BC), is characterized by a larger degree of variety within cult architecture. With regard to this issue, the article focuses on two well known southern Levantine multi-phased sacred compounds: those of Tell el-Mutesellim/ancient Megiddo, in the Jezreel Valley, in Strata XIII B-XII, and of Tell el-Hayyat, in the northeastern Jordan Valley, in Phases 5-4.
These are both analyzed in regard to their regional context and compared to architectural parallels in search for possible inter-regional connections. The analysis shows that Middle Bronze I is characterized by a less unitary and not yet codified tradition of cult buildings compared to the following phases of the Middle Bronze Age. In fact, it was a period of elaboration and transformation, blending local features with Syrian influxes, whose ‘cultural’ implications are discussed in the article.

In this article, it will be attempted to elaborate on a differentiation between the dead
and the ancestors from a theoretical point of view, and, upon this basis, with regard to royal contexts of the 2nd millennium BC in ancient Syria. The main questions to be discussed in this respect are the following: when does a dead person become an ancestor? And how is this reflected in funerary rituals and grave contexts? And finally, can we detect the difference archaeologically?

ABSTRACT:  This lecture (no. 10) furnishes a view of the Middle Bronze Age Near East --(and Egypt briefly)-- outside Mesopotamia.  It first provides a brief summary and background regarding Middle Bronze Age eastern Syria and Mesopotamia (as a review of lecture 9) and then proceeds with Syro-Mesopotamian interconnections with Anatolia during the Middle Bronze Age. In this section I draw upon the pertinent parts of another course lecture (I teach) on MB Age Anatolia, namely an overview of the Anatolian Middle Bronze Age and international relations (mainly Old Assyrian trade) with Kultepe-Kanesh, the role of Assyrians (and Syria-Mesopotamia) with other Anatolian communities in the central plateau region, some Syro-Mesopotamian influence in Anatolian Material culture, and the end of MB Age Anatolia and the collapse of Assyrian trade.  The next section draws upon several pertinent lectures from my "Bible Lands" (Archaeology of Syria-Palestine) and Egypt courses, looking at Syro-Mesopotamian interconnections with Canaan (mainly Palestine) in the MB Age, including an emphasis upon Syro-Mesopotamian influence in Canaan, similarities and connections in fortifications and related aspects, in palace and elite architecture, in temple architecture, fittings and votives, in elite/royal tombs and burials, in southern Levantine material culture, and in language and writing. This section also examines some Middle Kingdom to Second Intermediate Period Egyptian relations with and influence in Palestine and Syria during the MB Age via literature (e.g., Story of Sinuhe), inscriptions (e.g., Execration Texts), historical texts (e.g., royal and private), and archaeological data. This section concludes with a very brief overview of some Canaanite presence and influence in Middle Kingdom to Second Intermediate Period Egypt (e.g., Avaris). The last section covers the end of the Middle Bronze Age, ca. 1,550 BC, in the Near East. UPDATED: 2022 Spring offering.

Dieser Beitrag, der den ersten wissenschaftlichen Vorbericht über die 2009 in Qatna neu gefundene Gruft VII unter dem Königspalast darstellt, ist aus einer fruchtbaren interdisziplinären Zusammenarbeit entstanden, die im Feld ihren Ausgang genommen hat und sich in der Auswertung der Befunde fortsetzt. Er reflektiert eine enge Kooperation zwischen Archäologie und Anthropologie, die zum Ziel hat, die Beobachtungen an den menschlichen Knochen mit den archäologischen Ablagerungen und Funden in Beziehung zu setzen und die weiteren Untersuchungen dadurch gegenseitig zu stimulieren. Des-halb präsentieren die am Projekt beteiligten Anthropologen Carsten Witzel, Stefan Flohr und Susanne Degenhardt (Universität Hildesheim) in Kapitel V dieses Berichts ihre ersten Ergebnisse. Von großer Bedeutung ist auch die Zusammenarbeit mit der Ägyptologie, angesichts der zahlreichen ägyptischen Funde in der Gruft. Aus diesem Grund hat der am Projekt beteiligte Ägyptologe Alexander Ahrens (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut Damaskus) in Kapitel VI des Berichtes mehrere Beiträge zu Bestimmung, Datierung und Vergleichen der ägyptischen Objekte in Gruft VII beigesteuert. Schließlich hätte der archäologische Teil des Vorberichts nicht ohne die engagierte Mitarbeit von Giulia Baccelli, Sarah Lange und Alice Bianchi — im Feld sowie zu Hause an der Universität Tübingen — entstehen können.

This article presents a preliminary comparative stratigraphy of excavated sites in Plain Cilicia and one in Rough Cilicia. It is the outcome of three workshops held in 2014, 2015 and 2017. Plain Cilicia at the junction of Anatolia, Syro-Mesopotamia and Cyprus is one of the most fertile regions of the Ancient Near East. In recent years, archaeological research in the region has intensified, reopening questions of chronology. The comparative stratigraphy discussed in the workshops is presented here in form of a gazetteer of the participating sites and a chart. This is to be understood as a first step towards a more comprehensive chronology.