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Alalakh
Encyclopedia
Alalakh is the name of an ancient city-state near modern Antakya
in the Amuq River valley of Turkey
's Hatay Province
.
Now represented by an extensive mound, the name of the modern archaeological site is Tell
Atchana.
s during the Middle Bronze Age
in the 2nd millennium BC
. The first palace was built c. 2000 BC
, contemporary with the Third Dynasty of Ur
.
The written history of the site may begin under the name Alakhtum, with tablets from Mari
in the 18th century BC, when the city was part of the kingdom of Yamhad
(modern Aleppo
). A dossier of tablets records that King Sumu-epeh sold the territory of Alakhtum to his son-in-law Zimri-Lim, king of Mari, retaining for himself overlordship. After the fall of Mari in 1765 BC, Alalakh seems to have come once again under the authority of Yamhad. King Abban of Aleppo bestowed it upon his brother Yarim-Lim, to replace the city
of Irridi, which Abban destroyed after it revolted against Yarim-Lim. A dynasty of Yarim-Lin's descendents was founded, under the hegemony of Aleppo, that lasted to the 16th century (according to the short chronology) at which time Alalakh was destroyed, most likely by Hittite king
Hattusili I
, in the second year of his campaigns.
After a hiatus of less than a century, written records
for Alalakh resume. At this time, it was again the seat of a local dynasty. Most of the information about the founding of this dynasty comes from a statue inscribed with what seems to be an autobiography of the dynasty's founding king.
According to his inscription, in the 15th century, Idrimi
, son of the king of Yamhad, may have fled his city for Emar
, traveled to Alalakh, gained control of the city, and been recognized as a vassal by Barattarna. The inscription records Idrimi's vicissitudes: after his family had been forced to flee to Emar, he left them and joined the "Hapiru people
" in "Ammija in the land of Canaan
", where the Hapiru recognized him as the "son of their overlord" and "gathered around him"; after living among them for seven years, he led his Habiru warriors in a successful attack by sea on Alalakh, where he became king.
However, according to the site report, this statue was discovered in a level of occupation dating several centuries after the time that Idrimi lived, and there has been much scholarly debate as to its historicity. Nonetheless, archeologically dated tablets tell us that Niqmepuh
was contemporaneous with the Mitanni king Saushtatar, which would seem to support the statue's claim that Idrimi was contemporaneous with Barattarna, Saushtatar's predecessor.
The socio-economic history of Alalakh during the reign of Idrimi's son and grandson, Niqmepuh and Ilim-ilimma is well documented by tablets excavated from the site. Idrimi himself appears only rarely in these tablets.
In the mid-14th century, the Hittite Suppiluliuma I
defeated king Tushratta
of Mitanni
and assumed control of northern Syria, including Alalakh, which he incorporated into the Hittite Empire. A tablet records his grant of much of Mukish's land (that is, Alalakh's) to Ugarit
after the king of Ugarit alerted the Hittite king to a revolt by the kingdoms of Mukish, Nuhassa
, and Niye
. Alalakh was probably destroyed by the Sea People in the 12th century, as were many other cities of coastal Anatolia and the Levant
. The site was never reoccupied, the port of Al Mina
taking its place during the Iron Age
.
in the years 1937-1939 and 1946–1949, during which palaces, temples, private houses and fortification walls were discovered, in 17 archaeological levels reaching from late Early Bronze Age (Level XVII, ca. 2200—2000 BC to Late Bronze Age (Level 0, 13th century BC).
After several years' surveys, the University of Chicago
team had its first full season of excavation in 2003 directed by Aslihan Yener. In 2004, the team had a short excavation and study season in order to process finds.
In 2006 the project changed sponsorship and resumed excavations directed by Aslihan Yener under the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Mustafa Kemal University
in Antakya.
Excavations at Alalakh have produced a body of written material that demands comparisons to that from Mari and Ugarit. About five hundred cuneiform tablets were retrieved at Level VII, (Middle Bronze Age) and Level IV (Late Bronze Age). The inscribed statue of Idrimi, a king of Alalakh ca. the early 15th century BC, has given a unique autobiography of Idrimi's youth, his rise to power, and his military and other successes (now in the British Museum
). Akkadian
texts from Alalakh include a few word lists, astrological omens and conjurations, but primarily consist of juridical tablets, which record the ruling family's control over land and the income that followed, and administrative documents, which record the flow of commodities in and out of the palace.
Antakya
Antakya is the seat of the Hatay Province in southern Turkey, near the border with Syria. The mayor is Lütfü Savaş.Known as Antioch in ancient times, the city has historical significance for Christianity, as it was the place where the followers of Jesus Christ were called Christians for the first...
in the Amuq River valley of Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
's Hatay Province
Hatay Province
Hatay Province is a province in southern Turkey, on the Mediterranean coast. It is bordered by Syria to the south and east and the Turkish provinces of Adana and Osmaniye to the north. The province is part of Çukurova, a geographical, economical and cultural region that covers the provinces of...
.
