Alalakh
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Alalakh is the name of an ancient city and its associated city-state of the Amuq River valley, located in the Hatay region of southern Turkey near the city of Antakya (ancient Antioch), and now represented by an extensive city-mound known as Tell Atchana.
History
Alalakh was founded during the Bronze Age in the 4th millennium BC, as one of the first great cities of the Fertile Crescent. The first palace at Alalakh was built c. 2000 BC, contemporary with the Third Dynasty of Ur. It was the capital of the Mukish kingdom, a vassal to the kingdoms of Yamhad (today Aleppo) during the 18th century BC through to the 16th century BC, and to Mitanni during the 15th century BC through to the 14th century BC. Alalakh's commercial relations with Syria, Babylonia and Cyprus, documented in cuneiform tablets, was temporarily interrupted when it was sacked by the Hittite king Hattussili I; later it was sacked again, by Suppiluliuma I and incorporated into the Hittite Empire. In line with the other cities of the Levant, there is a gap in structures, writing or works of art at Alalakh between 1200 and 850 BC, the Dark Ages of the Ancient Near East.
Excavation
The remains of the city preserved by Tell Atchana were excavated by the British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley in the years 1935-1939 and 1946-1949, during which palaces, temples, private houses and fortification walls were discovered. They were briefly re-investigated by a University of Chicago team in 2000, before the launch of a major annual excavation effort by the same institution in 2002.
Excavations at Alalakh have produced a body of written material that is second in importance only to that from Ugarit. The inscribed statue of Idrimi, a king of Alalakh after c. 1500 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 word lists, astological omens and conjurations, as well as economic records that attest to intense trade with other cities, including Ugarit and the Hittite capital Hattusas involving grain, wine and olive oil.
External links
- Alalakh: A Late Bronze Age Capital In The Amuq Valley, Southern Turkey (http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/PROJ/AMU/NN_SPR01/NN_Spr01.html)
- Current conditions at the site (http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/PROJ/AMU/Atchana.html)
- Alalakh (http://web.tiscali.it/ranesorg/Alalah.htm)
- Stone guardian lions of Alalakh (http://www.varchive.org/schorr/alalakh.htm)