Late Bronze Age Tell Atchana (Alalakh)

This study re-visits the Late Bronze Age stratigraphy, chronology and history of Tell Atchana (Alalakh, Syria) as recorded by Sir Leonard Woolley in the 1930s and 1940s. The author offers both a detailed analysis of the material culture of Late Bronze Age Alalakh and a political history of the region following the destruction of the Level IVW palace. Step one was to understand the way in which the plans of Tell Atchana that Woolley published are to be interpreted, and the implications of so doing. Next the author establishes the correct location, absolute and relative, of the Level IW temples. After this follows an analysis of the stratigraphy of the Levels IV-0W temples. Based on the finds in each of the later temples, new data afforded a detailed study of the find-spot of the statue of Idrimi, now newly attributed to Level IVBF, the first half of the fourteenth century BCE, probably not more than a few decades after the death of Idrimi, king of Alalakh. The same stratigraphic analysis scheme was projected on all the features and structures of Levels V-0W, making the author's approach to Late Bronze Age Alalakh significantly different than that of the previous literature, and significantly revises Woolley's 1955 Final Report and later studies. Detailed new phase plans for Levels VA-IBF accompany this study and the work concludes by presenting consequential material culture data that leads to a proposed absolute chronology of the relevant strata at Alalakh, accompanied by a discussion of the history of Alalakh in the Late Bronze Age. It is hope that this volume will help pave the way for future investigation, and that its implications will be considered not only for Alalakh and Mukis, but for the Late Bronze Age Levant as a whole.