From Pottery to Chronology

The Middle Euphrates Region in Late Bronze Age Syria. Proceedings of the International Workshop in Mainz (Germany), May 5-7, 2012

edited by Adelheid Otto with contributions by Felix Blocher, Annie Caubet, Costanza Coppini, Berthold Einwag, Thomas L. McClellan, Adelheid Otto, Anne Porter, Ferhan Sakal, Glenn M. Schwarz and Peter Werner

Book cover: From Pottery to Chronology

Extent: 232 pages

Publisher: PeWe-Verlag

Subjects: Ancient Near East

Series: Munchener Abhandlungen zum Alten Orient

Series volume number: 1

Language: English

PDF (Published)

(December 2018)

ISBN: 9783689850326

Price: $55.00

This volume is the result of an international workshop. The need for the workshop was felt by the excavators of the mentioned sites, because a considerable number of LBA sites has been investigated in the Upper Euphrates area by now, but the relative and absolute chronology of most sites is still a matter of debate. The excavators and pottery specialists of the relevant sites were for the first time brought together. Each team was asked to present its stratified ceramic material and to explain their methods of dating. It was hoped that the date of the relevant levels and of the various destructions would become evident, when the reliability of the dating of the ‘Tablet Building’ at Hadidi to the 15th century was questioned and when each mission laid open its own dating methods, thereby avoiding the circularity of assumptions that had hitherto prevailed. This was not only achieved, but it was also able to establish new chronological anchor points for the Upper Euphrates valley.


This volume is the result of an “International Workshop on the Chronology of the Late Bronze Age (15th-13th Century BC) in Northern Syria (Upper Syrian Euphrates Area): Emar, Tall al-Qitar, Tall Munbaqa, Umm el-Marra and Tall Bazi”. It took place on May 5-7, 2012 at the Johannes Gutenberg-Universitat Mainz. The need for the workshop was felt by the excavators of the mentioned sites, because a considerable number of LBA sites has been investigated in the Upper Euphrates area by now, but the relative and absolute chronology of most sites is still a matter of debate. The workshop in Mainz tried to tackle the problem of the dating of the Late Bronze Age of the Upper Syrian Euphrates region with the most simple and obvious method. The excavators and pottery specialists of the relevant sites were for the first time brought together. Each team was asked to present its stratified ceramic material and to explain their methods of dating: had the pottery sequence been dated by parallel with another settlement? If so, with which settlement? Or had the stratified material been dated by internal criteria, by written documents or by other well datable objects such as seals, tools and weapons, imported pottery or others? Or had it been dated by radiocarbon or other scientific analyses? The defined aim, which was circulated among the participants in advance, was “By putting together and by comparing the relevant stratified material, it should be possible to discern the consistencies and differences within the material and the reasons for them.” It was hoped that the date of the relevant levels and of the various destructions would become evident, when the reliability of the dating of the ‘Tablet Building’ at Hadidi to the 15th century was questioned and when each mission laid open its own dating methods, thereby avoiding the circularity of assumptions that had hitherto prevailed. This was not only achieved, but it was also able to establish new chronological anchor points for the Upper Euphrates valley.

  • Contributions by Felix Blocher
  • Contributions by Annie Caubet
  • Contributions by Costanza Coppini
  • Contributions by Berthold Einwag
  • Contributions by Thomas L. McClellan
  • Contributions by Adelheid Otto
  • Contributions by Anne Porter
  • Contributions by Ferhan Sakal
  • Contributions by Glenn M. Schwarz
  • Contributions by Peter Werner
  • Edited by Adelheid Otto