A VIEW FROM THE AMUQ IN SOUTH-CENTRAL TURKEY: SOCIETIES IN TRANSFORMATION IN THE SECOND MILLENNIUM BC

Introduction From many perspectives, this conference is the right time to re-examine the relationships between the Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean. Since my task is to comment on viable directions for future research, several points are highlighted here. It was very fortunate to have Helene Kantors own copy of The Aegean and the Orient in the Second Millennium B.C. with copious notes written in the margins after its publication. That she gave a great deal of thought to East-West affinities in the Amuq region of south-central Turkey was immediately evident. The Amuq valley projects have been duly reactivated,1 and are thus relevant to this discussion. A number of other recent developments in archaeology have also elucidated the nature of the relationships she described. These include excavations in hitherto less studied regions, the coastal settlements of Anatolia which have begun to yield important second millennium BC information,2 and new analytical techniques that have increased the precision of measurements.

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1 K.A. YENER, T. WILKINSON, S. BRANTING, E. FRIEDMAN, J. LYON, and C. REICHEL, The 1995 Oriental Institute Amuq Regional Projects, Anatolica 22 (1996) 49-84; K.A. YENER and T. J. WILKINSON, The Oriental Institute Amuq Valley Projects, 1995, The Oriental Institute News and Notes 148 (1996) 1-6; Idem, Amuq Valley Projects, The Oriental Institute 1995-1996 Annual Report (1996) 11-21; Idem, 1995 Chicago Oriental Institute Hatay Amik Ovas Blge Projeleri (The Oriental Institute Amuq Regional Project, 1995), Arastrma Sonular Toplants XIV (1997) 413-31; Idem, 1996 Chicago Oriental Institute Hatay Amik Ovas Blge Projeleri (The Oriental Institute Amuq Regional Project, 1996), Arastrma Sonular Toplants XV (in press); Idem, The Oriental Institute Amuq Valley Projects, 1996, The Oriental Institute News and Notes (in press); Idem, Amuq Valley Projects, The Oriental Institute 1996-1997 Annual Report (1997) 11-21. Kinet Hyk, Iskenderun: M-H. GATES, 1992 Excavations at Kinet Hyk (Drtyol/Hatay), Kaz Sonular Toplants XV (1994) 193-200; I. ZGEN and M-H. GATES, Report on the Bilkent University Archaeological Survey in Cilicia and the Northern Hatay: August 1991, Arastrma Sonular Toplants X (1993) 387-93; Limantepe, Baklatepe-Izmir: H. ERKANAL and T. ZKAN, 1995 Bakla Tepe Kazlar, Kaz Sonular Toplants XVIII (1997) 261-80; Panaztepe-Izmir: A. ERKANAL, Klazomenai/Liman Tepe Kazlarnda ele Geen Kil apalar - Tonanker von Klazomenai/Liman Tepe, Anadolu Arastrmalar Jahrbuch fr Kleinasiatische Forschung (In Memoriam Prof. Dr. U. Bahadr Alkm) (1986) 183-92; Idem, Panaztepe Kazsnn 1985 Yl Sonular, Kaz Sonular Toplants 8/I (1986) 253-61; Idem, Panaztepe Kazsnn Tarihsel Adan Degerlendirilmesi, in X. Trk Tarih Kongresi (Ankara, 22-26 Eyll 1986) (1986) 139-46; Idem, Panaztepe Kazlar 1986 Yl Sonular, Kaz Sonular Toplants IX/I (1988) 345-50; Idem, 1990 Panaztepe Kazs Sonular, Kazs Sonular Toplants XIII/I (1992) 447-55; Idem, 1994 Panaztepe Kazlar Sonular, Kaz Sonular Toplants XVII (1996) 329-35; Idem, 1995 Panaztepe Kazlar Sonular, Kaz Sonular Toplants XVIII (1997) 281-90; Y.E. ERSOY, Finds from Menemen/Panaztepe in the Manisa Museum, BSA 83 (1988) 55-82; B. JAEGER and R. KRAUSS, Zwei Skaraben aus der mykenischen Fundstelle Panaztepe, MDOG 112 (1990) 153-56; Kilise Tepe-Antalya: N. POSTGATE, Excavations at Kilise Tepe, Anatolian Archaeology Research Reports 1 (1995) 78; Idem, Kilise Tepe, Anatolian Archaeology Research Reports 2 (1996) 10-11; Sirkeli-Adana: B. HROUDA, Vorlufiger Bericht ber die Ausgrabungsergebnisse auf dem Sirkelihyk Sdtrkei von 1992-1995, Kaz Sonular Toplants XVIII (1997) 291-312; H. EHRINGHAUS, Hethitisches Felsrelief der Grossreichszeit Entdeckt, Antike Welt 26/1 (1995) 66; Idem, Ein neues hethitisches Felsrelief am Sirkeli Hyk in der ukurova, Antike Welt 26/2 (1995) 118-19.

