yener

A VIEW FROM THE AMUQ IN SOUTH-CENTRAL TURKEY:SOCIETIES IN TRANSFORMATION IN THE SECOND

MILLENNIUM BC

Introduction

From many perspectives, this conference is the right time to re-examine the relationshipsbetween the Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean. Since my task is to comment on viabledirections for future research, several points are highlighted here. It was very fortunate to haveHelene Kantor’s own copy of The Aegean and the Orient in the Second Millennium B.C. withcopious notes written in the margins after its publication. That she gave a great deal ofthought to East-West affinities in the Amuq region of south-central Turkey was immediatelyevident. The Amuq valley projects have been duly reactivated,1 and are thus relevant to thisdiscussion. A number of other recent developments in archaeology have also elucidated thenature of the relationships she described. These include excavations in hitherto less studiedregions, the coastal settlements of Anatolia which have begun to yield important secondmillennium BC information,2 and new analytical techniques that have increased the precisionof measurements.

______________________1 K.A. YENER, T. WILKINSON, S. BRANTING, E. FRIEDMAN, J. LYON, and C. REICHEL, “The 1995

Oriental Institute Amuq Regional Projects,” Anatolica 22 (1996) 49-84; K.A. YENER and T. J. WILKINSON,“The Oriental Institute Amuq Valley Projects, 1995,” The Oriental Institute News and Notes 148 (1996) 1-6;Idem, “Amuq Valley Projects,” The Oriental Institute 1995-1996 Annual Report (1996) 11-21; Idem, “1995Chicago Oriental Institute Hatay Amik Ovas Bölge Projeleri (The Oriental Institute Amuq RegionalProject, 1995),” Arastırma Sonuçları Toplantısı XIV (1997) 413-31; Idem, “1996 Chicago Oriental InstituteHatay Amik Ovası Bölge Projeleri (The Oriental Institute Amuq Regional Project, 1996),” ArastırmaSonuçları Toplantısı XV (in press); Idem, “The Oriental Institute Amuq Valley Projects, 1996,” The OrientalInstitute News and Notes (in press); Idem, “Amuq Valley Projects,” The Oriental Institute 1996-1997 AnnualReport (1997) 11-21.

2 Kinet Höyük, Iskenderun: M-H. GATES, “1992 Excavations at Kinet Höyük (Dörtyol/Hatay),” Kazı SonuçlarToplantısı XV (1994) 193-200; I. ÖZGEN and M-H. GATES, “Report on the Bilkent UniversityArchaeological Survey in Cilicia and the Northern Hatay: August 1991,” Arastırma Sonuçları Toplantısı X(1993) 387-93; Limantepe, Baklatepe-Izmir: H. ERKANAL and T. ÖZKAN, “1995 Bakla Tepe Kazıları,” KazıSonuçlar Toplantısı XVIII (1997) 261-80; Panaztepe-Izmir: A. ERKANAL, “Klazomenai/Liman TepeKazılarında ele Geçen Kil Çapalar - Tonanker von Klazomenai/Liman Tepe,” Anadolu Arastırmaları -Jahrbuch für Kleinasiatische Forschung (In Memoriam Prof. Dr. U. Bahadır Alkım) (1986) 183-92; Idem,“Panaztepe Kazısının 1985 Yılı Sonuçları,” Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı 8/I (1986) 253-61; Idem, “PanaztepeKazısının Tarihsel Açıdan Degerlendirilmesi,” in X. Türk Tarih Kongresi (Ankara, 22-26 Eylül 1986) (1986)139-46; Idem, “Panaztepe Kazıları 1986 Yılı Sonuçları,” Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı IX/I (1988) 345-50; Idem,“1990 Panaztepe Kazısı Sonuçları,” Kazısı Sonuçları Toplantısı XIII/I (1992) 447-55; Idem, “1994 PanaztepeKazıları Sonuçları,” Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı XVII (1996) 329-35; Idem, “1995 Panaztepe Kazıları Sonuçları,”Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı XVIII (1997) 281-90; Y.E. ERSOY, “Finds from Menemen/Panaztepe in the ManisaMuseum,” BSA 83 (1988) 55-82; B. JAEGER and R. KRAUSS, “Zwei Skarabäen aus der mykenischenFundstelle Panaztepe,” MDOG 112 (1990) 153-56; Kilise Tepe-Antalya: N. POSTGATE, “Excavations atKilise Tepe,” Anatolian Archaeology Research Reports 1 (1995) 78; Idem, “Kilise Tepe,” Anatolian ArchaeologyResearch Reports 2 (1996) 10-11; Sirkeli-Adana: B. HROUDA, “Vorläufiger Bericht über dieAusgrabungsergebnisse auf dem Sirkelihöyük Südtürkei von 1992-1995,” Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı XVIII(1997) 291-312; H. EHRINGHAUS, “Hethitisches Felsrelief der Grossreichszeit Entdeckt,” Antike Welt 26/1(1995) 66; Idem, “Ein neues hethitisches Felsrelief am Sirkeli Höyük in der Çukurova,” Antike Welt 26/2(1995) 118-19.

