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 The Bronze and Iron Ages
marked the emergence and development of early state ordered civilizations
in the ancient Near East. Research has documented the introduction of
urban institutions, and the development of specialized craft industries
and extensive inter regional trade networks. To examine these developments
on a truly regional level, however, local cultural sequences must be
well documented, and a precise chronological framework in place; criteria
that are lacking for much of the ancient Near East. The Tayinat Archaeological
Project (TAP) seeks to address this problem for a pivotal area, by returning
to the cultural sequence first defined during the pioneering work of
the Braidwood led Chicago Expedition in the 1930s to the Amuq Plain
in southeastern Turkey. This research initiative will result in a more
thorough and refined cultural sequence, enhancing efforts to conduct
broader regional analyses of developments during this period of dramatic
social, economic and political change.
The Tayinat Archaeological Project’s primary aim is to assemble
archaeological data from the central settlement at Tell Ta’yinat of a
succession of prominent, historically-attested Bronze and Iron Age polities
for comparison with existing data sets from comparable contexts (e.g.
domestic, residential, administrative, or public) at rural village sites in
the region. This explicitly regional approach, still relatively rare in Near
Eastern Archaeology, is designed to facilitate multiple levels of analysis, and
to produce the multivariate data needed to engage in more systematic
investigations of the complex social, economic and political institutions
developed by the first urban communities to emerge in this part of the world.
 Tell Ta’yinat forms a large
low-lying mound located 45 kilometres west of Antakya (ancient Antioch)
in Southeastern Turkey. The Chicago excavations uncovered the remains
of several large palaces (called bit hilani), a temple (famously compared
with Solomon's temple), and numerous beautifully carved stone reliefs
and sculptures demonstrated that the site preserves a lengthy settlement
history that spans the Early Bronze (ca 3000 2000 BCE) and Iron Age
(ca. 1200 550 BCE) periods. In addition, the Expedition discovered numerous
inscriptions (in Luwian/Neo Hittite, Neo-Assyrian and Aramaic), which
helped to identify the site as ancient Kunulua, capital of the Neo Hittite/Aramaean
Kingdom of Patina/Unqi.
TAP was initiated in part to bring to publication the results of
these excavations, and to integrate them with the results of the renewed
investigations. Given the extensive monumental architecture preserved on the
site, conservation will also play a central role in this project.
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Last Modified: 22 February 2006
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