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Changes in the scope of instrumental analysis and its relevant data include the recent efforts in calibrating radiocarbon dates with dendrochronological methods.3 In addition, increasing analytic data from SEM, EDX, neutron activation, ICP-mass spectrometry, and now the Synchrontron Radiation at Argonne (APS-Advanced Photon Source) are being integrated into the growing databases for excavated ceramics, metals, and organic and inorganic materials.4 A new generation of archaeologists with a better understanding of statistics and other data handling methods have enhanced the interpretive aspects of this massive, and sometimes uneven outpouring of analytical data.5 Geoarchaeology, the use of satellite imagery, GIS systems, and other remote sensing devices have also yielded tremendous results in understanding major historical and archaeological events such as large scale population movements, collapse or technological innovations. In as much as these basic approaches represent directions for the future of archaeological methods, another impending concern for archaeology is the need for multi-scale theoretical frameworks. The diversity of research at different scales includes a range spanning broad regional/environmental studies to site specific investigations and ultimately to isotopic levels with the instrumental analysis of artifacts. The fractionation along specialist lines within archaeological disciplines has made it almost impossible to define the relevance or impact of one level of research on the other. Efforts are now underway to develop a methodology to investigate the linkages between multiple scales of archaeological research.6 The dilemma of how each level of research informs the others needs resolution. Ref lective of new potentials in instrumental techniques and theoretical approaches, the Oriental Institute Amuq excavations may help elucidate the vehicle of transmission behind the stylistic and iconographic similarities between the Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean so well documented by Helene Kantor in 1947. To that end, an historical context of the Syro-Anatolian-Palestinian corner of the eastern Mediterranean is brief ly described here in order to better identify the dynamics in place into which stylistic similarities were entwined. Next, preliminary results of environmental research in the Amuq are summarized which have bearing on second millennium historical interaction. Mapping of long-term landscape history within a regional demographic, environmental and economic context will help place such events in a comparative framework in order to recognize significant population decline, or an immigration of people.

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3 S.W. MANNING, The Absolute Chronology of the Aegean Bronze Age: Archaeology, Radiocarbon, and History (1995); P.I. KUNIHOLM, B. KROMER, S.W. MANNING, M. NEWTON, C.E. LATINI, and M.J. BRUCE, Anatolian Tree Rings and the Absolute Chronology of the Eastern Mediterranean, 2220-718 B.C., Nature 381 (1996) 780-83; C. RENFREW, Kings, Tree Rings and the Old World, Nature 381 (1996) 733-34; M.H. WIENER and J.P. ALLEN, Separate Lives: The Ahmose Tempest Stela and the Theran Eruption, JNES 57 (1998) 1-28. For summaries of the different instrumental techniques see J. HENDERSON, Scientific Analysis in Archaeology (1989); S. BOWMAN (ed.), Science and the Past (1991); P.E. McGOVERN, Science in Archaeology: A Review, AJA 99 (1995) 79-142. The experimental APS promises to give trace element compositions to parts per billion with high precision x-rays; see G.S. KNAPP, M.A. BENO, and H. YOU, Hard X-ray Synchrotron Radiation Applications in Materials Science, Annual Review of Materials Science 26 (1996) 693-725; M. HALLER and A. KNOCHEL, X-ray f luorescence analysis using synchrotron radiation (SYXRF), Journal of Trace and Microprobe Techniques 14 (1996) 461-88. Its non-destructive nature has been immediately recognized as an advantage for archaeological purposes. See G. HARBOTTLE, B.M. GORDON, and K.W. JONES, Use of Synchrotron Radiation in Archaeometry, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B14 (1986) 116-22. H. NEFF (ed.), Chemical Characterization of Ceramic Pastes in Archaeology (1992); R.L. BISHOP and F.W. LANGE, Introduction, in R.L. BISHOP and F.W. LANGE (eds.), The Ceramic Legacy of Anna O. Shepard (1991)1-8; R.L. BISHOP and V. CANOUTS, Archaeometry, in J.K. JOHNSON (ed.), Development of Southeastern Archaeology (1993) 160-83. Workshop held at Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois, on August 23-24, 1997: Shedding Light on the Past: Synchrotron X-Rays and Archaeology. Science and Technology Center for Archaeology Workshop.

