The Dawn and Demise of Imperial Impact – Tell Atchana vs. Arslantepe in the Framework of the Hittite Expansion and Dissolution (original) (raw)
2020, in Yener A., Ingman T. (eds.), Alalakh and its Neighbors: Proceedings of the 15th Anniversary Symposium at the New Hatay Archaeology Museum, June 10-12 (Ancient Near Eastern Studies Supplement 55), Peeters, Leuven-Paris-Walpole, 317-341
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‘Hittites and Arzawans: A view from western Anatolia
Anatolian Studies 60: 7-24, 2010
There has been much recent research in archaeology on the dynamics of imperial systems, and valuable work has been done on the complex relationships between the Hittite state and groups on its imperial periphery. The nature of the available source material means that these relationships are usually studied from a Hittite perspective, and that interactions with the Hittites are often seen as centrally important for these groups. In this paper, however, it is argued that archaeological evidence can be used to gain insight into alternative views – views which may not necessarily privilege relationships with the Hittites over those with other groups. One well-documented example of such a group is Arzawa, a quarrelsome coalition of principalities in western Anatolia. This paper will focus on the western Anatolian site of Beycesultan, caught between the Hittite and Arzawan heartlands. It will show that people at Beycesultan did not define themselves primarily in relation to either the Hittites or the Arzawan confederacy, but had their own dynamic and shifting world-view.İmparatorluk sistemlerinin dinamikleri konusunda pek çok yeni arkeolojik araştırmalar yapılmiştır. Bu araştırmalara dayanarak, Hitit devleti ile çevresindeki gruplar arasındaki karmaşık ilişkileri inceleyen birçok değerli çalışma yapılmıştır. Mevcut olan kaynakların doğası gereği, bu ilişkiler genellikle Hitit bakış açısıyla incelenmekte ve çoğunlukla Hititlerle etkileşimin bu gruplar için çok önemli olduğu varsayılmaktadır. Ancak, bu makale arkeolojik kanıtların farklı bakış açılarına sahip olabilmek için kullanılabileceğini savunmaktadır – ki bu bakış açısı, Hititlerle olan ilişkilerinin bu gruplara ayrıcalık sağlaması gerekmediğidir. Bunlar arasında iyi belgelenmiş olan bir örnek de, batı Anadolu'daki savaşçı beyliklerin koalisyonundan oluşan Arzawa grubudur. Bu makale batı Anadolu'daki Hitit ve Arzawa merkezlerinin arasında sıkışmış Beycesultan yerleşimi üzerinde yoğunlaşmaktadır ve aslında Beycesultan halkının kendilerini öncelikli olarak Hitit veya Arzawa birliklerine ait görmediklerini, farklı dinamiklere ve değişken bir dünya görüşüne sahip bir toplum olarak gördüklerini ortaya koyacaktır.
Places and Spaces in Hittite Anatolia I: Hatti and the East, 2017
This research began as part of the Hittite Historical Atlas Project (HHA), and it aims to designate the settlements that were occupied during the Middle Bronze Age (MBA, ca. 2000-1600 BC1) and the Late Bronze Age (LBA, ca. 1600-1200 BC) in the Amuq Valley in southern Turkey. In combining the archaeological data with the textual evidence in the HHA, this research identifies 2nd millennium BC sites which could possibly be associated with site names mentioned in the textual records, but which have not yet been located. Although it is archaeologically not possible to trace the presence or absence of Hittite material culture through survey material, changes in the local pottery traditions, as well as in settlement patterns, can be linked to the changing socio-political environment in the region. This task is accomplished by re-evaluating the data gathered during the surveys conducted in the Amuq Valley by Robert Braidwood and K. Aslıhan Yener to acquire a better understanding of the MBA-LBA sequence of the region. This is made possible because of the new excavations conducted in the last 15 years at the Bronze Age capital city of Alalakh (Tell Atchana), which have begun to provide a stratified local ceramic sequence that can be used as a reference for a new look at the 2nd millennium BC Amuq settlements through survey collections.
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.
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in E. Foietta, C. Ferrandi, E. Quirico, F. Giusto, M. Mortarini, J. Bruno, L. Somma, Cultural & Material Contacts in the Ancient Near East, Proceedings of the International Workshop 1-2 December 2014 Torino, Firenze, 26-35, 2016
Bulletin of the Institute of Oriental Studies, 2022