K. Aslihan Yener

University of Chicago. Oriental Institute

The results of the Amuq Valley Regional Projects (AVRP) presented in this volume are the outcome of eight seasons of intensive fieldwork (1995-2002) representing the first phase of a long-range, broadly-based archaeological investigation in the Hatay region of southern Turkey. From its inception the research was conceived as a series of coordinated field projects. The detailed and expansive scope of the regional project originated from a number of theoretical and methodological considerations. Encouraged in part by its potential for providing the examination of interactions between technological developments, complex social institutions, natural resources, and the environment, the original Oriental Institute project (then called the Syro-Hittite Expedition) in the 1930s was formally reactivated in 1995. The strategy of taking a regional approach with a series of linked field projects established an unusual multi-institutional laboratory to research key themes that it is hoped will provide explanations about regional and interregional relationships. The initial stage of the research strategy focused on contextualising the settlements by survey, followed by site-specific investigations prior to the resumption of new excavations. The regional surveys targeted the Amuq Valley (the plain of Antioch, today Antakya) and the delta of the Orontes River (today Samandag). Artifactual and micro-scale studies were the focus of the third scale of investigations.

The Amuq Valley Regional Projects

Tara Ingman

This volume, Alalakh and its Neighbours, represents the results of the symposium held in honour of the fifteenth anniversary of renewed excavations at Tell Atchana (Alalakh). It brings together results of ongoing interdisciplinary research projects conducted by the large and diverse Tell Atchana team with reflections on Alalakh's connections to its wider social and geographical setting as discussed in the contributions of scholars working at nearby sites in Anatolia, Syria, and the Aegean. The papers here look both inward towards resolving lingering questions from Sir Leonard Woolley's original excavations at the site, as well as new questions that have come up in the renewed excavations concerning life at Alalakh, and outward toward the city's place in a regional context. Covering chronological issues, textual evidence, scientific analyses, and a wide range of material culture (including especially ceramics, metals, stone, and glass), this volume encompasses the recent results of work at this important second millennium BC site.

K. Aslihan Yener

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