Amorites and Aramaeans at Sam’al: Comparing Middle Bronze and Iron Age Urbanism and Economy at Zincirli, Turkey

• Applicant: Dr. Virginia Herrmann
• Subject Area: Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
• Term: from 2020 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 440149333

The site of Zincirli, Turkey, ancient Sam’al, has long been fundamental for our knowledge of urban planning and monumental architecture in the Iron Age Near East. Recent work by the University of Tübingen expedition at this site has improved our understanding of the urbanization process and social landscape of Iron Age Sam’al (ca. 900-600 BC). It has also revealed that Zincirli’s earliest monumental structure, “Hilani I,” is almost 1000 years older than previously believed. This monumental architecture, together with evidence for the storage of goods, administrative practices, and long-distance connections, shows the site was an important center in the Middle Bronze Age (MBA) (ca. 2000-1600 BC) as well. These discoveries raise new questions about the origins of Iron Age urbanism, including the well-known bit hilani palace, and about the role of this area in long-distance trade between Anatolia and Syria in the MBA. They also present new opportunities to investigate questions of long-term continuity and change in urban culture and economy between the MBA Amorite polity and the Iron Age Aramaean kingdom.This renewal will provide a short-term temporary position for the principal investigator that will allow the completion of the fieldwork and analyses planned for the first phase, but unavoidably postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The aims of this project remain to deepen our understanding of the MBA and Iron Age IIA 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. Further investigation of the Iron Age IIA stratum on the mound can clarify the nature of the site’s first resettlement after a long hiatus, how Bronze Age architectural traditions influenced the Iron Age builders, and how the evidence from archaeobotanical, faunal, and stable isotope analysis corresponds to the traditional narrative of conquest by Aramaean mobile pastoralists. Continued excavation and analyses of the MBA destruction level, including organic residue analysis and micromorphology, can tell us about the role of Zincirli in the political and economic networks of this period of nascent internationalism. The identification of continuities and changes between the MBA and Iron Age settlements will highlight key dynamics in the political economy of each period.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants