Articles by Mariacarmela Montesanto
Studia Eblaitica, 2020
The transition from the Late Bronze to the Iron Age in the eastern Mediterranean and the Near Eas... more The transition from the Late Bronze to the Iron Age in the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East is rec- ognised as a period of major social and historical significance. Despite being at the centre of these changes, the Late Bronze-Iron Age transition at Alalakh and in the ‘Amuq valley generally remains poorly under- stood in terms of chronology and local development. This paper presents the pottery assemblage coming from selected Late Bronze Age II and Iron Age I contexts retrieved from the new excavations at Alalakh. In particular, the paper aims at analysing the changes occurred in pottery typology and function during the transition from the Late Bronze to the Iron Ages.
West and East, Monografie 2, 2020
Recent excavations at the site of Tell Atchana, ancient Alalakh, have clarified the presence of I... more Recent excavations at the site of Tell Atchana, ancient Alalakh, have clarified the presence of Iron Age periods. Despite being at the centre of these changes, the Late Bronze-Iron Age transition at Alalakh and in the Amuq remains poorly understood in terms of chronology and its social impact. A key question is the degree to which changes evident in the archaeological records should be credited to population movements or to the reorganization of social, economic and political structures by the local population. This paper considers the assemblage from a functional point of view to discuss any change or continuity in habits and actions evident from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron Age and during the Iron Age. In particular, this article aims to be a first attempt to propose a functional study of pottery from the Amuq Valley, thus linking the documentation of Northern Syria with that of Southern Anatolia. Furthermore, it will try to establish a set of morphological and physical characteristics of pottery vessels that, within limits, can be used to define how well suited particular vessels are to perform particular tasks.
Proceedings of the International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East Proceedings of the 10th ICAANE 2016, University of Vienna, 2018
This article presents the canonical locally made Late Helladic IIIC and Aegeanizing pottery found... more This article presents the canonical locally made Late Helladic IIIC and Aegeanizing pottery found at Alalakh within the context of the full 12 th century ceramic assemblage. The discovery of this particular type of pottery could be used to argue that there may have been people at Alalakh who came from the Aegean, but it also could have been the result of local people imitating habits, cooking styles and recipes of the Aegean alongside their native ways. The paper will focus on the changes that occurred in the local ceramic assemblage and specifically on how the assimilation of a foreign style ware affected the local tradition, contributing to the creation of new habits and new identities in a period of struggles and transformations.
Recent excavations at the site of Tell Atchana, ancient Alalakh, have clarified the presence of I... more Recent excavations at the site of Tell Atchana, ancient Alalakh, have clarified the presence of Iron Age periods. Despite being at the centre of these changes, the Late Bronze-Iron Age transition at Alalakh and in the Amuq remains poorly understood in terms of chronology and its social impact. A key question is the degree to which changes evident in the archaeological records should be credited to population movements or to the reorganization of social, economic and political structures by the local population. This paper considers the assemblage from a functional point of view to discuss any change or continuity in habits and actions evident from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron Age and during the Iron Age. In particular, this article aims to be a first attempt to propose a functional study of pottery from the Amuq Valley, thus linking the documentation of Northern Syria with that of Southern Anatolia. Furthermore, it will try to establish a set of morphological and physical characteristics of pottery vessels that, within limits, can be used to define how well suited particular vessels are to perform particular tasks.
Bridging the Gap: Disciplines, Times, and Spaces in Dialogue Volume 1 Sessions 1, 2, and 5 from the Conference Broadening Horizons 6 Held at the Freie Universität Berlin, 24–28 June 2019, 2021
The transition from the Late Bronze to the Iron Age in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near Eas... more The transition from the Late Bronze to the Iron Age in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near East is
recognised as a period of major social and historical significance. Despite being at the centre of these
changes, the Late Bronze Age II-Iron Age III at Alalakh and in the Amuq valley generally remains poorly
understood in terms of chronology and local development. This paper presents the pottery assemblage
coming from selected Late Bronze Age II–Iron Age III contexts from the sites of Alalakh and Sabuniye
International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XLVIII-M-2-2023 29th CIPA Symposium “Documenting, Understanding, Preserving Cultural Heritage: Humanities and Digital Technologies for Shaping the Future”, 25–30 June 2023, Florence, Italy, 2023
The archaeological area of Amrit (350 ha) is located on the Syrian coastal region of Tartus and i... more The archaeological area of Amrit (350 ha) is located on the Syrian coastal region of Tartus and is known since the 18th century CE, due to its imposing archaeological remains dated to the first millennium BCE and to the Roman period. It was listed in the UNESCO tentative list in 2005. Since 2022, the University of Firenze (SAGAS) in collaboration with the CNR-ISPC and the DGAM-Syria, conducts a project that aims towards the documentation, restoration, public display, and community involvement of the archaeological site of Amrit, after more than 10 years of conflict and a still ongoing economic and social instability. Aim of this paper is to present the first results of the 3D survey at the site carried out in September 2022.