Changes in the scope of instrumental analysis and its relevant data include the recentefforts in calibrating radiocarbon dates with dendrochronological methods.3 In addition,increasing analytic data from SEM, EDX, neutron activation, ICP-mass spectrometry, and nowthe Synchrontron Radiation at Argonne (APS-Advanced Photon Source) are being integratedinto the growing databases for excavated ceramics, metals, and organic and inorganicmaterials.4 A new generation of archaeologists with a better understanding of statistics andother data handling methods have enhanced the interpretive aspects of this massive, andsometimes uneven outpouring of analytical data.5 Geoarchaeology, the use of satelliteimagery, GIS systems, and other remote sensing devices have also yielded tremendous resultsin understanding major historical and archaeological events such as large scale populationmovements, collapse or technological innovations.

In as much as these basic approaches represent directions for the future ofarchaeological methods, another impending concern for archaeology is the need formulti-scale theoretical frameworks. The diversity of research at different scales includes arange spanning broad regional/environmental studies to site specific investigations andultimately to isotopic levels with the instrumental analysis of artifacts. The fractionation alongspecialist lines within archaeological disciplines has made it almost impossible to define therelevance or impact of one level of research on the other. Efforts are now underway to developa methodology to investigate the linkages between multiple scales of archaeological research.6The dilemma of how each level of research informs the others needs resolution.

Ref lective of new potentials in instrumental techniques and theoretical approaches, theOriental Institute Amuq excavations may help elucidate the vehicle of transmission behind thestylistic and iconographic similarities between the Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean sowell documented by Helene Kantor in 1947. To that end, an historical context of theSyro-Anatolian-Palestinian corner of the eastern Mediterranean is brief ly described here inorder to better identify the dynamics in place into which stylistic similarities were entwined.Next, preliminary results of environmental research in the Amuq are summarized which havebearing on second millennium historical interaction. Mapping of long-term landscape historywithin a regional demographic, environmental and economic context will help place suchevents in a comparative framework in order to recognize significant population decline, or animmigration of people.

______________________3 S.W. MANNING, The Absolute Chronology of the Aegean Bronze Age: Archaeology, Radiocarbon, and History

(1995); P.I. KUNIHOLM, B. KROMER, S.W. MANNING, M. NEWTON, C.E. LATINI, and M.J. BRUCE,“Anatolian Tree Rings and the Absolute Chronology of the Eastern Mediterranean, 2220-718 B.C.,” Nature381 (1996) 780-83; C. RENFREW, “ Kings, Tree Rings and the Old World,” Nature 381 (1996) 733-34; M.H.WIENER and J.P. ALLEN, “Separate Lives: The Ahmose Tempest Stela and the Theran Eruption,” JNES 57(1998) 1-28.

4 For summaries of the different instrumental techniques see J. HENDERSON, Scientific Analysis inArchaeology (1989); S. BOWMAN (ed.), Science and the Past (1991); P.E. McGOVERN, “Science inArchaeology: A Review,” AJA 99 (1995) 79-142. The experimental APS promises to give trace elementcompositions to parts per billion with high precision x-rays; see G.S. KNAPP, M.A. BENO, and H. YOU,“Hard X-ray Synchrotron Radiation Applications in Materials Science,” Annual Review of Materials Science26 (1996) 693-725; M. HALLER and A. KNOCHEL, “X-ray f luorescence analysis using synchrotronradiation (SYXRF),” Journal of Trace and Microprobe Techniques 14 (1996) 461-88. Its non-destructive naturehas been immediately recognized as an advantage for archaeological purposes. See G. HARBOTTLE, B.M.GORDON, and K.W. JONES, “Use of Synchrotron Radiation in Archaeometry,” Nuclear Instruments andMethods in Physics Research B14 (1986) 116-22.

