Harris Grant Report: Alalakh/Tell Atchana

Posted on December 31, 2025 by Marta Ostovich

2025 Harris Grant Report: Documenting Archival Dynamics in the Late Bronze Age: A New Archive of Cuneiform Tablets from Alalakh/Tell Atchana

Jacob Lauinger, Johns Hopkins University; Zeynep Türker, Johns Hopkins University; Murat Akar, Hatay Mustafa Kemal Üniversitesi[1]

This past summer, with the generous support of a Charles Harris Project Grant, a team of PhD students in the Departments of Near Eastern Studies and History of Art at Johns Hopkins University joined the ASOR affiliated Turkish Ministry of Culture & Tourism and Mustafa Kemal University excavations at Tell Atchana, ancient Alalakh, in Hatay, Türkiye, which are under the direction of Murat Akar, to investigate one of the most promising discoveries made at the site in recent years: the possible remains of a Late Bronze Age archive of cuneiform tablets. What made this group of excavators distinctive was that each student had been trained not only in archaeology but also in reading Akkadian cuneiform, bringing together the two areas of expertise needed to recover and document such an archive with exceptional care.

Background to the Project

Following the devastating 2023 earthquakes, over the past three years the excavation team has focused on restoring the iconic Bronze Age monuments originally excavated by Sir Leonard Woolley in the 1930s and 1940s. Further restoration efforts have included the stabilization of sections of the Area 1 squares excavated between 2003 and 2016, adjacent to the Level IV Palace and the Administrative Castle Complex. This large-scale restoration program, partially funded by the ASOR Shepard Urgent Action Grant in 2023, has also led to new discoveries at the site.

In particular, four cuneiform tablets were discovered during cleaning and stabilization operations conducted in the southern section of Sq. 32.54 in the 2024 season. One of the team’s experienced field supervisors, Baran Kerim Ecer, spotted the tablets within an extremely burnt deposit sealed by the succeeding building phase known as the Hittite Fortress. To test the possibility that additional texts may have survived, the 2025 excavation season was planned to include work in Sq. 32.64 (south of Sq. 32.54), which had previously been explored only on a limited scale.

Accordingly, project excavation’s staff epigraphers, Jacob Lauinger and Zeynep Türker, applied to ASOR for a Charles Harris Project Grant. The funds provided by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism and ASOR enabled the excavation team to carry out 16 weeks (!) of intensive fieldwork. The targeted burnt deposit was sealed beneath the massive mudbrick foundations of the Hittite Fortress, previously explored in the adjacent squares and published as part of the Alalakh Excavations second monograph (Figure 2).

Excavations in Sq. 32.64

Excavations began in May, and the first eight weeks were devoted solely to understanding the architectural layout and the stratigraphic relationship between the Level II–III Hittite Fortress and the burnt deposit (Level IV) beneath it. This initial phase of work was conducted by Arman Alp, an MKU graduate student trained at Tell Atchana. The team of PhD students from Johns Hopkins arrived at the Tell Atchana Excavations and Amuq Valley Reseach Center in July to begin the excavation of the Level IV burnt deposit. The square was under the supervision of Zeynep Türker and Lauren Cook, both of whom had previously gained field experience at Tell Atchana and were familiar with the site’s stratigraphy thanks to ASOR’s travel grant program for PhD students.

Once the Hittite Fortress level had been fully explored within the boundaries of the square, an area measuring 7 × 5 meters in the northern half was initially leveled down to reach the burnt deposit. Following the removal of the fortress foundations, and contrary to the typical practice in Near Eastern archaeology, the project adopted a “Do-It-Yourself” policy. Only a skilled and experienced team of archaeologists, assisted by archaeology students, worked in the trench due to the extremely delicate nature of the context (Figs 3-6). The excavations almost immediately confirmed our initial assessments: more than a dozen tablets and fragments were recovered from this relatively small exposure, along with seal impressions and sealing materials (Fig 7).

Many of the tablets were discovered in the burnt destruction layer containing collapsed mudbricks, large carbon deposits, and dense concentrations of pottery, as well as ornaments made of gold and faience. The burnt deposit partially exposed on the northern section of Sq.32.64 is understood to be very thick and due to delicate and slow excavation methodology applied, the associated floor levels has not been reached yet. Therefore, it was decided to explore this level to the full extent of the square in order to better understand the architectural layout and the contextual distribution of the finds. At present, excavations are still ongoing at the site, carried out by the core members of the Alalakh excavation team, with the aim of removing the remaining portions of the Hittite Fortress, preparing the area for continued exploration that will further investigate the burnt level beneath, in 2026 (Fig. 8).