Asia Anteriore AnticaJournal of Ancient Near Eastern Cultures, 2024
Excavations at the site of Kınık Höyük have brought to light over the past twelve ... more Excavations at the site of Kınık Höyük have brought to light over the past twelve years several occupational phases dated to the first Millennium BCE both on the acropolis and in the lower town, especially for the Middle Iron Age and the Hellenistic period. Since 2021 the University of Firenze joined the Univer-sity of Pavia (Italy), NYU-ISAW (USA) and Dokuz Eylül University in Izmir (Tur-key) in the excavations at the site of Kınık Höyük, and since 2022 the same univer-sity took over in the management of the project. This article is a preliminary report on recent excavations area D2-3, located in the lower town, where archaeologists could identify six phases of occupation and two large primary contexts dated to the beginning of the Middle Iron Age, that provide new insights on every-day assem-blages and inventories produced locally and the architectural and archaeological context they are related to. The most interesting element in terms of urban layout and structure is related to the construction of the massive defensive fortification of the lower town, that seems to be related so far to the earliest occupation of the Iron Age lower town, i.e. possibly at the end of the Early Iron Age. A selection of the materials and a detailed report on deposits and architecture provides the reader with the archaeological data collected mainly in the campaign 2022 and 2021 in the lower town excavations, while a general overview on the urban fortification of the acropolis allows a general picture of the whole settlement defensive system and space organisation.
Ancient Near Eastern Weltanschauungen in Contact and in Contrast Rethinking Ideology and Propaganda in the Ancient Near East, 2022
The aim of this article is to review the impact that the Mittani and the
Hittite empires had on t... more The aim of this article is to review the impact that the Mittani and the
Hittite empires had on the local material culture (i.e. pottery) during the Late Bronze Age (15th–12th century BCE) in the Northern Levant. The Northern Levant includes modern South-eastern Turkey and Northern Syria at the crossroads between Anatolia and Mesopotamia. The region has always played a crucial role in understanding interaction and acculturation processes between different social groups. During the Late Bronze Age, the Northern Levant was first part of the Mittani kingdom (15th–14th century BCE), while later on (14th–12th century BCE) it became part of the Hittite empire.
According to Marxist theory, the concept of “Ideology” was understood as a means employed by political elites to shape and influence social behaviours. More often, ideology is used to describe the strategies used by a kingdom or an empire to assert itself over the conquered society. In relation to this theory, scholars assumed a connection between ideology and material culture by linking the imperial political presence and the appearance of a specific pottery industry and typology.
Therefore, the imperial presence is associated with the consequent appearance of non-local pottery types.
The article will present a series of case studies to review the interactions between the Late Bronze Age empires and the local population in the Northern Levant.
In particular, the contribution will focus on the selective integration in the
local pottery typology of non-local types to understand the impact that these empires had on social habits and local identities.
Asia Anteriore Antica" (AsiAnA), 2023
Th e site of Alalakh is located in the modern province of Hatay, southern Turkey. Th e recent dis... more Th e site of Alalakh is located in the modern province of Hatay, southern Turkey. Th e recent discovery of Iron Age levels at the site off ered the perfect opportunity to shed new light on the Iron Age I and the beginning of the Iron Age II (12 th-9 th century BC). Th is paper will focus on the analysis of cooking vessels retrieved from the Iron Age levels of the site. Studies on cooking and food preparation activities represent a long-standing lacuna in the archaeology of the Ancient Near East. Th e analysis of cooking vessels' typology and function can off er a deep understanding of social habits and cultural behaviours and add new data towards the interpretations of the Iron Age in the site and in the Northern Levant.
