The Iron Age pottery from Alalakh/Tell Atchana: a morphological and functional analysis

Abstract

The site of Tell Atchana/Ancient Alalakh is located in the Amuq valley, now in the modern province of Hatay, in Southern Turkey. While it was previously thought that the site was abandoned towards the end of the Late Bronze Age, recent excavations at the site have demonstrated the presence of Iron Age levels, suggesting a prolonged period of occupation. This thesis presents a detailed analysis of the pottery assemblages excavated from the Iron Age levels of Alalakh; makes a major contribution to defining a new chronology for the site of Alalakh and sheds a new light on the last centuries of occupation. Based on the pottery assemblages this thesis proposes a new interpretation of the Early Iron Age period as being not a period of crisis and collapse but of accomplishment and regeneration. Moreover, by applying a more holistic and anthropological approach to the study of ceramics, this thesis investigates the patterns of consumption and of social dynamics in Early Iron Age Alalakh and links them within the broader regional framework of the Northern Levant. The morphological analysis carried out in this thesis defines a typology for the Iron Age pottery assemblages and establishes a relative chronology for the Iron Age levels. This enables the Iron Age settlement on Alalakh to be dated to the Iron Age I and II (12th-9th century BC). The functional analysis performed on the pottery assemblage recovered from square 42.10, the only square that yielded a reliable stratigraphy, results in the identification of the square as an open area devoted to the processing and consumption of food. This approach determines a change in the way food was cooked and displayed, but not in the way it was served and consumed. Finally this thesis draws conclusions related to continuity and change detectable in the local pottery assemblage and proposes a new historical narrative regarding Alalakh and the Amuq valley for the first centuries of the Early Iron Age.