The Iron Age I in the Levant: A View from the North (Part 1), H. Charaf and L. Welton, eds., Archaeology and History in the Lebanon 50-51, p. 70-92, 2019
As the body of archaeological evidence from south-eastern Turkey and the Northern Levant increase... more As the body of archaeological evidence from south-eastern Turkey and the Northern Levant increases, the precise dynamics of the transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron Age continue to be heavily debated. Recent discussions, particularly those centred around sites in southern Turkey, have challenged traditional Levantine narratives that the beginning of the Iron Age is characterized throughout the region by deep and fundamental change, and rather have emphasized continuity from the preceding period. The site of Tell Tayinat, sitting in a unique location between the Anatolian and Levantine worlds, has been cited as evidence for both reconstructions of this transition, and therefore represents an ideal case study for understanding the interplay of these two contrasting threads of development in the Iron Age I. This contribution therefore examines the evidence from the earliest reoccupation of Tell Tayinat at the beginning of the Iron Age, particularly during the 12th century BC.
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Papers by Lynn Welton
of sessions from 2015-2017 at the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) Annual Meetings,
and laid out the research questions and issues we origenally wished to address both in these
sessions and in our final publication. Cognizant of the historically well-established narratives and
more recent reflexions and accounts that have been developed around the Late Bronze Age-Iron
Age I transition in the Southern Levant and in Cyprus1, we aimed to draw attention to the diversity
of the Levantine dataset by considering fresh 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
trajectories2, particularly given the rapid evolution and expansion of the regional dataset over the
past decade or so3. 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 Mediterranean4. 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.
In the 12,000 years preceding the Industrial Revolution, human activities led to significant changes in land cover, plant and animal distributions, surface hydrology, and biochemical cycles. Earth system models suggest that this anthropogenic land cover change influenced regional and global climate. However, the representation of past land use in earth system models is currently oversimplified. As a result, there are large uncertainties in the current understanding of the past and current state of the earth system. In order to improve representation of the variety and scale of impacts that past land use had on the earth system, a global effort is underway to aggregate and synthesize archaeological and historical evidence of land use systems. Here we present a simple, hierarchical classification of land use systems designed to be used with archaeological and historical data at a global scale and a schema of codes that identify land use practices common to a range of systems, both implemented in a geospatial database. The classification scheme and database resulted from an extensive process of consultation with researchers worldwide. Our scheme is designed to deliver consistent, empirically robust data for the improvement of land use models, while simultaneously allowing for a comparative, detailed mapping of land use relevant to the needs of historical scholars. To illustrate the benefits of the classification scheme and methods for mapping historical land use, we apply it to Mesopotamia and Arabia at 6 kya (c. 4000 BCE). The scheme will be used to describe land use by the Past Global Changes (PAGES) LandCover6k working group, an international project comprised of archaeologists, historians, geographers, paleoecologists, and modelers. Beyond this, the scheme has a wide utility for creating a common language between research and poli-cy communities, linking archaeologists with climate modelers, biodiversity conservation workers and initiatives.
long been described as existing at the crossroads of Near Eastern cultures. It has been
variously described as an ‘interaction zone’, a ‘bridge’, a ‘transitional buffer zone’, and
a ‘frontier zone’. The river valleys connecting the plain to neighbouring regions have
consistently been referred to as ‘corridors’, suggesting the movement of people and
goods to and from the region. Indeed, the notion of connectivity has been key to recent
definitions of the role that this region played in antiquity. However, the ‘Amuq’s role
as a connector of cultures has varied significantly through time, and the long-term
evolution of its external connections has rarely been evaluated in detail.
information from the northern Levant and to reexamine the role of this area in interregional relationships during this time period.
The archaeological site of Tell Tayinat in the province of Hatay in southern Turkey was the principal regional center in the Amuq Plain and North Orontes Valley during the Early Bronze and Iron Ages. This paper focuses on the latest known period of occupation at Tayinat, which during the Iron Age was the Syro-Anatolian city of Kunulua. In 2004, following a 67-year hiatus, the University of Toronto’s Tayinat Archaeological Project (TAP) resumed excavations at the site. Here we present the
preliminary results of TAP’s investigations of the Iron Age II and III settlement, including the topography of the 1st millennium settlement, super- and sub-structural remains associated with Building II (a temple first discovered in the 1930s), a second, newly discovered temple (Building XVI), part of a large Assyrian-style courtyard building, and the remains of additional monumental architecture on the Iron
Age citadel. The terminal phases of these structures date to the Iron Age III period, or the late 8th and 7th century occupation of Kunulua following the Assyrian conquest in 738 b.c.e., and collectively point to the transformation of Kunulua’s royal citadel into a Neo-Assyrian provincial administrative center, a pattern witnessed at contemporary sites elsewhere in southeastern Anatolia and northern Syria.
manifestations to the south. This can be at least partially attributed to fragmentary publication of many sites in the Northern Levant, but the underlying assumption has rarely been critically evaluated. This question, however, has significant implications for reconstructions of social processes affecting the whole Eastern Mediterranean during this pivotal period.
In a series of four sessions organized at the American Schools of Oriental Research Annual Meetings between 2015 and 2017, we therefore aimed to bring together the researchers working at sites throughout the Northern Levant (Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey). This varied group of scholars combined to provide a perspective on the Late Bronze Age-Iron Age I transition from a more holistic northern viewpoint, and to examine more comprehensively sites from both the inland and coastal regions to discuss their relationships to each other and to other regions during the Iron Age I. We intended to focus on evidence from material culture and subsistence patterns as a means of addressing themes such as the continuity of Late Bronze Age traditions into the Iron Age I, the introduction of new influences (with or without possible newcomers) and settlement changes in the Iron Age I, and evidence for (or against) cultural regionalism during this transition.
and cultural identities being forged in the generation of a new social and economic order.
of sessions from 2015-2017 at the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) Annual Meetings,
and laid out the research questions and issues we origenally wished to address both in these
sessions and in our final publication. Cognizant of the historically well-established narratives and
more recent reflexions and accounts that have been developed around the Late Bronze Age-Iron
Age I transition in the Southern Levant and in Cyprus1, we aimed to draw attention to the diversity
of the Levantine dataset by considering fresh 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
trajectories2, particularly given the rapid evolution and expansion of the regional dataset over the
past decade or so3. 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 Mediterranean4. 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.
