The Northern Levant: Archaeology (original) (raw)
Related papers
2022 - Reflections on the Qaṭna Letters TT1-5 (I): Hittite Expansionism and the Syrian Kingdoms
Aula Orientalis 40, 2022
The Qaṭna letters TT1-5 are hereby analysed from a geopolitical point of view. The aim is to contribute to sharpening our understanding of Šuppiluliuma's conquests in Syria and the Levant, which precipitated the fall of Mittani. The difficulty to interpret these texts lies in the fact that the chain of events following the socalled First Syrian War (ca. 1340)-i.e., incursions, rebellions, betrayals, and coups d'état in a number of city-states in the Orontes course-probably happened at full speed. Thus, we need to understand the geopolitical grounds that influenced the furtive policies and 'under the table' dealings that no doubt took place among the different actors.
After the Hittites: The Kingdoms of Karkamish and Palistin in Northern Syria
Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, 2013
The disappearance and weakening of the Late Bronze Age territorial empires in the Eastern Mediterranean shortly after 1200 BC is traditionally held to be followed by a so-called Dark Age of around 300 years, characterized by a lack of written sources. However, new sources are appearing, mainly in the medium of Hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions, which help us to understand events and, more importantly, political and geographical power constellations during the period. The new sources are briefly situated within the framework of the current debates, with special regard given to the territories of Karkamish and Palistin. Emphasis is laid on the apparent continuation of local idioms for the articulation of power, largely persisting from the Hittite Empire, in spite of any changes in population, social structure, or political institutions that may have occurred.
This article is giving a brief idea of Hittite's dynasty and there tradition and religion. Hittites are one of the oldest dynasty who ruled from Mesopotamia (Present Iraq) to Southern part of Black Sea. Old civilization and new civilization are quite interesting and also the reader will be fascinated to know their religion and myth.
Ways of Being Hittite: Empire and Borderlands in Late Bronze Age Anatolia and Northern Syria
Studia Orientalia Electronica, 2021
In this paper, I take identity as a characteristic of empire in its periphery, denoting the totality of: 1) the imperial strategies an empire pursues in different regions, 2) the index of empire in each region, and 3) local responses to imperialism. My case study is the Hittite Empire, which dominated parts of what is now modern Turkey and northern Syria between the seventeenth and twelfth centuries bce, and its borderlands. To investigate the identities of the Hittite imperial system, I explore the totality of the second millennium bce in two regions. First, I explore imperial dynamics and responses in the Ilgın Plain in inner southwestern Turkey through a study of the material collected by the Yalburt Yaylası Archaeological Landscape Research Project since 2010. Second, I explore the identity of the Hittite Empire in the city of Emar in northern Syria by a thorough study of the textual and archaeological material unearthed by the Emar Expedition. In both cases, I argue that the manifestations of the Hittite Empire were mainly conditioned by the pre-Hittite trajectories of these regions. The strategies that the administration chose to use in different borderlands sought to identify what was important locally, with the Hittite Empire integrating itself into networks that were already established as manifestations of power, instead of replacing them with new ones.