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

土耳其的Zincirli遗址，古老的Sam'al，长期以来一直是我们了解铁器时代近东城市规划和纪念性建筑的基础。图宾根大学的考察队最近在这个地点的工作提高了我们对铁器时代萨姆阿尔（约1000年）的城市化过程和社会景观的理解。公元前900-600年）。它还揭示了Zincirli最早的纪念性建筑“Hilani I”比以前认为的要早1000年。这座不朽的建筑，连同货物储存、行政管理和长途联系的证据，表明该遗址是青铜时代中期（MBA）的一个重要中心。公元前2000-1600年）。这些发现对铁器时代城市化的起源提出了新的问题，包括着名的比特希拉尼宫殿，以及该地区在安纳托利亚和叙利亚之间的长途贸易中的作用。他们还提供了新的机会，以调查MBA亚摩利政治和铁器时代阿拉米王国之间的城市文化和经济的长期连续性和变化的问题。这次续约将为首席研究员提供一个短期的临时职位，以便完成第一阶段计划的实地调查和分析，但由于COVID-19大流行而被迫推迟。该项目的目的仍然是通过对城堡丘的综合分析和有针对性的挖掘来加深我们对Zincirli的MBA和铁器时代IIA职业的理解，并通过比较空间组织，建筑，农牧经济和古生态学的证据来扩大我们对这两个时期的看法。对土墩上铁器时代IIA地层的进一步调查可以澄清该遗址在长时间中断后首次定居的性质，青铜时代的建筑传统如何影响铁器时代的建设者，以及考古植物学，动物群和稳定同位素分析的证据如何对应于阿拉米移动的牧民征服的传统叙述。对MBA破坏程度的持续挖掘和分析，包括有机残留物分析和微观形态学，可以告诉我们Zincirli在这一新生国际主义时期的政治和经济网络中的作用。MBA和铁器时代定居点之间的连续性和变化的识别将突出每个时期的政治经济的关键动态。

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.