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The Rise of Late Bronze Age States The rise of large territorial states and the increasing levels of socio-economic and political complexity in the Late Bronze Age mark an important transformation in the Near East. Hittite, Assyrian, Egyptian, Hurro-Mitanni, and Kassite Babylonian states arose, competed with one another and co-existed with the occasionally vacillating vassals.7 Incorporating smaller and pre-existing regional states, diverse environmental zones, and routes of communication, these empires emerged as large geographical groupings. Aegean related materials, perhaps ref lecting a population, but more likely a distribution of elite commodities, enter into this contextual substratum and have been found on excavations throughout the region.8 Thus long-distance exchange and interregional interactions impacted on the changes which resulted within such large groups of diverse peoples and territories. While the underpinnings of trade may be approached by means of socio-economic models, the value-added aspect of research in this period is the availability of textual documentation. These epigraphic documents provide real insight into exchange within the evolving Near Eastern imperial state systems. Extensive trade networks are highlighted by Middle and Late Bronze Age texts, which enumerate exchanged commodities such as foodstuffs, metals, both precious and utilitarian, textiles, and craft items. Numerous texts from the Assyrian trading colonies at Kltepe/Kanesh and Mari describe a MBA system of competing and cooperating small states.9 The political systems appear to be a series of interlocking territories supplying each other and networking at the frontier borders. But by the mid-second millennium BC, a different system of political organization, dominated by large geographic units is apparent. These larger structures are glued together by ideological bonds and exchange and are based on familial organization. Two such examples are the Hittite and Mitanni Empires. The Hittite and Mitanni states appear to have allowed the f low of commodities throughout their territories from the Eastern Mediterranean coast to northern Mesopotamia and Central Anatolia. Treaties and administrative texts written in Akkadian indicate that the state was basically a loosely affiliated confederation of semi-independent vassals. Political unity was maintained while f lexible organizational structure facilitated the f low of goods and people. In addition, shared ethnic identities, prestige definitions, and status markers also promoted coherence and intensified interregional interaction. The Amuq region which was part of both empires at various times may shed light on how these factors can be disentangled. The Amuq project aims to test the role of exchange in Late Bronze Age states by investigating changes in these systems and how they effect local organization. By combining excavation, survey, and analysis, the results will complement and append the findings of prior

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7 8 H. KLENGEL, Syria 3000 to 300 B.C.: A Handbook of Political History (1992). Sometimes with less than advantageous results to the region; note the war between the Hittites and Egypt ended by the Kadesh treaty. A. SHERRATT and S. SHERRATT, From Luxuries to Commodities: The nature of Mediterranean Bronze Age Trading Systems, in Bronze Age Trade, 351-86; A.M. SNODGRASS, Bronze Age Trade: A Minimalist Position, in Bronze Age Trade, 15-21; M-H. GATES, Alalakh Levels VI and V: A Chronological Reassessment. Syro-Mesopotamian Studies 4/2 (1981); Eadem, Alalakh and Chronology Again, in High, Middle or Low?, pt. I, 60-86; A. LEONARD, Jr., An Index to the Late Bronze Age Aegean Pottery from Syria-Palestine (1994); and SWDS. M.T. LARSEN, The Old Assyrian City-State and its Colonies (1976); D. CHARPIN and F. JOANNS (eds.), Marchands, diplomates et empereurs. tudes sur la civilisation msopotamienne offertes Paul Garelli (1991); L. MARFOE, Cedar Forest to Silver Mountain: Social change and the Development of Long-Distance Trade in Early Near Eastern Societies, in M. ROWLANDS, M.T. LARSEN, and K. KRISTIANSEN (eds.), Centre and Periphery in the Ancient World (1987) 25-35.