5 H. NEFF (ed.), Chemical Characterization of Ceramic Pastes in Archaeology (1992); R.L. BISHOP and F.W.LANGE, “Introduction,” in R.L. BISHOP and F.W. LANGE (eds.), The Ceramic Legacy of Anna O. Shepard(1991)1-8; R.L. BISHOP and V. CANOUTS, “Archaeometry,” in J.K. JOHNSON (ed.), Development ofSoutheastern Archaeology (1993) 160-83.

6 Workshop held at Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois, on August 23-24, 1997: “Shedding Lighton the Past: Synchrotron X-Rays and Archaeology. Science and Technology Center for ArchaeologyWorkshop.”

274 K. Aslihan YENER

The Rise of Late Bronze Age States

The rise of large territorial states and the increasing levels of socio-economic andpolitical complexity in the Late Bronze Age mark an important transformation in the NearEast. Hittite, Assyrian, Egyptian, Hurro-Mitanni, and Kassite Babylonian states arose,competed with one another and co-existed with the occasionally vacillating vassals.7Incorporating smaller and pre-existing regional states, diverse environmental zones, androutes of communication, these empires emerged as large geographical groupings. Aegeanrelated materials, perhaps ref lecting a population, but more likely a distribution of elitecommodities, enter into this contextual substratum and have been found on excavationsthroughout the region.8 Thus long-distance exchange and interregional interactions impactedon the changes which resulted within such large groups of diverse peoples and territories.

While the underpinnings of trade may be approached by means of socio-economicmodels, the value-added aspect of research in this period is the availability of textualdocumentation. These epigraphic documents provide real insight into exchange within theevolving Near Eastern imperial state systems. Extensive trade networks are highlighted byMiddle and Late Bronze Age texts, which enumerate exchanged commodities such asfoodstuffs, metals, both precious and utilitarian, textiles, and craft items. Numerous textsfrom the Assyrian trading colonies at Kültepe/Kanesh and Mari describe a MBA system ofcompeting and cooperating small states.9 The political systems appear to be a series ofinterlocking territories supplying each other and networking at the frontier borders. But bythe mid-second millennium BC, a different system of political organization, dominated bylarge geographic units is apparent. These larger structures are glued together by ideologicalbonds and exchange and are based on familial organization. Two such examples are theHittite and Mitanni Empires.

The Hittite and Mitanni states appear to have allowed the f low of commoditiesthroughout their territories from the Eastern Mediterranean coast to northern Mesopotamiaand Central Anatolia. Treaties and administrative texts written in Akkadian indicate that thestate was basically a loosely affiliated confederation of semi-independent vassals. Politicalunity was maintained while f lexible organizational structure facilitated the f low of goods andpeople. In addition, shared ethnic identities, prestige definitions, and status markers alsopromoted coherence and intensified interregional interaction. The Amuq region which waspart of both empires at various times may shed light on how these factors can be disentangled.

The Amuq project aims to test the role of exchange in Late Bronze Age states byinvestigating changes in these systems and how they effect local organization. By combiningexcavation, survey, and analysis, the results will complement and append the findings of prior

______________________7 H. KLENGEL, Syria 3000 to 300 B.C.: A Handbook of Political History (1992). Sometimes with less than

advantageous results to the region; note the war between the Hittites and Egypt ended by the Kadesh treaty.8 A. SHERRATT and S. SHERRATT, “From Luxuries to Commodities: The nature of Mediterranean Bronze

Age Trading Systems,” in Bronze Age Trade, 351-86; A.M. SNODGRASS, “Bronze Age Trade: A MinimalistPosition,” in Bronze Age Trade, 15-21; M-H. GATES, Alalakh Levels VI and V: A Chronological Reassessment.Syro-Mesopotamian Studies 4/2 (1981); Eadem, “Alalakh and Chronology Again,” in High, Middle or Low?,pt. I, 60-86; A. LEONARD, Jr., An Index to the Late Bronze Age Aegean Pottery from Syria-Palestine (1994); andSWDS.

9 M.T. LARSEN, The Old Assyrian City-State and its Colonies (1976); D. CHARPIN and F. JOANNÈS (eds.),Marchands, diplomates et empereurs. Études sur la civilisation mésopotamienne offertes à Paul Garelli (1991); L.MARFOE, “Cedar Forest to Silver Mountain: Social change and the Development of Long-Distance Tradein Early Near Eastern Societies,” in M. ROWLANDS, M.T. LARSEN, and K. KRISTIANSEN (eds.), Centreand Periphery in the Ancient World (1987) 25-35.

