Tell Ta'yinat is a low-lying ancient
tell on the east bank at the bend of the
Orontes River where it flows through the
Amuq valley, in the
Hatay province of southeastern
Turkey about 25 kilometers south east of
Antakya (ancient
Antioch), and lies near
Tell Atchana, the site of the ancient city of Alalakh. Tell Ta'yinat has been proposed as the site of Alalaḫu, inhabited in late 3rd millennium BC, mentioned in
Ebla's Palace G archive;[1] and in later times as Kinalua, the capital city of an
Iron AgeNeo-Hittite kingdom.[2] Among the findings are an Iron Age temple and several 1st millennium BC
cuneiformtablets.[3]
Identification
Archaeologist Timothy Harrison, the dig director for many years starting in 2004, supports the identification of the site with Kinalua, the capital of a
Neo-Hittite/
Aramean Iron Age kingdom.[2] In the period of Neo-Assyrian control it was the center of the Unqi province.[4]
Four seasons of archaeological excavations were conducted at the site by the University of Chicago's
Oriental Institute from 1935 to 1938, led by
Robert Braidwood.[6][7][8] From 1999 to 2002, the Oriental Institute returned to the site, as part of the Tayinat Archaeological Project, to conduct mapping and surveying and to examine the original excavations.[9][10]
New excavations at the site were begun by a team from the
University of Toronto in 2004, after a survey in 2003.[11][12] Continued excavations in the summer of 2005 exposed more of the Iron Age temple as well as part of one of the early Iron Age II bit-hilanis.[13] A significant amount of earlier Iron Age I material was also uncovered as well as small amounts of Early Bronze Age material.[14]
Excavations have continued now for a total of 13 seasons, through 2016.[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]
Findings have included a significant Iron Age temple, a number of 1st millennium BC cuneiform tablets, and initial structures from the earlier Bronze Age settlement.[3] The majority of the tablets were found in the inner sanctum of a temple (Building XVI) in the
sacred precinct. Most of the tablets are
Iqqur Ipuš (a
menologium), but they include a copy of the succession treaty of
Esarhaddon.[27][28]
A lecture by James Osborne, on "The Syro-Anatolian City States: A Neglected Iron Age Culture" addresses aspects of the site.[29]
Site layout
The site consists of an upper mound of about 20
hectares and a lower mound (now under floodplain cover, extending to the north (around 200 meters), east (around 100 meters), and southeast (slight extent). About 550 square meters of the upper mound (north and east sides) have been removed by modern bulldozer activities. In the Early Bronze Age the site was somewhat larger than the current upper mound at around 25 hectares, based on
coring and surface collection, with the remains measuring in at 3 to 6 meters in depth.[30]
Periods and findings
Archaeological excavation at the tell has indicated, in conjunction with ancient written sources, that the site was a major urban centre in two separate phases, during the Early Bronze Age and Early Iron Age.[31]
Early Bronze Age
Red-black burnished ware (
Khirbet Kerak ware) was found in Phases H and I, corresponding to the Early Dynastic period in Mesopotamia.[7] This type of pottery diminishes through the end of the last phase of EBA.[32] This pottery is believed to be influenced by the
Kura-Araxes culture, arriving into this area around 3000 BC.[33]
In the Amuq Plain, Tell Tayinat was the largest settlement in the EBIVB.[34][35] The structural remains from Tell Tayinat have been from the Early Bronze IVB period (Phase J). Among the finds are 17
anthropomorphic and
zoomorphic figurines in a style typical of the region at that time. Also found were two wheels, copper alloy metal fragments,
spindle whorls and
loom weights. Notable finds were a
cylinder seal and two
clay sealings.[30][36]
Iron Age
During the
Iron Age II, this is thought likely to be the site of ancient Kinalua, the capital of one of the
Neo-Hittite/
Arameancity-kingdoms of Walistin (Aramaic) or Palistin (neo-Hittite), of which a follow-up kingdom is the one known as