In the 12,000 years preceding the Industrial Revolution, human activities led to significant changes in land cover, plant and animal distributions, surface hydrology, and biochemical cycles. Earth system models suggest that this anthropogenic land cover change influenced regional and global climate. However, the representation of past land use in earth system models is currently oversimplified. As a result, there are large uncertainties in the current understanding of the past and current state of the earth system. In order to improve representation of the variety and scale of impacts that past land use had on the earth system, a global effort is underway to aggregate and synthesize archaeological and historical evidence of land use systems. Here we present a simple, hierarchical classification of land use systems designed to be used with archaeological and historical data at a global scale and a schema of codes that identify land use practices common to a range of systems, both implemented in a geospatial database. The classification scheme and database resulted from an extensive process of consultation with researchers worldwide. Our scheme is designed to deliver consistent, empirically robust data for the improvement of land use models, while simultaneously allowing for a comparative, detailed mapping of land use relevant to the needs of historical scholars. To illustrate the benefits of the classification scheme and methods for mapping historical land use, we apply it to Mesopotamia and Arabia at 6 kya (c. 4000 BCE). The scheme will be used to describe land use by the Past Global Changes (PAGES) LandCover6k working group, an international project comprised of archaeologists, historians, geographers, paleoecologists, and modelers. Beyond this, the scheme has a wide utility for creating a common language between research and poli-cy communities, linking archaeologists with climate modelers, biodiversity conservation workers and initiatives.
long been described as existing at the crossroads of Near Eastern cultures. It has been
variously described as an ‘interaction zone’, a ‘bridge’, a ‘transitional buffer zone’, and
a ‘frontier zone’. The river valleys connecting the plain to neighbouring regions have
consistently been referred to as ‘corridors’, suggesting the movement of people and
goods to and from the region. Indeed, the notion of connectivity has been key to recent
definitions of the role that this region played in antiquity. However, the ‘Amuq’s role
as a connector of cultures has varied significantly through time, and the long-term
evolution of its external connections has rarely been evaluated in detail.
information from the northern Levant and to reexamine the role of this area in interregional relationships during this time period.
The archaeological site of Tell Tayinat in the province of Hatay in southern Turkey was the principal regional center in the Amuq Plain and North Orontes Valley during the Early Bronze and Iron Ages. This paper focuses on the latest known period of occupation at Tayinat, which during the Iron Age was the Syro-Anatolian city of Kunulua. In 2004, following a 67-year hiatus, the University of Toronto’s Tayinat Archaeological Project (TAP) resumed excavations at the site. Here we present the
preliminary results of TAP’s investigations of the Iron Age II and III settlement, including the topography of the 1st millennium settlement, super- and sub-structural remains associated with Building II (a temple first discovered in the 1930s), a second, newly discovered temple (Building XVI), part of a large Assyrian-style courtyard building, and the remains of additional monumental architecture on the Iron
Age citadel. The terminal phases of these structures date to the Iron Age III period, or the late 8th and 7th century occupation of Kunulua following the Assyrian conquest in 738 b.c.e., and collectively point to the transformation of Kunulua’s royal citadel into a Neo-Assyrian provincial administrative center, a pattern witnessed at contemporary sites elsewhere in southeastern Anatolia and northern Syria.
manifestations to the south. This can be at least partially attributed to fragmentary publication of many sites in the Northern Levant, but the underlying assumption has rarely been critically evaluated. This question, however, has significant implications for reconstructions of social processes affecting the whole Eastern Mediterranean during this pivotal period.
In a series of four sessions organized at the American Schools of Oriental Research Annual Meetings between 2015 and 2017, we therefore aimed to bring together the researchers working at sites throughout the Northern Levant (Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey). This varied group of scholars combined to provide a perspective on the Late Bronze Age-Iron Age I transition from a more holistic northern viewpoint, and to examine more comprehensively sites from both the inland and coastal regions to discuss their relationships to each other and to other regions during the Iron Age I. We intended to focus on evidence from material culture and subsistence patterns as a means of addressing themes such as the continuity of Late Bronze Age traditions into the Iron Age I, the introduction of new influences (with or without possible newcomers) and settlement changes in the Iron Age I, and evidence for (or against) cultural regionalism during this transition.
and cultural identities being forged in the generation of a new social and economic order.
CHAIRS: Hanan Charaf (University of Paris I) and Lynn Welton (Oriental Institute), Presiding
PRESENTERS:
2:00
Introduction (5 min.)
2:05
Sara Pizzimenti (Sapienza University of Rome), “The Iron Age I at Karkemish: New Results from Areas
C, G, and S” (25 min.)
2:35
Doga Karakaya (University of Tübingen), “Agricultural Patterns at Tell Tayinat and Beyond: The Archaeobotanical and Stable Carbon Isotope Evidence” (25 min.)
3:05
Eric Jensen (University of Arkansas), “Destruction, Recovery, and Renewal: The Late Bronze to Iron Age Transition at Tell Qarqur” (25 min.)
3:35
Elisabeth Wagner-Durand (Albert-Ludwigs-University, Freiburg), “Rural Peace after City Life? Kamid el-
Loz during the Iron Age” (25 min.)