New Excavations in the Plain of Antioch

By: Mara T. Horowitz

The vibrant Bronze Age city of Alalakh on the Plain of Antioch may not have been among the largest cities of the ancient Near East, but its strategic importance and unique character made it a star. Ongoing excavations and research directed by K. Aslıhan Yener and sponsored by Koç University are revealing the extraordinary history of ancient Alalakh (Tell Atchana) across an epic sweep of fourteen centuries from c. 2200-800 BC. Site conservation, outreach projects, and new museum exhibits are also revealing Alalakh to the public as never before, while two major multi-volume series in press and over a dozen other recent publications are presenting new fieldwork and analytical studies. As the Alalakh Excavations celebrates its fifteenth anniversary, so much more awaits at the site of this dynamic ancient city.

Alalakh has a 20th century history in the spotlight due to the charisma of Sir C. Leonard Woolley and his popular publications. Tell Atchana was excavated by Woolley from 1936–39 and 1946–49 for the British Museum and Oxford University. The Woolley excavations yielded extraordinary architectural monuments, a diversity of local and imported goods and preciosities, and texts in Akkadian, Hurrian, Hittite, and Luwian, to which the new excavations can add a text in Sumerian. Woolley’s stratigraphy, texts, artifacts, and photos have fascinated scholars and the public for decades.

The Alalakh Excavations project has corrected and augmented Woolley’s work and has now moved into completely new territory, resulting in a revised history of this dynamic and unique city. As of 2015, the project has accomplished a total of three remote sensing campaigns, sixteen borings, two exploratory sections, and opened 38 new squares at the site. Other new exposures targeted untouched parts of the mound on the eastern and southern flanks. After an exhaustive correlation of the new excavation results with Woolley’s stratigraphy, a new phasing system is in place. Based on this work, a new narrative of ancient Alalakh is emerging.

Archaeological and Historical Narrative of Alalakh

The origins of settlement on the site of Tell Atchana are obscure, deeply buried below about 18 meters of later deposits and only minimally sampled by Woolley. The earliest settlement dates to the period 2200-2000 BC and is closely tied to the Early Bronze settlement at Tell Tayinat, less than 700m to the north along the banks of a recently discovered extinct channel of the Orontes River running between the two sites. Documents from Ebla in the Early Bronze III already refer to a city known as ‘Alakhtum,’ possibly Alalakh and if so, indicate the continuity of the community as settlement shifted from Tayinat to Atchana.

The Middle Bronze I period (c.2000 – 1800 BC) of Alalakh is still poorly known due to the minimal sampling of the deeply buried archaeological remains and a paucity of foreign textual references. During the second half of the Middle Bronze II (c.1800 – 1600/1575 BC), Alalakh became a vassal to the Amorite Kingdom of Yamhad (Aleppo), the great power in northwestern Syria at that time. A dependent regime from the royal house of Aleppo was set up at Alalakh, but the catastrophic destruction of the palace heralds the beginning of the end for the Middle Bronze era, and the power of Aleppo, as well as the introduction of the Hittites to the Amuq and northwestern Syria.

Alalakh recovered slowly in the later 16th century, an era of contested Egyptian and Mitanni power in western Syria, and it was eventually drawn into the Kingdom of Mitanni as a vassal state in the 15th century. The famous biography of Alalakh’s King Idrimi, inscribed on his statue, describes the circumstances of his ascension to the throne and relationship with Mitanni. Unfortunately these were dangerous times, and following another devastating destruction c.1400 BC, Alalakh again recovered only to be faced with the expanding Hittite Empire. The Hittite Great King Suppiluliuma I acquired Alalakh in a treaty with the Mitanni king Shattiwaza and ushered in a new period for the city. The Hittite Empire would control western Syria and the Amuq until the cataclysmic end of the Bronze Age, c.1190-1170 BC.

The 2006-2015 excavation campaigns

Ongoing excavations are currently targeting a wide variety of contexts, from workshops to palaces to cemeteries. Work has proceeded below Woolley’s Level VII Palace and revealed a sequence of kitchen spaces replete with information about food preparation and diet in the later Middle Bronze II. New workshop spaces from the eastern and southwestern edges of the mound reveal not only pottery and metal production in the Late Bronze I and II, but glass as well. The rich burial of a child was discovered close to the large Late Bronze II building unearthed on the southwestern flank of the mound.

Newly excavated sequences across the site are re-writing the later history of Alalakh, recovering early 13th century strata above deposits containing Iron Age ceramics and strongly suggesting that major settlement on Atchana ended c.1290 BC. Textual sources are silent about what sort of major disruption might have occurred c.1290 BC that resulted in the abandonment of the majority of the Atchana mound with the exception of the Ishtar Temple. Possibly the elimination of the ancient royal and administrative center of Alalakh was a deliberate Hittites tactic to pacify this unruly territory. After a hiatus in the earlier 12th century, new excavations have revealed minor Iron Age I and II settlement at the northern end of Atchana contemporary with the new Neo-Hittite capital city on Tell Tayinat, known variously as Palasatina, Walistin, Patina, Unqi, or Kunulua. By then, the name ‘Alalakh’ seems to have finally been lost.

Experimental Archaeology and Archaeometry

Several experimental projects are ongoing at the Alalakh Excavations dighouse compound in Tayfur Sokmen village, including ceramic manufacturing, kiln building, and mud brick production. A project by ceramicist Jerolyn Morrison and co-assistant director Mara Horowitz in 2008 replicated local cookware fabrics using locally obtained clays and freshwater mussel shells. A kiln excavated in 2004 was used as the basis for a replica built in 2009. Several campaigns of mud brick production have resulted in other experiments such as the burning of a scaled-down model building based on Alalakh’s timber and mud brick construction method. The goal was to observe how the copious use of timber inside the walls of the Alalakh palaces might have affected the patterns of destruction seen archaeologically. Additional experimental campaigns are in the planning stages.

Archaeometric research has always been a focus of the Alalakh Excavations. Currently a program of ceramic and vitreous material analysis is ongoing with a three-year grant from the Turkish Science Foundation (TUBITAK). Isotopic, morphological, and genetic analyses of skeletal material are taking place at institutions including Fordham University, Boğaziçi University, and the Max Planck Institute. Alalakh has also contributed samples to a variety of related studies in climatology and geomagnetism.

Site Conservation and Outreach

With a generous grant from the Kaplan Foundation, the first stages of a program to transform Alalakh and Tayinat into an archaeological park were set in motion in 2012. A network of paths and stairways were installed for navigating the area of Woolley’s palaces, and new educational signboards were placed adjacent to major features. A viewing platform now overlooks the Royal Precinct from the west. In coordination with improvements at the site, a program of outreach was begun in 2012 to bring groups of local residents for personal tours of the site with Alalakh team members. The program met with great enthusiasm and was well attended. With generous funding from the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, ongoing work to complete the transformation of Alalakh into an archaeological park includes consultation with site conservators, application of protective geotextiles, and a planned roof over the vulnerable mud brick architecture of Woolley’s Level VII Palace.