A VIEW FROM THE AMUQ IN SOUTH-CENTRAL TURKEY 275

excavations at Tell Atchana/Alalakh, Çatal Höyük, Tell Ta’yinat and Tell al-Judaidah, as wellas the Oriental Institute pathbreaking 1930s Syrian Expedition’s survey of the region.10

Although initial and enduring interest in the region has focused on problems of chronology,art history and the political landscape, the new project will enhance these by addressing moregeneral and synthetic issues of change, utilizing models and methods from political andeconomic geography, the history of science and the anthropology of technology.

The Amuq Region

The cultural dynamics defined here are encapsulated in the sequences for the Middleand Late Bronze Age Amuq region which are based on materials excavated from 1932 and1938 by the Oriental Institute’s Syrian Expedition at Tell Ta’yinat, Tell al-Judaidah, and ÇatalHöyük. The finds from Tell Atchana/Alalakh have so far provided the basis for the Middleand Late Bronze Age sequence since the later phases of the Amuq excavations are in theprocess of being published.11 The Amuq plain, located at 80 - 100 m above mean sea level, isframed by mountains on all sides except where rivers enter the plain. The Karasu enters theplain in the north, and the Nahr al-Afrin from the east. The Orontes (Nahr al-’Asi) takes thecombined f low of these rivers, now merely large drainage canals, and empties into theMediterranean Sea through a narrow gorge via Antakya (ancient Antioch) in the SW. Thisrich archaeological landscape also has high rainfall, at around 600 - 700 mm per annum,which, although sufficient for rain-fed cultivation, can be enhanced by irrigation. What setsthe Amuq apart from other agriculturally endowed regions is its location interfacing miningzones such as the Taurus silver/tin sources and the gold/copper mines in the Amanusmountains (Pl. XXIXa).12 The location of metals, minerals and forests, along with agriculturalpotential provides a unique combination of circumstances, which may have triggered tradeand exchange, factors long assumed to play a major role in the emergence of some complexsocieties.

Phases L and M from Çatal, Judaidah and Ta’yinat are comparable to the Middle andLate Bronze Age levels of Tell Atchana/Alalakh. Tell Atchana produced datable texts fromLevels VII and IV, and allowed the possibility of relating the settlement sequence in the regionto a stratigraphic chronology. The most striking feature of the Alalakh and Amuq Phase L andM ceramic assemblages is the amount of continuity from one period to the next, suggesting astrong native tradition which extends back even to the EBA.13 This continuity is seenprimarily in the ongoing use of the plain ware fabrics and shapes while painted wares

______________________10 R.J. BRAIDWOOD, Mounds in the Plain of Antioch: An Archaeological Survey (1937); R.J. BRAIDWOOD and

L.S. BRAIDWOOD, Excavations in the Plain of Antioch I: The Earlier Assemblages Phases A-J (1960); G.F.SWIFT, Jr., The Pottery of the Amuq Phases K to O and its Historical Relationships. Ph.D. Dissertation, Universityof Chicago (1958); A. PRUSS, Die Amuq Terrakotten. Untersuchungen zu den Terrakotta-Figuren des 2. und 1.Jahrtausends v. Chr. aus den Grabungen des Oriental Institute Chicago in der Amuq-Ebene. Ph.D. Dissertation,Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (1996); J-W. MEYER, Die eisenzeitlichen Stempelsiegel aus demAmuq-Gebiet. Habilitationsschrift, University of Saarlandes, Germany (1992); R.C. HAINES, Excavations inthe Plain of Antioch II: The Structural Remains of the Later Phases: Çatal Höyük, Tell al-Judaidah, and TellTa’yinat (1971); C.L. WOOLLEY, “Excavations at Atchana-Alalakh, 1939,” The Antiquaries Journal 28 (1948)1-19; Idem, A Forgotten Kingdom (1953); Idem, Alalakh. An Account of the Excavations at Tell Atchana in the Hatay,1937-1949 (1955); M.J. MELLINK, “Review of Alalakh. An Account of the Excavations at Tell Atchana in theHatay, 1937-1949,” AJA 61 (1957) 395-400.

