Amoriter und Aramäer in Sam’al: Urbanismus und Wirtschaft im mittelbronzezeitlichen und eisenzeitlichen Zincirli (Türkei)
Zusammenfassung der Projektergebnisse
The site of Zincirli, Turkey, ancient Sam’al, is a key site for understanding urban planning and monumental architecture in the ancient Near East and sits at a crossroads between three cultural and geographic subregions: the Levant, Anatolia, and Mesopotamia. The aims of this project were to deepen our understanding of the Middle Bronze Age and Iron Age II occupations at Zincirli through integrated analyses and targeted excavations on the citadel mound and to broaden our view of both periods by comparing evidence for spatial organization, architecture, agropastoral economy, and palaeoecology. In spite of the delay and challenge of COVID-19, a successful campaign of excavations was carried out at Zincirli in summer 2021 and brought significant new insights about urbanism at this important site in the second and first millennia BCE. We learned that the small Middle Bronze Age settlement underwent a major change when “Hilani I,” the monumental temple(?) at the mound’s summit, was demolished and the area was converted for use in production, storage, and administration. This surprising shift might be connected with the consolidation and centralization of a local Amorite kingdom at the nearby city of Zalb/war (Tilmen Höyük). The unexpectedly long history of occupation discovered in the new excavations, including the first evidence of Hittite-imperial period settlement at the site, means that the formerly monumental (and possibly sacred) character of this area was likely not evident to Zincirli’s Iron Age builders centuries later. If there was any “genetic” relationship between the architectural form of the Bronze Age “Hilani I” and the Iron Age bīt hilani palaces, it was probably not direct, contrary to our previous hypothesis. Another important result is that the scheme of concentric fortified enclosures that divided Zincirli into progressively more exclusive zones of access was part of the urban design from the first reoccupation of the site in the Iron Age II. This plan was not a gradual development, but a fully-formed idea, likely modeled on existing cities in neighboring states. This fits the characterization of the Iron Age Syro-Hittite kingdoms as a peer-polity interaction network. The Aramaic-speaking rulers of Zincirli manifested their claim to power through a formula for the expression of legitimate kingship that had been established by their Luwian-speaking neighbors. In both the second and first millennia BCE, therefore, urban development and form in this area seem to have been influenced by local and regional politics. The second part of the project, a program of analyses on an array of organic materials from the excavations, was delayed three years by changes to Turkish government policies and is still incomplete. Nevertheless, the analysis that was possible allows us to draw a preliminary picture of the local economy and paleoecology. Integration of multiple lines of evidence from the Middle Bronze Age building complex reveals a diversified economic strategy in which the enterprise remained largely self-sufficient in subsistence by drawing on the resources of a broad territory while producing specialized products oriented toward long-distance trade. These included wine (positively identified in specialized transport vessels through organic residue analysis), textiles, and possibly wood. Zincirli’s economy differs from the extractive consumer economies of some contemporary palatial centers and may instead help define an alternative site type in this period: the “estate.” Our picture of the Iron IIA economy is still a work in progress, but by the Iron IIIA Assyrian provincial period, some parts of the citadel appear oriented toward provisioning a local or imperial elite with prestigious hunted game and other products. The herding of sheep and goats was relatively more important in the MB II than in Iron IIIA, but investigation of the mobility and herding range of the animals and herders still awaits the availability of further analyses. Finally, in both periods, Zincirli’s inhabitants capitalized on the site’s position in the vicinity of a variety of ecological zones to access a diverse array of plant and animal resources. A fuller picture of local paleoecology and its development awaits the completion of relevant analyses. In conclusion, against a backdrop of broad continuity, we are beginning to identify significant changes at Zincirli between the second and first millennium BCE that point to key differences in the political economy and interregional dynamics of each period.
Projektbezogene Publikationen (Auswahl)
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A Shade of Red. Red Slip Ware at Zincirli and Its Connections with Northern Syria and Southern Anatolia in the Iron Age.” Rivista di studi fenici 49: 7– 32.
Soldi, Sebastiano
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The Waste of a City: The Archaeology of a Sam’alian Refuse Pit. Poster presented at the American Society of Overseas Research Annual Meeting.
Poolman, L.A., Praet, M., Karakaya, D., Soldi, S., Demir, T. & V.R. Herrmann
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Zincirli Höyük Kazıları 2019-2020 [Zincirli Höyük Excavations 2019-2020]. In 2019- 2020 Yılı Kazı Çalışmaları [2019-2020 Excavation Work], edited by Adil Özme, 4:403– 14. Ankara: Kültür Varlıkları ve Müzeler Genel Müdürlüğü.
Schloen, J.D., Herrmann, V.R., Dirican, M., Morgan, K.R., Soldi, S. & Kalaycı, T.
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An estate at Zincirli? Land use and resource exploitation at the Middle Bronze Age monumental building Complex DD in Zincirli, Gaziantep Province of Turkey. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 15(1).
Deckers, Katleen; Karakaya, Doga; Poolman, Laurel; Öğüt, Birgül; Herrmann, Jason; Morgan, Kathryn R. & Herrmann, Virginia
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New evidence for Middle Bronze Age chronology from the Syro-Anatolian frontier. Antiquity, 97(393), 654-673.
Herrmann, Virginia R.; Manning, Sturt W.; Morgan, Kathryn R.; Soldi, Sebastiano & Schloen, David
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Red Slip Pottery from Zincirli: Connecting Syria and Anatolia in the Iron Age II. Proceedings of the 12th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, 571-582. Harrassowitz Verlag.
Soldi, Sebastiano
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A Woven Economy: Middle Bronze Age Animal Economies at Zincirli Höyük, Turkey. In Archaeozoology of Southwest Asia and Adjacent Areas XIV: Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Symposium, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Barcelona, June 3–7, 2019, edited by R.A. Fors, M.S. Segui, & C.T. Dacasa, 101–110. British Archaeological Reports (BAR) International Series 3171. Oxford: BAR Publishing.
Poolman, L.A. & Morgan, K.R.
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Plant ways in Middle Bronze Age Anatolia—an archaeological interpretation of phytoliths and other plant remains from Zincirli Höyük, Türkiye. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, 34(2), 205-214.
Öğüt, Birgül & Karakaya, Doğa
