Beyond the Crisis. Continuity, transformation and innovation in the development of the Anatolian societies at the turn of 1st Millennium BCE: a case-study in the Upper Euphrates region
Final Report Abstract
The research of the present project dealt with the transition between the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age (ca. 1300-900 BCE) in Anatolia and the northern Levant regions, a time span that has been considered for a long time as a “Dark Age” because of a generalized deficiency of historical sources. This period has been also usually labelled as a crisis era, considering its aspects of political and economic instability as well as deep social and cultural breakdown with respect to the previous ages. Nonetheless, new archaeological and philological research along with the integration of natural sciences have brought, during the last decades, new evidence to approach this complex period, considering its multifaced characteristics of transformation, change, innovation, and resilience in order to better understand the strict interaction of the societies involved as well as the concept of crisis and collapse. The project has comprehensively analyzed a wide set of up-to-date and original records coming from site of Arslantepe (Malatya, south-eastern Turkey). Because of its long-lasting excavations and the large use of modern methodologies, in addition to its renowned historical importance at the Late Bronze Age-Iron Age transition, Arslantepe represents an iconic case for the understanding of the evolutionary processes that followed the breakdown of the Hittite Empire and the aspects of formation and organization that characterized the development of the new Iron Age societies. The research work was organized into six work parts and allowed the achievement of three closely interrelated objectives. Numerous impulses have been provided by the cooperation with other scholars and institutions, which have also stimulated ideas for further future research. Specific results have been obtained on several topics. The chronology of the late-2nd Millennium BCE at Arslantepe has been newly reconstructed thanks to a wide set of radiometric analyses that allowed a pre-dating of the beginning of the Iron Age at the site and the establishment of a proper “transitional” phase. Material from these levels showed new trajectories of connections that clearly relate Arslantepe with northern Syria and the Levant, marking an early decline of the Hittite central Anatolian influence at the site. Archaeometric analyses on pottery and textile tools emphasized how characteristics of stability and innovation are deeply merged in the use of paste recipes and manufacture techniques as well as the organization of the material production. Faunal remains further demonstrated the intertwining elements of continuity and change with the persistence of a large-scale pastoralism economy typical of the Late Bronze Age and the introduction of delayed slaughter processes that facilitates the spread of secondary products related to new forms of exploitation of the flocks. The holistic analysis of the wide production of stone artworks allowed a better interpretation of the carving processes and kings’ genealogies at the site as well as an understanding of the ideological and propagandistic messages related to the use, reuse, manipulation and alteration of the figurative bas-reliefs and further categories of objects. The extension of the study to the inscriptions and artworks spread in the territory surrounding the site and the integration of the newest methods of landscape computational analysis provided new evidence for a better interpretation of the nature and role of each single monument within its natural environment and political context. A deep inspection of the concept of crisis and its identification and materialization in our archaeological and historical records showed the contradictory use of this and other terms in the scholarship and difficulties in consistently matching theoretical approaches with the practical manifestation and visibility of the evidence of crisis. The extension of the results to other case studies generally displayed the existence of local cultural, political, and ecological backgrounds enabling the creation of regionalisms and dissimilarities which hardly allow us to situate the development of the Syro-Anatolian region between the 13th and the 10th Century BCE within any common pattern.
Publications
- 2018, “Collapse or transformation? Regeneration and innovation at the turn of the 1st millennium BC at Arslantepe, Turkey”, Antiquity Project Gallery 362, 1-7
Frangipane M., Di Filippo F., Manuelli F., Mori L.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2018.56) - “Drifting Southward? Tracing Aspects of Cultural Continuity and Change in the Late 2nd Millennium BC Syro-Anatolian Region”, Studia Eblaitica 4, 139-186
Manuelli F.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.17169/refubium-31421) - 2019, “Carving the memory, altering the past. PUGNUS-mili and the earlier Iron Age rulers at Arslantepe/Malizi (South-Eastern Turkey)”, in Lafer R., Dolenz H., Luik M. (eds.), Antiquitates variae. Festschrift für Karl Strobel zum 65. Geburtstag, VML Verlag, Rahden/Westf, 227-241
Manuelli F.
- 2019, “The Regeneration of the Late Bronze Age Traditions and the Formation of the Kingdom of Malizi”, in Sollee A. (ed.), Formation, Organization and Development of the Iron Age Societies. A Comparative View. Proceedings of the Workshop held at the 10th ICAANE in Vienna, April 2016, Austrian Academy of Science Press, Vienna, 83-108
Manuelli F.
- 2020, “A Spools Enigma? The Iron Age Case at Arslantepe (Malatya, South-Eastern Turkey)”, in Bustamante-Álvarez M., Sánchez-López E.H., Jiménez Ávila J. (eds.), Purpureae Vestes VII. Redefining Ancient Textile Handcraft: Structures, Tools and Production Processes. Proceedings of the VIIth International Symposium on Textiles and Dyes in the Ancient Mediterranean World (Granada, Spain 2-4 October 2019), Universidad de Granada, Granada, 521-528
Laurito R., Manuelli F.
(See online at https://dx.doi.org/10.17169/refubium-34866) - 2020, “Contextualizing Crisis? Some Thoughts on the End of the Bronze Age in the Euphrates Region”, in Balossi Restelli F. et al. (eds.), Pathways through Arslantepe. Essays in Honour of Marcella Frangipane, Edizioni Sette Cittá, Rome, 599-610
Manuelli F.
- 2021, “The beginning of the Iron Age at Arslantepe: A 14C perspective”, Radiocarbon 63/3, 885-903
Manuelli F., Vignola C., Marzaioli F., Passariello I., Terrasi F.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1017/RDC.2021.19)