Pattin or Patina, the shortened form of Palistin (together c. 1000-738 BC).[38][39][40] Among the culturally diverse
Syro-Hittite states in the north Syrian river-plain the rulers of Kinalua continued to bear royal Hittite names in the 8th century BC. With the rise of the Neo-Assyrians in the 9th century BC, rulers of Patina (thought to be the same as Kinalua) began to pay tribute to them. Ashurnasirpal II reports receiving silver and gold, 100 talents of tin, essential for making bronze, and 100 talents of iron, 1000 oxen and 10,000 sheep, linen robes and decorated couches and beds of
boxwood, as well as "10 female singers, the king's brother's daughter with a rich dowry, a large female monkey and ducks" from the ruler Labarna.[41] At a later campaign the Assyrians forced its king Tutammu to submit according to an inscription of king
Tiglath-pileser III (745–727 BC). Other documents indicate Assyrian control lasted until the reign of
Ashurbanipal (669–631 BC).[42]
A worn stone with cuneiform writing from the top of the mound was turned into the local museum by a farmer who had used it as a paving stone. Combined with 4 fragments found during the 1930 excavation it turned out to be part of a stele of Sargon II (722–705 BC).[43]
The city had a citadel placed at a higher elevation, connected to the lower city by a monumental gate complex[39] (see
Site layout).
The Oriental Institute campaigns (1935–38) brought to light several large palaces in the style known as bit-hilani.[9] A wood sample from a bit-hilani burned in c. 675 BC was
carbon-dated to 2625 +/- 50 years
BP.[46] The 2005 excavations exposed part of one of the early Iron Age II bit-hilanis.[14]
King Suppiluliuma statue
In August 2012, a team from the University of Toronto announced they had uncovered the head and torso of a human figure, intact to just above its waist. The remains of the figure stand approximately 1.5 meters in height, suggesting a total height of 3.5 to 4 meters. The figure is bearded with eyes made of black and white stone. The figure's hair has been styled in an elaborate series of curls arranged in rows. The arms of the figure extend forward from the elbow. Each arm has two arm bracelets adorned with lion heads. The figure's left hand holds a shaft of wheat and its right hand holds a spear. The figure's chest is adorned with a crescent-shaped pectoral. A lengthy carved, raised relief inscription in
Hieroglyphic Luwian runs across the figure's back. The inscription records the accomplishments and campaigns of King Suppiluliuma. He is likely the same king who as part of a Syrian-Hittite coalition in 858 BC fought against the
Neo-Assyrian invasion of
Shalmaneser III.
Female statue
In August 2017, it was reported that a majestic female statue was discovered at the site, within the monumental gate complex leading to the upper citadel.[39] This may be an image of
Kubaba, divine mother of the gods of ancient Anatolia. Or it may be Kupapiyas, who was the wife – or possibly mother – of Taita, the dynastic founder of ancient Tayinat. But it's also possible that the statue represents the wife of King Suppiluliuma. Archaeologist Timothy Harrison raised the possibility that women played quite a prominent role in the political and religious lives of these early Iron Age communities.[39]
See also
Tell Judaidah, another archaeological mound in the Amuq valley
^Harrison, T. P., "Tell Ta‘yinat and the Kingdom of Unqi", In Daviau, P. M. M., Wevers, J. W. and Weigl, M. (eds) The World
of the Arameans II: Studies in History and Archaeology in Honour
of Paul-Eugène Dion: 115–32. Journal for the Study of the Old
Testament, Supplement 325. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001
^
abRobert J. Braidwood and Linda S. Braidwood (1960). Excavations in the Plain of Antioch I: The Earlier Assemblages Phases A-J, Oriental Institute Publications 61, University of Chicago Press.
Original URLArchived 2012-10-09 at the
Wayback Machine
^R. C. Haines (1970). Excavations in the Plain of Antioch, Vol. II: "The Structural Remains of the Later Phases: Chatal Hüyük, Tell Al-Judaidah, and Tell Tayinat", Oriental Institute Publication 95, University of Chicago Press.