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excavations at Tell Atchana/Alalakh, atal Hyk, Tell Tayinat and Tell al-Judaidah, as well as the Oriental Institute pathbreaking 1930s Syrian Expeditions survey of the region.10 Although initial and enduring interest in the region has focused on problems of chronology, art history and the political landscape, the new project will enhance these by addressing more general and synthetic issues of change, utilizing models and methods from political and economic geography, the history of science and the anthropology of technology. The Amuq Region The cultural dynamics defined here are encapsulated in the sequences for the Middle and Late Bronze Age Amuq region which are based on materials excavated from 1932 and 1938 by the Oriental Institutes Syrian Expedition at Tell Tayinat, Tell al-Judaidah, and atal Hyk. The finds from Tell Atchana/Alalakh have so far provided the basis for the Middle and Late Bronze Age sequence since the later phases of the Amuq excavations are in the process of being published.11 The Amuq plain, located at 80 - 100 m above mean sea level, is framed by mountains on all sides except where rivers enter the plain. The Karasu enters the plain in the north, and the Nahr al-Afrin from the east. The Orontes (Nahr al-Asi) takes the combined f low of these rivers, now merely large drainage canals, and empties into the Mediterranean Sea through a narrow gorge via Antakya (ancient Antioch) in the SW. This rich archaeological landscape also has high rainfall, at around 600 - 700 mm per annum, which, although sufficient for rain-fed cultivation, can be enhanced by irrigation. What sets the Amuq apart from other agriculturally endowed regions is its location interfacing mining zones such as the Taurus silver/tin sources and the gold/copper mines in the Amanus mountains (Pl. XXIXa).12 The location of metals, minerals and forests, along with agricultural potential provides a unique combination of circumstances, which may have triggered trade and exchange, factors long assumed to play a major role in the emergence of some complex societies. Phases L and M from atal, Judaidah and Tayinat are comparable to the Middle and Late Bronze Age levels of Tell Atchana/Alalakh. Tell Atchana produced datable texts from Levels VII and IV, and allowed the possibility of relating the settlement sequence in the region to a stratigraphic chronology. The most striking feature of the Alalakh and Amuq Phase L and M ceramic assemblages is the amount of continuity from one period to the next, suggesting a strong native tradition which extends back even to the EBA.13 This continuity is seen primarily in the ongoing use of the plain ware fabrics and shapes while painted wares

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10 R.J. BRAIDWOOD, Mounds in the Plain of Antioch: An Archaeological Survey (1937); R.J. BRAIDWOOD and L.S. BRAIDWOOD, Excavations in the Plain of Antioch I: The Earlier Assemblages Phases A-J (1960); G.F. SWIFT, Jr., The Pottery of the Amuq Phases K to O and its Historical Relationships. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Chicago (1958); A. PRUSS, Die Amuq Terrakotten. Untersuchungen zu den Terrakotta-Figuren des 2. und 1. Jahrtausends v. Chr. aus den Grabungen des Oriental Institute Chicago in der Amuq-Ebene. Ph.D. Dissertation, Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (1996); J-W. MEYER, Die eisenzeitlichen Stempelsiegel aus dem Amuq-Gebiet. Habilitationsschrift, University of Saarlandes, Germany (1992); R.C. HAINES, Excavations in the Plain of Antioch II: The Structural Remains of the Later Phases: atal Hyk, Tell al-Judaidah, and Tell Tayinat (1971); C.L. WOOLLEY, Excavations at Atchana-Alalakh, 1939, The Antiquaries Journal 28 (1948) 1-19; Idem, A Forgotten Kingdom (1953); Idem, Alalakh. An Account of the Excavations at Tell Atchana in the Hatay, 1937-1949 (1955); M.J. MELLINK, Review of Alalakh. An Account of the Excavations at Tell Atchana in the Hatay, 1937-1949, AJA 61 (1957) 395-400. See footnote 8 (supra); D.J. WISEMAN, The Alalakh Tablets (1953); T.L. McCLELLAN, The Chronology and Ceramic Assemblages of Alalakh, in A. LEONARD, Jr. and B.B. WILLIAMS (eds.), Essays in Ancient Civilization Presented to Helene J. Kantor (1989) 181-212. Sabuniye at the mouth of the Orontes river near al-Mina also provided Aegean related wares; see WOOLLEY 1948 (supra n. 10). K.A. YENER, Swords, Armor, and Figurines: A Metalliferous View from the Central Taurus, Biblical Archaeologist 58 (1995) 41-47; K.A. YENER, E.V. SAYRE, E. JOEL, H. ZBAL, I.L. BARNES, AND R.H. BRILL, Stable Lead Isotope Studies of Central Taurus Ore Sources and Related Artifacts from Eastern Mediterranean Chalcolithic and Bronze Age Sites, Journal of Archaeological Science 18 (1991) 541-77. M. HEINZ, Tell Atchana/Alalakh: Die Schichten VII-XVII (1992).