Most of Alalakh’s tablets were excavated in the 1930s and 1940s, often with limited documentation of their archaeological context. The discovery of this new archive provides a rare opportunity to examine such material in situ. Each tablet was photographed and recorded with a total station to document their spatial distribution in a three-dimensional context. The associated organic materials were collected for radiocarbon analysis, and soil samples were carefully taken to preserve contextual information for future study. All excavated soil was sifted, allowing the recovery of additional seal impressions and tablet fragments smaller than a thumbnail, demonstrating the necessity of employing a meticulous excavation strategy. The finds were then carefully transferred to the Tell Atchana Excavations and the Amuq Valley Research Center. In close cooperation with Jacob Lauinger and Zeynep Türker, the cleaning and conservation of the tablets were carried out by Hatice Nur Aydın, a highly skilled conservator who has specialized in tablet restoration due to the large number of tablets recovered at the site over the past three years (Fig 9). This process was followed by high-resolution photographic documentation prior to in-depth epigraphic study.

Re-Excavating the Level IV Palace

While the Sq. 32.64 team focused on exploring this previously untouched area of the Royal Precinct of Alalakh, another team concentrated their efforts on re-excavating the Level IV Palace. Many of the rooms had been filled with decayed mudbrick following the original excavations of the monument in the 1930s, while others contained backfill from Woolley’s excavation dumps. This line of work has also led to exciting new discoveries, including additional tablets from the palace that are contemporary with those from Sq. 32.64. Together, these finds provide new perspectives on Woolley’s legacy excavations at Tell Atchana and the associated archival data (Fig 10).

Conclusion

Although further excavation will be necessary to confirm the architectural layout and extent of the deposit and further conservation and study of the cuneiform tablets is required to fully grasp the nature of their documentation and to integrate them with other cuneiform tablets from both the site and the larger region, this new archive promises to add valuable new data to our understanding of Alalakh and its Late Bronze Age society.

Preliminary assessment of the content of the tablets suggests that most of them are administrative in nature (although two are legal texts). The administrative texts record diverse matters such as personnel, the disbursement of goods, and furniture. In other words, both the context and also the content of the tablets strongly suggest that we are dealing with the remains of an archive located in a building in this area of Alalakh’s palace-castle complex. This brings up to possibility of exploring another self-contained administrative building adjacent to the Level IV palace.

The 2025 season brought exciting leads but also with many open questions. In 2026, excavation of the square will continue in order to clarify the extent of the archive and the nature of the space in which it was stored. The international team of archaeologists including the Johns Hopkins University graduate students are eager to be back at the site. Working closely with the Hatay Archaeological Museum, the team is committed to preserving these finds and sharing their significance with both scholars and the local community. We are deeply grateful to ASOR for supporting this work possible. Your support allowed our team to carefully excavate, document, and study what may prove to be one of the most important discoveries at Alalakh since the renewed excavations began at the site over twenty years ago.

[1] The excavations at Tell Atchana, Alalakh are carried out with the generous support of the Republic of Türkiye’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Geleceğe Miras (Heritage for the Future) initiative, and funds provided through the Hatay Governorship. Special acknowledgment is extended to Governor Mustafa Masatlı for his invaluable support of the 2025 excavation season. The authors also thank Lauren Cook for sharing her report on Sq. 32.64. Of course, any errors are entirely our own responsibility.

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Table of Contents for Near Eastern Archaeology 88.4 (2025)

Posted on December 26, 2025 by Moni Islam

Table of Contents for Near Eastern Archaeology 88.4 (December 2025)

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Pp. 260–271: “Burial Practices of the Bronze Age: An Archaeological Study of the Deh Dumen Cemetery in Southern Zagros, Iran” by Reza Naseri and Morteza Khanipour

Recent rescue excavations at the Deh Dumen cemetery near the Khersan III Dam in the southern Zagros identified 20 graves. This study, based on the first excavation season, sheds light on burial practices and cultural connections of local people in the Bronze Age. Likely within Elamite territory, the cemetery includes stone and jar graves for different social groups. The excavations yielded nearly 145 artifacts, including pottery, metal, and stones. The presence of imported items, such as lapis lazuli from Central Asia and metal artifacts from the Indus Valley, indicates extensive trade relations and cultural contacts with southeastern and northeastern Iran. These findings suggest that the Zagros region had access to a trade route connecting East and West and maintained strong connections with other Elamite communities during the Bronze Age. PLEASE NOTE: This article contains images of human skeletal remains.

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Pp. 272-281: “Time Capsules: Evidence for Foundation and Abandonment Practices at Middle Bronze Age Erimi, Cyprus” by Luca Bombardieri and Marialucia Amadio

This article focuses on the analysis of settlement building and abandonment activities and their impact on the formation of community ideologies and ideas. Specifically, the evidence of social practices will be discussed for Prehistoric Cyprus, taking the example of the Middle Bronze Age community at Erimi in South coastal Cyprus. Through the discussion of specific evidence recovered from the workshop complex and domestic areas at this site, we aim to explore the possible connection of construction and abandonment activities with ritualized practices performed by the community to ensure and sustain long-term social cohesion and construct social memory and communal identity.