ISBN0-226-62198-7[1]Archived 2013-11-15 at the
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^
abcBatiuk, S., Harrison, T E, and Pavlish, L. (2005).
"The Ta'yinat Survey, 1999-2002", in The Amuq Valley Regional Projects, Volume 1: Surveys in the Plain of Antioch and Orontes Delta, Turkey, 1995–2002, Oriental Institute Publications 131, pp. 171-192, Oriental Institute.
^Yener, K. Aslihan, et al. "The Amuq Valley Regional Project, 1995-1998", American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 104, no. 2, pp. 163–220, 2000.
^
abWelton, Lynn, et al. (2011). "Tell Tayinat in the late third millennium: recent investigations of the Tayinat Archaeological Project, 2008-2010",
Anatolica 37, pp. 147-185.
^[2] Stuart W. Manning et al., Beyond megadrought and collapse in the Northern Levant: The chronology of Tell Tayinat and two historical inflection episodes, around 4.2ka BP, and following 3.2ka BP, PLOS ONE, October 29, 2020
^Tell Tayinat - The Archaeological Settlements of Turkey - TAY Project
^Stephen Batiuk, Mitchell Rothman, "Early Transcaucasian Cultures and Their Neighbors", University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania: Expedition Magazine, vol. 49. no. 1, pp. 7-17, 2007.
Original URL,
Archived 2015-09-16 at the
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^Welton, Lynn, "EBIV ceramic production in the Orontes watershed: petrography from the Amuq and beyond",
Levant 52.1-2, pp. 215-236, 2020.
^Portal Lion, Tayinat Archaeological Project, The Department of Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto. Accessed 14 Feb 2024.
^Timothy P. Harrison, Neo-Hittites in the "Land of Palistin". Renewed Investigations at Tell Taʿyinat on the Plain of Antioch, Near Eastern Archaeology, vol. 72:4, pp. 174-189, 2009
^Before and After the Storm: Crisis Years in Anatolia and Syria between the Fall of the Hittite Empire and the Beginning of a New Era (ca. 1220-1000 BC), A Symposium in Memory of Itamar Singer, University of Pavia, 2012, pp. 7–8.
^James F. Osborne, "Communicating Power in the Bīt-Ḫilāni Palace", Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 368, pp. 29–66, 2012
^Timothy P. Harrison, and James F. Osborne, "Building XVI And Thr Neo-Assyrian Sacred Precinct At Tell Tayianat", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 64, pp. 125–43, 2012
^Lauinger, Jacob, and Stephen Batiuk, "A stele of Sargon II at Tell Tayinat", Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie 105.1-2, pp. 54-68, 2015
^The Sargon Stele, Tayinat Archaeological Project, The Department of Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto. Accessed 14 Feb 2024.
^Monson, John M. "The Temple of Solomon: Heart of Jerusalem",
C. The Ain Dara Temple: A New Parallel from Syria, pp. 10, 16. In "Zion, city of our God", Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing (1999), editors: Hess, Richard S. & Wenham, Gordon J.
ISBN978-0-8028-4426-2. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
^Libby, W. F., "Radiocarbon Dating", Science, vol. 133, no. 3453, pp. 621–29, 1961
Future reading
Langis-Barsetti, D. "Building Kunulua Block by Block: Exploring Archaeology through Minecraft", Near Eastern Archaeology 84(1), pp. 62–70, 2021
Batiuk, S., and Harrison, T. P. "The Metals Trade and Early Bronze Age Craft Production at Tell Tayinat", pp. 48-66, in Overturning Certainties in Near Eastern Archaeology: A Festschrift in Honor of K. Aslihan Yener, ed. C. Maner, M. T. Horowitz, and A. S. Gilbert. Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2017
Denel, E. and Harrison, T. P.
The Neo-Hittite Citadel Gate at Tayinat (Ancient Kunulua). Pp. 137-55 in The Archaeology of Anatolia: Recent Discoveries (2015-2016), Vol. 2. ed. S. Steadman and G. McMahon. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017