11 See footnote 8 (supra); D.J. WISEMAN, The Alalakh Tablets (1953); T.L. McCLELLAN, “The Chronology andCeramic Assemblages of Alalakh,” in A. LEONARD, Jr. and B.B. WILLIAMS (eds.), Essays in AncientCivilization Presented to Helene J. Kantor (1989) 181-212. Sabuniye at the mouth of the Orontes river nearal-Mina also provided Aegean related wares; see WOOLLEY 1948 (supra n. 10).

12 K.A. YENER, “Swords, Armor, and Figurines: A Metalliferous View from the Central Taurus,” BiblicalArchaeologist 58 (1995) 41-47; K.A. YENER, E.V. SAYRE, E. JOEL, H. ÖZBAL, I.L. BARNES, AND R.H.BRILL, “Stable Lead Isotope Studies of Central Taurus Ore Sources and Related Artifacts from EasternMediterranean Chalcolithic and Bronze Age Sites,” Journal of Archaeological Science 18 (1991) 541-77.

13 M. HEINZ, Tell Atchana/Alalakh: Die Schichten VII-XVII (1992).


underwent significant changes. Other changes that appear to correspond to the beginning ofPhase M include the appearance of red-slipped and burnished wares of central Anatoliannature, and the increase in Aegean, Mediterranean coastal and Cypriot imported wares. Thusthe pattern of general ceramic continuity from MB II to LB II is given additional variety bythe amount and direction of imported and foreign inf luenced wares. Into this contextualsubstratum, ample interaction seaward is indicated by the parallels between theAmuq/Alalakh and the Cape Gelidonya and Uluburun-Kas shipwrecks.14 The distribution ofTell el-Yahudiya and Cypriot wares from Egypt, Cyprus and the Levantine coast north to RasShamra as well as the copper-tin and other preciosities by the early to mid-second millenniumBC suggest the existence of a developing or thriving exchange network in the easternMediterranean.

During this period of substantial imperial reciprocity, texts from Tell Atchana/Alalakhdating to the 18th-15th centuries BC amplify the changing political and economic situation ofthis settlement at the margins of the Mitanni and later Hittite states. A comparison of thetextual data from levels VII and IV suggests significant changes in both intra-and interregionalorganization.15 The occurrence of toponyms in both sets of documents ref lect varyingsettlement systems and long-distance interaction foci. For example, of the 58 towns mentionedin level VII texts, only 18 still exist among the 222 different localities mentioned in level IVtexts. Discontinuous settlement between the Middle and Late Bronze Ages is also suggestedby the 1995, 1996, and 1997 archaeological and environmental surveys. Furthermore,Woolley and Braidwood both suggested that Lake Antioch developed in later periods, whichwould have impacted north-south traffic on the plain. After appending basic site dimensionsand collected surface pottery on to the original Braidwood survey, environmental informationpotentially revealed how the constant f lux of marshes, lakes and rivers effected changes incommunication and shifts in the locus of the settlements. Ultimately this data should enablethe geography of settlement for the period of the Alalakh tablets to be reconstructed.16

The preliminary geoarchaeological survey results (Pl. XXX)17 indicate that the Amuqplain is not as featureless as it appears. Natural processes and human activities bothconstrained but also gave certain advantages for settlement over the past 10,000 years, whichthen profoundly effected the landscape. Alluvial fans, river levees and eroded terrain, as wellas intervening f lood basins, f lesh out the history of Lake Antioch, which is now shown to havedeveloped since the second millennium BC. Some 3-3.5 m sedimentation in the Orontesf lood plain accumulated over the past 6000 years, and up to 5 m in 7,500 years within the lakebasin.18

______________________14 G.F. BASS, Cape Gelidonya: A Bronze Age Shipwreck (1967); Idem, “Evidence of Trade from Bronze Age

Shipwrecks,” in Bronze Age Trade, 69-82; G.F. BASS, C. PULAK, D. COLLON, and J. WEINSTEIN, “TheBronze Age Shipwreck at Ulu Burun: 1986 Campaign,” AJA 93 (1989) 1-29. For discussions on ox-hideingots, sourcing with lead isotope analyses see papers in Archaeometry and also E.V. SAYRE, K.A. YENER,E.C. JOEL and I.L. BARNES, “Statistical Evaluation of the Presently Accumulated Lead Isotope Data fromAnatolia and Surrounding Regions,” Archaeometry 34 (1992) 73-105; Idem, “Comments on ‘Oxhide Ingots,Recycling and the Mediterranean Metals Trade,’” JMA 8.1 (1995) 45-53; Bronze Age Trade, passim.

