A Late Bronze Age site and fluvial environmental context in the Middle Euphrates Valley (Northeast Syria)

Abstract

Alluvial sediments provide records of environmental changes when early civilisations were born on Mesopotamian floodplains during approximately 6 kyr BP. In this work, we study and date the alluvial infill of a palaeochannel and sediments of a neighbouring wadi that flowed into the Middle Euphrates. Such a palaeochannel is alongside an archaeological site, abandoned in the late Bronze Age II. It was a strategic control point of the river transit in that period, when a single meandering channel existed. We hypothesise that the site was not reoccupied after destruction by a fire because of the loss of geostrategic interest, as it remained far from the new river channel. The main river channel was moved, and the palaeochannel filled with flash-flood sediments, possibly because of natural or human-induced environmental changes. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) allows direct dating of alluvial sediments, but it has been little tested in this area, while both radiocarbon and pottery style dating have been preferred. We used OSL to date the palaeochannel infill, wadi sidewall sediments and the late-Pleistocene terrace incised by the wadi. Our ages allow us to make a correlation between the palaeochannel infill process and significant environmental events. As a result, meandering is a highly probable cause of the lack of reoccupation of the site, but anthropological causes such as changes in spatial strategies cannot be completely discarded.