Now represented by an extensive mound, the name of the modern archaeological site is Tell
Tell
A tell or tel, is a type of archaeological mound created by human occupation and abandonment of a geographical site over many centuries. A classic tell looks like a low, truncated cone with a flat top and sloping sides.-Archaeology:A tell is a hill created by different civilizations living and...
Atchana.
History
Alalakh was founded by the AmoriteAmorite
Amorite refers to an ancient Semitic people who occupied large parts of Mesopotamia from the 21st Century BC...
s during the Middle Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
in the 2nd millennium BC
2nd millennium BC
The 2nd millennium BC marks the transition from the Middle to the Late Bronze Age.Its first half is dominated by the Middle Kingdom of Egypt and Babylonia. The alphabet develops. Indo-Iranian migration onto the Iranian plateau and onto the Indian subcontinent propagates the use of the chariot...
. The first palace was built c. 2000 BC
20th century BC
The 20th century BC is a century which lasted from the year 2000 BC to 1901 BC.-Events:* 2000 BC: Arrival of the ancestors of the Latins in Italy.* 2000 BC: Town of Mantua was presumably founded.* 2000 BC: Stonehenge is believed to have been completed....
, contemporary with the Third Dynasty of Ur
Ur
Ur was an important city-state in ancient Sumer located at the site of modern Tell el-Muqayyar in Iraq's Dhi Qar Governorate...
.
The written history of the site may begin under the name Alakhtum, with tablets from Mari
Mari, Syria
Mari was an ancient Sumerian and Amorite city, located 11 kilometers north-west of the modern town of Abu Kamal on the western bank of Euphrates river, some 120 km southeast of Deir ez-Zor, Syria...
in the 18th century BC, when the city was part of the kingdom of Yamhad
Yamhad
Yamhad was an ancient Amorite kingdom centered at Halab . A substantial Hurrian population also settled in the kingdom, and the Hurrian culture influenced the area. The kingdom was powerful during the Middle Bronze Age, ca. 1800-1600 BC. Its biggest rival was Qatna further south...
(modern Aleppo
Aleppo
Aleppo is the largest city in Syria and the capital of Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Syrian governorate. With an official population of 2,301,570 , expanding to over 2.5 million in the metropolitan area, it is also one of the largest cities in the Levant...
). A dossier of tablets records that King Sumu-epeh sold the territory of Alakhtum to his son-in-law Zimri-Lim, king of Mari, retaining for himself overlordship. After the fall of Mari in 1765 BC, Alalakh seems to have come once again under the authority of Yamhad. King Abban of Aleppo bestowed it upon his brother Yarim-Lim, to replace the city
of Irridi, which Abban destroyed after it revolted against Yarim-Lim. A dynasty of Yarim-Lin's descendents was founded, under the hegemony of Aleppo, that lasted to the 16th century (according to the short chronology) at which time Alalakh was destroyed, most likely by Hittite king
Hittites
The Hittites were a Bronze Age people of Anatolia.They established a kingdom centered at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia c. the 18th century BC. The Hittite empire reached its height c...
Hattusili I
Hattusili I
Hattusili I was a king of the Hittite Old Kingdom. He reigned ca. 1586–1556 BC .He used the title of Labarna at the beginning of his reign...
, in the second year of his campaigns.
After a hiatus of less than a century, written records
Text corpus
In linguistics, a corpus or text corpus is a large and structured set of texts...
for Alalakh resume. At this time, it was again the seat of a local dynasty. Most of the information about the founding of this dynasty comes from a statue inscribed with what seems to be an autobiography of the dynasty's founding king.
According to his inscription, in the 15th century, Idrimi
Idrimi
Idrimi was the king of Alalakh in the 15th century BC.Idrimi was a Hurrianised Semitic son of the king of Aleppo who had been deposed by the new regional master, Barattarna, king of the Mitanni. Nevertheless he succeeded in regaining his seat and was recognized as a vassal by Barattarna. Idrimi...
, son of the king of Yamhad, may have fled his city for Emar
Emar
Emar was an ancient Amorite city on the great bend in the mid-Euphrates in northeastern Syria, now on the shoreline of the man-made Lake Assad. It has been the source of many cuneiform tablets, making it rank with Ugarit, Mari and Ebla among the most important archeological sites of Syria...
, traveled to Alalakh, gained control of the city, and been recognized as a vassal by Barattarna. The inscription records Idrimi's vicissitudes: after his family had been forced to flee to Emar, he left them and joined the "Hapiru people
Habiru
Habiru or Apiru or ˁpr.w was the name given by various Sumerian, Egyptian, Akkadian, Hittite, Mitanni, and Ugaritic sources to a group of people living as nomadic invaders in areas of the Fertile Crescent from Northeastern Mesopotamia and Iran to the borders of Egypt in Canaan...
" in "Ammija in the land of Canaan
Canaan
Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...
", where the Hapiru recognized him as the "son of their overlord" and "gathered around him"; after living among them for seven years, he led his Habiru warriors in a successful attack by sea on Alalakh, where he became king.