11

12

13

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underwent significant changes. Other changes that appear to correspond to the beginning of Phase M include the appearance of red-slipped and burnished wares of central Anatolian nature, and the increase in Aegean, Mediterranean coastal and Cypriot imported wares. Thus the pattern of general ceramic continuity from MB II to LB II is given additional variety by the amount and direction of imported and foreign inf luenced wares. Into this contextual substratum, ample interaction seaward is indicated by the parallels between the Amuq/Alalakh and the Cape Gelidonya and Uluburun-Kas shipwrecks.14 The distribution of Tell el-Yahudiya and Cypriot wares from Egypt, Cyprus and the Levantine coast north to Ras Shamra as well as the copper-tin and other preciosities by the early to mid-second millennium BC suggest the existence of a developing or thriving exchange network in the eastern Mediterranean. During this period of substantial imperial reciprocity, texts from Tell Atchana/Alalakh dating to the 18th-15th centuries BC amplify the changing political and economic situation of this settlement at the margins of the Mitanni and later Hittite states. A comparison of the textual data from levels VII and IV suggests significant changes in both intra-and interregional organization.15 The occurrence of toponyms in both sets of documents ref lect varying settlement systems and long-distance interaction foci. For example, of the 58 towns mentioned in level VII texts, only 18 still exist among the 222 different localities mentioned in level IV texts. Discontinuous settlement between the Middle and Late Bronze Ages is also suggested by the 1995, 1996, and 1997 archaeological and environmental surveys. Furthermore, Woolley and Braidwood both suggested that Lake Antioch developed in later periods, which would have impacted north-south traffic on the plain. After appending basic site dimensions and collected surface pottery on to the original Braidwood survey, environmental information potentially revealed how the constant f lux of marshes, lakes and rivers effected changes in communication and shifts in the locus of the settlements. Ultimately this data should enable the geography of settlement for the period of the Alalakh tablets to be reconstructed.16 The preliminary geoarchaeological survey results (Pl. XXX)17 indicate that the Amuq plain is not as featureless as it appears. Natural processes and human activities both constrained but also gave certain advantages for settlement over the past 10,000 years, which then profoundly effected the landscape. Alluvial fans, river levees and eroded terrain, as well as intervening f lood basins, f lesh out the history of Lake Antioch, which is now shown to have developed since the second millennium BC. Some 3-3.5 m sedimentation in the Orontes f lood plain accumulated over the past 6000 years, and up to 5 m in 7,500 years within the lake basin.18

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14 G.F. BASS, Cape Gelidonya: A Bronze Age Shipwreck (1967); Idem, Evidence of Trade from Bronze Age Shipwrecks, in Bronze Age Trade, 69-82; G.F. BASS, C. PULAK, D. COLLON, and J. WEINSTEIN, The Bronze Age Shipwreck at Ulu Burun: 1986 Campaign, AJA 93 (1989) 1-29. For discussions on ox-hide ingots, sourcing with lead isotope analyses see papers in Archaeometry and also E.V. SAYRE, K.A. YENER, E.C. JOEL and I.L. BARNES, Statistical Evaluation of the Presently Accumulated Lead Isotope Data from Anatolia and Surrounding Regions, Archaeometry 34 (1992) 73-105; Idem, Comments on Oxhide Ingots, Recycling and the Mediterranean Metals Trade, JMA 8.1 (1995) 45-53; Bronze Age Trade, passim. B. MAGNESS-GARDINER, Urban-Rural Relations in Bronze Age Syria: Evidence from Alalah Level VII Palace Archives, in G.M. SCHWARTZ and S.E. FALCONER (eds.), Archaeological Views from the Countryside. Village Communities in Early Complex Societies (1994) 37-47; WISEMAN (supra n. 11). In 1995, sites of the second millennium BC were examined by Jerry Lyon, and in 1996 by Jan Verstraete to determine which were contemporaneous to excavated levels IV and VII at Alalakh (Amuq phase M). T.J. WILKINSON, The History of the Lake of Antioch: A Preliminary Note, in R. Averbeck and G.D. Young (eds.), Crossing Boundaries and Linking Horizons: Studies in Honor of Michael Astour (in press); Idem, Holocene Valley Fills of Southern Turkey and Northwestern Syria. Recent Geoarchaeological Contributions, in Proceedings of the International Quaternary Conference Meeting, Ankara 1997. Quaternary Science Reviews (in press). Some preliminary insights into the evolution of the landscape was provided by field mapping using a GPS system and were later plotted on to French Levant series (1936) 1:50,000 maps. Groningen University, Netherlands, produced 4 cores of 15 m maximum depth, extending back to approximately 26,000 BP through a sequence of lake sediments.

15

16 17

18

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Several sites were discovered in the drained basin of Lake Antioch in the 1995 survey (Pl. XXIXb). They are located 1.5 to 2 km to the north of the lake margin as it existed in the 1930s, when they must have been covered by some 2 m of water. Occupation levels at one site were established from the Early Bronze Age (i.e. early third millennium BC) through Middle Bronze Age, Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods, the final occupation being of approximate early Islamic date. A mosaic of soils surrounded these sites which consisted of drier soils appropriate for cereals and other crops to waterlogged marshy soils replete with aquatic resources. This was demonstrated at Kara Tepe (Site AS86), which Braidwood described as being in the deepest part of the marsh. Sections exposed by recent bulldozing showed that walls of the mid-second millennium BC were made of two types of mud brick, both of which must have been dug from soils in the immediate vicinity. A red-brown oxidized variety had been dug from freely drained soils, and another type, a gray clay, containing small freshwater snail shells, was dug from a much more waterlogged and marshy soil. The Amuq Plain has therefore been a marshyand locally open-waterenvironment for much of the last few thousand years, surely of great advantage for settlement. This is certainly ref lected in the unusual concentration of sites, now numbering 203, which date from the Neolithic through the Turkish Republic. Future work by the team will attempt to refine such environmental descriptions. The renewed Amuq efforts of the Oriental Institute will provide the basis for our understanding of the cultural history in this unique environment bounded by resource-rich mountain highlands. In future years I will join you in presenting information about this very contentious area, Mukish/Unqi as the Amuq was called, where much attention was focused by generations of ruling Hittite, Hurrian/Mitannian, Assyrian and Egyptian dynasties, not to speak of the enigmatic Aegean presence. K. Aslihan YENER

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Pl. XXIXa Pl. XXIXb Pl. XXX

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Gold/copper mine, Kisecik-Antakya. Amanus Mountains. Photo: Aslihan Yener. Reconstruction of Maximum level of the Lake of Antioch, assuming a level no higher than that of site AS 181. Concentric circles indicate approximate sustaining areas calculated from the maximum size of key sites AS 86 and AS 180. Photo: Tony Wilkinson. The Amuq Valley Regional Survey, 1995 and 1996. Photo: Tony Wilkinson.

280 Discussion following K.A. Yeners paper:

K. Aslihan YENER

A. Caubet: Thank you for bringing the paper. Ive been dreaming of renewing work in this area. One of my favorite dreams would have been to find bone material, to find hippo bones from the area, so I suppose you have already started to find some? That is the ideal environment for all the hippo that provided the ivory for the Levant during the second millennium BC. K.A. Yener: Yes, thank you very much. David Reese, of the Field Museum in Chicago, is part of our team and, as you know, hes very, very interested in baby hippos and baby animals. We have, of course, considered the possibility of hippos being in that environment, and weve been finding some very enigmatic faunal material that had been dug up from the former basin of the Antioch Lake, so Im hoping David [Reese] will be able to identify them for us this next year.