15 B. MAGNESS-GARDINER, “Urban-Rural Relations in Bronze Age Syria: Evidence from Alalah Level VIIPalace Archives,” in G.M. SCHWARTZ and S.E. FALCONER (eds.), Archaeological Views from the Countryside.Village Communities in Early Complex Societies (1994) 37-47; WISEMAN (supra n. 11).

16 In 1995, sites of the second millennium BC were examined by Jerry Lyon, and in 1996 by Jan Verstraete todetermine which were contemporaneous to excavated levels IV and VII at Alalakh (Amuq phase M).

17 T.J. WILKINSON, “The History of the Lake of Antioch: A Preliminary Note,” in R. Averbeck and G.D.Young (eds.), Crossing Boundaries and Linking Horizons: Studies in Honor of Michael Astour (in press); Idem,“Holocene Valley Fills of Southern Turkey and Northwestern Syria. Recent GeoarchaeologicalContributions,” in Proceedings of the International Quaternary Conference Meeting, Ankara 1997. QuaternaryScience Reviews (in press). Some preliminary insights into the evolution of the landscape was provided byfield mapping using a GPS system and were later plotted on to French Levant series (1936) 1:50,000 maps.

18 Groningen University, Netherlands, produced 4 cores of 15 m maximum depth, extending back toapproximately 26,000 BP through a sequence of lake sediments.


Several sites were discovered in the drained basin of Lake Antioch in the 1995 survey(Pl. XXIXb). They are located 1.5 to 2 km to the north of the lake margin as it existed in the1930s, when they must have been covered by some 2 m of water. Occupation levels at one sitewere established from the Early Bronze Age (i.e. early third millennium BC) through MiddleBronze Age, Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods, the final occupation being ofapproximate early Islamic date. A mosaic of soils surrounded these sites which consisted ofdrier soils appropriate for cereals and other crops to waterlogged marshy soils replete withaquatic resources. This was demonstrated at Kara Tepe (Site AS86), which Braidwooddescribed as being “in the deepest part of the marsh.” Sections exposed by recent bulldozingshowed that walls of the mid-second millennium BC were made of two types of mud brick,both of which must have been dug from soils in the immediate vicinity. A red-brown oxidizedvariety had been dug from freely drained soils, and another type, a gray clay, containing smallfreshwater snail shells, was dug from a much more waterlogged and marshy soil. The AmuqPlain has therefore been a marshy–and locally open-water–environment for much of the lastfew thousand years, surely of great advantage for settlement. This is certainly ref lected in theunusual concentration of sites, now numbering 203, which date from the Neolithic throughthe Turkish Republic. Future work by the team will attempt to refine such environmentaldescriptions.

The renewed Amuq efforts of the Oriental Institute will provide the basis for ourunderstanding of the cultural history in this unique environment bounded by resource-richmountain highlands. In future years I will join you in presenting information about this verycontentious area, Mukish/Unqi as the Amuq was called, where much attention was focused bygenerations of ruling Hittite, Hurrian/Mitannian, Assyrian and Egyptian dynasties, not tospeak of the enigmatic Aegean presence.

K. Aslihan YENER


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Pl. XXIXa Gold/copper mine, Kisecik-Antakya. Amanus Mountains. Photo: Aslihan Yener. Pl. XXIXb Reconstruction of Maximum level of the Lake of Antioch, assuming a level no higher than that of

site AS 181. Concentric circles indicate approximate sustaining areas calculated from the maximumsize of key sites AS 86 and AS 180. Photo: Tony Wilkinson.

Pl. XXX The Amuq Valley Regional Survey, 1995 and 1996. Photo: Tony Wilkinson.


Discussion following K.A. Yener’s paper:

A. Caubet: Thank you for bringing the paper. I’ve been dreaming of renewing work in this area. Oneof my favorite dreams would have been to find bone material, to find hippo bones from the area,so I suppose you have already started to find some? That is the ideal environment for all thehippo that provided the ivory for the Levant during the second millennium BC.

K.A. Yener: Yes, thank you very much. David Reese, of the Field Museum in Chicago, is part of ourteam and, as you know, he’s very, very interested in baby hippos and baby animals. We have, ofcourse, considered the possibility of hippos being in that environment, and we’ve been findingsome very enigmatic faunal material that had been dug up from the former basin of the AntiochLake, so I’m hoping David [Reese] will be able to identify them for us this next year.


yener

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