However, according to the site report, this statue was discovered in a level of occupation dating several centuries after the time that Idrimi lived, and there has been much scholarly debate as to its historicity. Nonetheless, archeologically dated tablets tell us that Niqmepuh
Niqmepa, King of Alalakh
Niqmepa, son of Idrimi, was King of Alalakh in the first half of 15th century BC.-Contemporary documents:Evidence for the reign of King Niqmepa is based on clay cuneiform tablets excavated at Tell Atchana by Charles Leonard Woolley....
was contemporaneous with the Mitanni king Saushtatar, which would seem to support the statue's claim that Idrimi was contemporaneous with Barattarna, Saushtatar's predecessor.
The socio-economic history of Alalakh during the reign of Idrimi's son and grandson, Niqmepuh and Ilim-ilimma is well documented by tablets excavated from the site. Idrimi himself appears only rarely in these tablets.
In the mid-14th century, the Hittite Suppiluliuma I
Suppiluliuma I
Suppiluliuma I was king of the Hittites . He achieved fame as a great warrior and statesman, successfully challenging the then-dominant Egyptian empire for control of the lands between the Mediterranean and the Euphrates....
defeated king Tushratta
Tushratta
Tushratta was a king of Mitanni at the end of the reign of Amenhotep III and throughout the reign of Akhenaten -- approximately the late 14th century BC. He was the son of Shuttarna II...
of Mitanni
Mitanni
Mitanni or Hanigalbat was a loosely organized Hurrian-speaking state in northern Syria and south-east Anatolia from ca. 1500 BC–1300 BC...
and assumed control of northern Syria, including Alalakh, which he incorporated into the Hittite Empire. A tablet records his grant of much of Mukish's land (that is, Alalakh's) to Ugarit
Ugarit
Ugarit was an ancient port city in the eastern Mediterranean at the Ras Shamra headland near Latakia, Syria. It is located near Minet el-Beida in northern Syria. It is some seven miles north of Laodicea ad Mare and approximately fifty miles east of Cyprus...
after the king of Ugarit alerted the Hittite king to a revolt by the kingdoms of Mukish, Nuhassa
Nuhašše
Nuhašše, also Nuhašša, was a territory in the Syrian region mentioned in various Middle Eastern documents as between Mari on the Euphrates and Hammath. The 1350 BC Amarna letters correspondence refers to Nuhašše in 11 tablet-letters written in Akkadian cuneiform.The region was generally south of...
, and Niye
Niya (kingdom)
Niya, Niye, and also Niy of Thutmose I's Ancient Egypt, also Nii of the Amarna letters, and Nihe, etc. was a kingdom in Syria, or northern Syria....
. Alalakh was probably destroyed by the Sea People in the 12th century, as were many other cities of coastal Anatolia and the Levant
Levant
The Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...
. The site was never reoccupied, the port of Al Mina
Al Mina
Al-Mina is the modern name given by Leonard Woolley to an ancient trading post on the Mediterranean coast of northern Syria, in the estuary of the Orontes, near present-day Samandag in Turkey's province of Hatay....
taking its place during the Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
.
Archaeology
Tell Atchana was excavated by the British archaeologist Sir Leonard WoolleyLeonard Woolley
Sir Charles Leonard Woolley was a British archaeologist best known for his excavations at Ur in Mesopotamia...
in the years 1937-1939 and 1946–1949, during which palaces, temples, private houses and fortification walls were discovered, in 17 archaeological levels reaching from late Early Bronze Age (Level XVII, ca. 2200—2000 BC to Late Bronze Age (Level 0, 13th century BC).
After several years' surveys, the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
team had its first full season of excavation in 2003 directed by Aslihan Yener. In 2004, the team had a short excavation and study season in order to process finds.
In 2006 the project changed sponsorship and resumed excavations directed by Aslihan Yener under the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Mustafa Kemal University
Mustafa Kemal University
Mustafa Kemal University , abbreviaed as MKU, is a public university established 1992 at Antakya, Hatay Province in southern Turkey. It is named after the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk....
in Antakya.
Excavations at Alalakh have produced a body of written material that demands comparisons to that from Mari and Ugarit. About five hundred cuneiform tablets were retrieved at Level VII, (Middle Bronze Age) and Level IV (Late Bronze Age). The inscribed statue of Idrimi, a king of Alalakh ca. the early 15th century BC, has given a unique autobiography of Idrimi's youth, his rise to power, and his military and other successes (now in the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
). Akkadian
Akkadian language
Akkadian is an extinct Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the cuneiform writing system derived ultimately from ancient Sumerian, an unrelated language isolate...
texts from Alalakh include a few word lists, astrological omens and conjurations, but primarily consist of juridical tablets, which record the ruling family's control over land and the income that followed, and administrative documents, which record the flow of commodities in and out of the palace.
External links
- official web site of the Alalakh Excavations.
- Alalakh Notice and a basic bibliography.
- Stone guardian lions of Alalakh
- S. Riehl, "Late Bronze Age Tell Atchana" Archaeobotany at Tell Atchana (Tübingen University)