here.

Tell Tayinat &
The Amuq Valley
http://sites.utoronto.ca/tap/
Tayinat
Atchana
Tell Tayinat
& Tell Atchana
The Amuq Plain is known as the land of Unqi in the Iron Age and has
acted as a crossroads for the Anatolian, Syro-Mesopotamian, Levantine
and Mediterranean worlds for most of its occupied history.
Tell Tayinat was initially excavated by the Syro-Hittite Expedition of the
University of Chicago in the 1930’s. The neighbouring site of Tell
Atchana was excavated by the British Museum at about the same time
under Sir Leonard Woolley.
The West Central
Area at Tayinat
produced an
Acropolis with
palaces and a
temple dated to
the Iron II
“bit hilani”
palace
Temple II with the ‘Double Lion
Column Base’
The Toronto Expedition
Archaeological Work:
1999:Surface Survey
2000:Topographic Mapping
2004-2012: Excavations
Geomorphological & Remote
Sensing Work
2002-3: Magnetometry
Survey
2004–5: Coring Program
2005: Micro-topographic
Survey & Test Resistivity
Survey
2009: Inter-site Coring
Program
2010: Magnetometry &
Resistivity Surveys
Early Bronze IVb Levels During
this period, the site
is perhaps attested to in the Ebla
records as Alalahu.
Lifting the Veil on the ‘Dark Age’ of
the 12th-10th Centuries BCE in SE
Anatolia & Northwest Syria
 1175 BCE
Medinet Habu Reliefs refer
to the invasions by the
‘Peleset’
 11/10th C?
Taita, King of Palistin,
dedicates Reliefs in the
Aleppo Storm God Temple
 10th C.
‘Manana’ rules Palistin/
Walistin
 10/9thC.
Arsuz Inscription by
Suppiluliuma, son of
Manana, King of
Palistin/ Walistin, campaigns
against Adana and Hiyawa
(Cilicia)
Iron I Levels with Hittite, Aegean,
and Syrian influences. These
groups will eventually form a
new kingdom known as Palistin.
Hieroglyphic Luwian
Seal Impression
Palastin shares an
etymology with the
Peleset (Assyrian
Palast), identified as
one of the Sea Peoples
in the Medinet Habu
reliefs of Ramses III
The
th
9
and
th
8
•
870
Lubarna pays tribute to
Ashurnasipal II
•
858
1st Campaign of Shalmaneser III
against the Sam’al coalition, includes
Sapalulme of Patina
•
857
Shalmaneser receives tribute from
Qalparunda of Patinu/Unqi
(also in 853 and 848 BCE)
•
831
Lubarna (II?) is assassinated by
‘the people of the land’; Surri, a
commoner, usurps the throne;
Turtan Dayyan-Ashur suppresses
the revolt and replaces Surri with Sasi
Intsals a statue or stella of himself in
the Temple at Kinalua
•
805/4 Adad-narari III campaigns against the
Atarshumki Coalition
•
796
Zakkur of Hamath (Stela), and
border realignment with Atarshumki
of Arpad
Centuries BCE
Tayinat Insc. I. which references “Halparuntiyas
ruler of the 'Land of Walastin' Probably Qalparunda
the Patinean ruler who paid tribute to Shalmaneser
III in 857 and 853
Panel from the Balawat Gates showing
depictions of Unkians bearing tribute to
Shalmaneser III between 859-824 BCE
Neo-Hittite Kunulua
Excavations in front of the
Temple XVI revealed a Gate
Complex with an intact
buried
Portal Lion
Further excavations in the
Gate area revealed the top
half of a colossal human
sculpture with a
hieroglyphic inscription of
King Suppiluliuma II and a
column based carved with
relief decoration of a winged
bull and a sphinx.
King Suppiluliuma II
.... but he became my opponent
and from him I took away 8? lands
and I put the border for him at the xTAMI?
and I, Suppiluliuma [to] m[y]? father a
stele erected? ..[to the?] father [with?]
"virtue"?, fullness?, in front of ...
(6?) 100 cities, the city of x x, ...."
Hama Lion
Tayinat Lion
Tayinat
Statue
“Master of Animals”
from Carchemish
“Master of Animals”
from Tayinat
“Charioteer Orthostat
“Charioteer Orthostat
The discoveries
at Tayinat fit
well within the
canons of
Monumental Art
of the Great
Neo-Hittite
Zincirli Statue Kingdoms
Neo-Assyrian Tayinat
738 B.C, Tayinat is destroyed by the
Assyrians, and the region is annexed to form
the province of Kinalia and an Assyrian
governor is set up to control the city
Iron II-III Temple XVI:
An Assyrian Temple
that produced a large
collection of cultic
paraphernalia
Small finds from the
Temple Podium
T-1801: The Esarhaddon Succession Treaty:
Tablet Conservation Project
Tablet in situ
Pre-conservation
Post conservation
T-1801: The Esarhaddon Succession Treaty
T-1801: The Colophon
"Month Ayyaru (II), day 11+[x],
Eponym of Nabu-bel-usur,
The governor [šaknu] of DurSharrukku (672 BC).
The treaty which was concluded on
behalf of Assurbanipal,
The great crown prince of the house
of succession of Assyria
and (on behalf of) Shamash-shumaukin,
The crown prince of the house of
succession of Babylon."
Column 1, line 3:
TA* LU2.EN.NAM KUR ki-na-li-a
"(the treaty) with the governor
(bel pihati) of the land of Kinalia."
Fragments of Stone with Cuneiform writing
found in the excavations are now understood to
belong to a Stele of the Assyrian King Sargon II
Satellite Image of the Amuq
Plain showing shifts in the
Orontes R.. around Tell
Tayinat and Tell Atchana .
It has long been suggested
that the complementary
settlement history of the two
sites (Tayinat for the Early
Bronze, Atchana for the
Middle and Late Bronze,
followed by a return to
Tayinat in the Iron Age) can
be linked
to local
geomorphological Activity.
Coring work done around
Atchana reveals a relic
channel of the river which
wrapped around the NE side
of the settlement.
Coring work done around
Tayinat reveals a shallow
body of water and swamp
which wrapped around the
settlement during the Iron
Age.
This reconstruction fits well with Assyrian
depictions of a city in the ‘Land of Unqi’ which
was depicted on the Balawat gates; now seen in
the British Museum, as being surrounded by
water.
AMUQ VALLEY ARCHAEOPARK PROJECT
Tayinat Mudbrick
Conservation
Project: Temple XVI
As part of Tayinat’s contribution to the
development of the Amuq Valley Archaeological
Park, with financial backing by the Kaplan Fund,
we have begun conserving the Assyrian Temple
By creating mudbricks from earth
excavated from the site, we were able to
enclose the remains of the temple with a
mud brick skin, covered with geotextile
and earth, protecting the remains, and
at the same time providing visitors with
better visual sense of the archaeological
remains
Thank you!
..
.
˘
AMERICAN RESEARCH INSTITUTE IN TURKEY
Tayinat Archaeological Project Staff
http://sites.utoronto.ca/tap/
INSTAP
Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council of Canada
Conseil de Recherche en
Sciences Humaines du Canada
Canada