Another Piece of the Puzzle: The Iron Age Pottery from Mishrifeh in the Regional Ceramic Horizon of Central-Western Syria

ZANAZZO, Laura

Mishrifeh, ancient Qatna, is a site located in the mid-Orontes Valley in central-western Syria and was excavated by a Syro-Italian-German Expedition from 1999 to 2010. The Italian mission excavated various areas of the upper and lower town, exposing a stratigraphic sequence from the Early Bronze Age III to the Iron Age III. The Iron Age occupation stretches from the late Iron Age I (end of the 10th century BC) to the Iron Age III (7th century BC). The Iron Age II (9th – 8th centuries BC), was the most prosperous period and the variety of contexts (productive, domestic, funerary) found indicates the economic liveliness of the site in that moment. The paper will present part of the results of the new study of the Iron Age pottery from Mishrifeh; it will highlight how the site’s pottery was perfectly part of the central-western Syria ceramic tradition and even shared a few peculiar types with other centres of the area, such as Hama, Tell ‘Acharneh and Tell Nebi Mend.

Session 4. Crafting Identity and Clusters through Material Culture, Iconography and Texts ^[info]