Pp. 282-291: “Āb Bād Rock-cut Tomb: Tracking Post-Achaemenid Burial Customs in Qir-o Karzin, Southern Pars, Iran” by Parsa Ghasemi, Leila Ghasemi, Alireza Mehrabi, and Aziz Rezaei

This article examines a newly discovered rock-cut tomb in Āb Bād village, Qir-o Karzin county, Iran. The tomb features a simple design with a single chamber and a burial cavity, or cist. Its facade is constructed with three overlapping rectangular registers in a stepped arrangement, devoid of decoration or relief. This reflects architectural continuity from Achaemenid rock tombs (550–330 BCE). Based on current survey evidence, it is highly probable that the construction of this tomb dates to the post-Achaemenid period (330 BCE–224 CE) and likely belonged to a high-ranking local ruler or noble of Pars under the Parthian Empire.

Pp. 292-303: “First Observations on the Excavations in the Terrace Area of Uluköy Cave, Mardin/Türkiye” by Ergül Kodaş, Eşref Erbil, Charlotte Labedan Kodaş, and Mehmet Şan

The emergence of sedentary societies in southeastern Anatolia has been the focus of numerous studies in recent years, particularly those concentrating on Early Neolithic mound settlements located along the riverbanks of the Euphrates Basin and the Tigris Valley. However, research on the Late Epipaleolithic communities in this region remains limited. Currently, our knowledge of the early phase of the transition to sedentary lifestyle in southeastern Anatolia is based on information gathered from only five archaeological sites, most of which are situated along the Tigris: Körtik Tepe, Çemka Höyük, Boncuklu Tarla, Biris Mezarlığı, and Söğüt Tarlası. Recently, the excavation of Ulukoy Cave in 2023 and 2024, located in the Mardin Range, led to the discovery of Epipaleolithic architectural features and lithic tools in its terrace. This article presents our initial observations from this archaeological site.

Pp. 304-312: “Potential Use of the Small-Eyed Needle from Late Pre-Pottery Neolithic Baʿja in Jordan” by Bellal Abuhelaleh, Hans G. K. Gebel, Carmela Vaccaro, and Ursula Thun Hohenstein

The Pre-Pottery Neolithic sites in Jordan represent important stages in the evolution of human social structures in the Middle East. These sites reveal a remarkably complex social differentiation, as well as cultural and technological advances that paved the way for stratified socioeconomic structures in the Transjordanian Highlands. One important Late Pre-Pottery Neolithic site is Baʿja (ca. 7200–6800 BCE). Dr. Hans K. Gebel and his team from the Free University of Berlin first excavated Baʿja in 1984. Excavations resumed in 1997 and continue today. This article examines a particular bone tool: a very thin, cylindrical eyed needle, recovered in the lowermost layer of Baʿja stratigraphy. The object is notable for its dimensional smallness. In order to gather more information about its possible production technique and use, the researchers conducted a scientific experiment to produce a replica similar to the original Baʿja eyed needle.

Pp. 314-323: “Recent Progress in Deciphering Proto-Elamite” by M. Willis Monroe, Kathryn Kelley, Logan Born, and Anoop Sarkar

Within about a century of the earliest inventions of writing in southern Iraq and Egypt at the end of the fourth millennium BCE, a third writing system was invented in southwestern Iran. This writing is called proto-Elamite, and it has remained undeciphered, even though a large number of tablets (now over 1,700) have been available for study since the early twentieth century. The name proto-Elamite is a conventional label, not meant to imply a known language, that was coined by V. Scheil. Proto- Elamite is a distinct corpus from the much later Linear Elamite writing system. With increasing digital documentation of this corpus, new avenues of research have opened, and over the past five years an interdisciplinary team of researchers has been making insights by combining traditional knowledge of the corpus with techniques developed in computational linguistics.

Pp. 324-337: “Insights into Shogha-Taimuran Pottery: Exploring Making Centers and Cultural Significance” by Habib Emadi and Ali Aarab

The Shogha-Taimuran period refers to the second half of the second millennium BCE in the Kur River Basin of southwestern Iran, characterized by two visually distinct yet contemporaneous pottery types. To elucidate the causes of these distinctions, Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) and X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) were conducted on the samples. Previous researchers posited Tol-e Darwazeh as the production center for Shogha-Taimuran pottery. However, this study reveals that Tol-e Taimuran also served as a production center, indicating different origins for some Taimuran pottery types and reflecting two distinct pottery traditions in the mid-second millennium BCE (Middle Elam). Analyses of Taimuran pottery, alongside other site findings, indicate connections with other areas, positioning Tol-e Taimuran as a potential main center for Shogha-Taimuran culture following the abandonment of Tol-e Malyan.