2. From the Prehistory of Upper Mesopotamia to the Bronze and Iron Age Societies of the Levant. Volume 1

In the Late Bronze Age, the Near East saw the Babylonian intellectual heritage expansion throughout the region. Although previous works only studied this phenomenon from the Babylonian perspective, recent trends and methodologies prefer to present it from the reception sites. One of them was the Levantine city of Ugarit. This kingdom developed an active and profitable international commerce as well as intense diplomatic contacts with the cradles of that knowledge, Babylon and Assyria. On this matter, clay tablets that belong to Babylonian tradition were unearthed in several private houses whose owners were important merchants and administrators of the Kingdom. Some of these texts reveal that these houses were also schools where Babylonians and Assyrians worked as teachers.

In 2009 and 2010, the Syrian-German mission excavated the richly furnished Tomb VII at Qaṭna which yielded an inventory dating to the Middle Bronze Age IIA-IIB. The inventory comprised a large assemblage of gold jewellery including pendants, rings, toggle pins and long bands. While some of these jewellery items represent types already known from Syria and the Northern Levant, other types from Tomb VII have previously been attested only in the Southern Levant. Hence, the jewellery assemblage from Tomb VII is composed of types referring to both the Syrian/Northern Levantine and the Southern Levantine region. In this study, a selection of the gold jewellery from Tomb VII will be discussed against the background of similar items from other sites in the Syro-Levantine region. This approach aims at embedding the assemblage from Tomb VII into its wider cultural context which will ultimately illuminate how the interregional relations between the Syro-Levantine states are reflected in the material culture of the ruling class of Middle Bronze Age Qaṭna.

Recent excavations at the site of Tell Atchana, ancient Alalakh, have clarified the presence of Iron Age periods. Despite being at the centre of these changes, the Late Bronze-Iron Age transition at Alalakh and in the Amuq remains poorly understood in terms of chronology and its social impact. A key question is the degree to which changes evident in the archaeological records should be credited to population movements or to the reorganization of social, economic and political structures by the local population. This paper considers the assemblage from a functional point of view to discuss any change or continuity in habits and actions evident from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron Age and during the Iron Age. In particular, this article aims to be a first attempt to propose a functional study of pottery from the Amuq Valley, thus linking the documentation of Northern Syria with that of Southern Anatolia. Furthermore, it will try to establish a set of morphological and physical characteristics of pottery vessels that, within limits, can be used to define how well suited particular vessels are to perform particular tasks.

The Levant has always been a crucial zone for contacts between Egypt and the ancient Near East. During the Late Bronze Age (the ‘international period’) and the Iron Age, pharaonic Egypt, the Hittite empire, and later the Neo-Hittite and Aramaic states shared many occasions of exchange and interaction, testified both by texts and artefacts: among them, luxury objects like ivories. This paper aims to retrace the circulation of some iconographic motifs of different origins attested on the ivories of Arslantaş/Hadātu (near the border of modern Syria and Turkey), comparing this material with other ivories found in sites of the Levantine area (Ugarit, Byblos, Megiddo): a journey through precious items from Egypt to Anatolia, across the Levant throughout the Bronze and Iron Age, to the rediscovery of those people who, despite geographical distances, travelled, circulated and interlaced relationships.

The Orontes valley is a heterogeneous area located at the border of the humid Mediterranean zone and the dry Syrian steppe: surrounded by mountains, it has narrow valleys, deep gorges, marshes, extensive fertile plains, and marked differences in climate. All these factors have greatly influenced settlement in the region throughout its history. Their effects were exacerbated by the chaotic political situation that characterized the valley during the Late Bronze Age, when, along the river, the Great Powers of the time found themselves in direct contact for the first time. The paper tries to analyze how the region’s morphology and natural environment affected both the local settlements and areas of foreign influence.