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

拟议的项目旨在审查公元前13世纪至公元前10世纪期间影响土耳其上幼发拉底河地区的情况并将其联系起来。从历史的角度来看，这一时期在古代安纳托利亚的特点是赫梯帝国的垮台，然后是一个或多或少缺乏历史记录的较长时期，被称为黑暗时代。后者通常被贴上危机时代的标签，因为它具有政治和经济不稳定的普遍特征，导致深刻的社会变革。目前正在根据考古、文字和科学数据之间的协同作用所取得的结果重新考虑这一定义，这使得研究主要集中在了解这些现象所涉及的社会所特有的进化过程和相互作用的动态。将通过分析Arslantepe遗址(现在的土耳其马拉提亚)及其周围领土的最新和原始记录来实现研究目标。主要目的是全面了解赫梯帝国解体后上幼发拉底河地区社会的文化演变过程、转型和重组。该项目的目的是分析和理解在后赫梯时代继续使用和缓慢重新阐述赫梯-帝国传统的要素和方面。对Arslantepe新发掘的文物、建筑和样品进行系统分析，将能够确定物质文化的发展，并确定该遗址的相对和绝对年代学。通过跨学科方法的整合，还将检查过渡时期社会的各个方面，如行政和生产资料，以及主权和意识形态。将对遗址及其领地的文字和艺术史资料进行全面和批判性的重新评估，并与赛罗-安纳托利亚地区的类似案例研究进行比较，以支持数据的编制工作。对来自旧探索的雕塑进行全面的回顾，包括对刻在石块上的场景、主题和人物及其相关铭文进行深入的肖像学和文体分析，将有助于将研究指向更多的理论领域，更好地理解隐藏在这些权力表现形式背后的思想信息。因此，将描绘公元前2世纪最后几个世纪上幼发拉底河地区的全面图景，以便通过重新评估整套考古和艺术历史材料、绝对年代测定和历史来源，澄清该地区在最后的赫特人时期和后赫特人时期发生的演变过程。

The proposed project aims at examining and contextualizing the circumstances that have affected the Turkish Upper Euphrates region between the 13th and the 10th c. BCE. From a historical point of view, this period is characterized in ancient Anatolia by the fall of the Hittite Empire, and followed by a more or less prolonged phase lacking historical records, known as a Dark Age. The latter has been usually labeled as a crisis era, given its widespread traits of political and economic instability leading to profound social transformations. This definition is being currently reconsidered in the light of the results obtained through the synergy between archaeological, textual and scientific data, that have allowed the research to focus mostly on the understanding of the evolutionary processes and dynamics of interactions characterizing the societies involved in these phenomena. The research aims will be pursued by analysing the up-to-date and original records coming from the site of Arslantepe (modern Malatya, Turkey) and its surrounding territory. The main purpose is to build a comprehensive picture of the cultural evolution processes, transformation and re-organization of the Upper Euphrates societies following the break-down of the Hittite Empire. The project aims at analysing and understanding the continuous use and slow re-elaboration of elements and aspects of the Hittite-imperial tradition into the post-Hittite era. A systematic analysis of artifacts, architecture and samples brought to light by the new excavations at Arslantepe, will allow to determine the development of the material culture, and to fix the relative and absolute chronology of the site. Through the integration of interdisciplinary approaches, various facets of the society during this transitional period will be also inspected, such as administration and means of production, as well as sovereignty and ideology. The elaboration of the data will be supported with a comprehensive and critical re-evaluation of the textual and art history sources from the site and its territory and compared with similar cases studies from the Syro-Anatolian region. The complete review of the sculptures coming from the old explorations, including an in-depth iconographical and stylistic analysis of scenes, themes and figures engraved on the blocks, as well as their associated inscriptions, will contribute to point the research towards more theoretical fields, gaining a better understanding of the ideological messages concealed behind these forms of expression of power. A comprehensive picture of the Upper Euphrates region during the last centuries of the 2nd Millennium BCE will be thus depicted in order to clarify, through the re-evaluation of the whole set of archaeological and art history materials, absolute dating, as well as historical sources, the evolutionary processes which took place in the area during the final-Hittite and post-Hittite periods.