Archeologia e Calcolatori, 2024
The study of ancient roads has been important in understanding political, social, and cultural tr... more The study of ancient roads has been important in understanding political, social, and cultural transformations of ancient trade networks and economies. In the Near East, landscape-oriented research has immensely contributed to the analysis of pre-modern road systems. However, while for Roman and medieval periods this method produced a dataset that implemented the rich corpus of historical information, research on pre-Roman connectivity networks strongly relies on the archaeological record, mostly represented by data from surveys. The use of these data allows a long term and chronologically unprecise reconstruction of ancient itineraries. Therefore, gaps in the data are often filled by the transposition of later itineraries, risking reiterating the idea that road networks are static, stable over a very long period. This article aims to contextualise connecting networks and route landscapes from the Euphrates river to the Mediterranean sea during the Iron Age (1200-600 BCE). The study will make use of an integrated approach by using multiple datasets. The research will argue that by considering different data, it is possible to offer a critical interpretation of the main route network employed during the Iron Age to connect the Euphrates area with the sea.
Anatolica, 2023
This paper discusses the organization and management of food in selected sites located in norther... more This paper discusses the organization and management of food in selected sites located in northern Syria and southern Turkey dated from the Iron Age I to the Iron Age III (12th-6th centuries BC). I will discuss how changes in settlement patterns may have influenced food strategies in an area ruled by Syro-Anatolian city states during the Iron Age I and by the Assyrians during the Iron Age II-III. I will focus on analysing storage installations (silos and storage jars) retrieved from household and productive contexts in the Amuq Valley and in contemporary sites to help reconstruct the agricultural policies and systems of access and distribution of food supplies.
Alalakh and its Neighbours Proceedings of the 15th Anniversary Symposium at the New Hatay Archaeology Museum, 10-12 June 2015, 2020
The Iron I in the Levant: the View from the North, edited by Lynn Welton and Hanan Haraf. Archaeology and History of the Lebanon 50-51, 2019
Recent excavations at the site of Tell Atchana, ancient Alalakh, have confirmed that the site was... more Recent excavations at the site of Tell Atchana, ancient Alalakh, have confirmed that the site was in part occupied during the Iron Age, disproving thus the idea that the town was completely abandoned at the end of the Late Bronze Age. This article discusses the Iron Age occupation on the site, with a particular focus on Square 42.10 which provided a continuous sequence from the end of the Late Bronze Age to the Iron Age. It presents detailed information on its stratigraphy, and provides a morphological analysis of the pottery assemblage retrieved from the square to establish the relative chronological frame for the Iron Age occupation of the site. Furthermore, it considers the assemblage from a functional point of view to discuss any change or continuity in habits and actions evident from the transition from the Late Bronze Age (LBA) to the Iron Age (IA) and during the Iron Age. This article brings new light on the nature and the dynamics of the Iron Age I site's occupation.
Conference presentation by Mariacarmela Montesanto
The transition from the Late Bronze to the Iron Age in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near Eas... more The transition from the Late Bronze to the Iron Age in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near East is recognised as a period of major social and historical significance. Despite being at the centre of these changes, the Late Bronze-Iron Age transition at Alalakh and in the Amuq Valley generally remains poorly understood in terms of chronology and local development. This paper will present for the first time the pottery assemblages coming from Late Bronze Age II and Iron Age I contexts retrieved from the renewed excavations at Alalakh. In particular, this paper will analyse the changes that might have occurred in the local ceramic assemblage, with a special remark on the function of food processing and consumption. Pottery is linked with the environment it was created and the identification of a particular task performed by a vessel may be used to draw information related to social and cultural practices as well as on the economy and identity. Furthermore, they were playing an important role in the communities' social life and as such, they can be considered as semiotic devices capable of conveying special meanings related to culture, identity status and social behaviour.
The transition from the Late Bronze to the Iron Age in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near Eas... more The transition from the Late Bronze to the Iron Age in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near East is recognised as a period of major social and historical significance. It witnesses the end of the Hittite Empire and the eventual emergence of Neo-hittite and Aramean kingdoms in Northern Syria and South Eastern Turkey. Despite being at the centre of these changes, the Late Bronze-Iron Age transition at Alalakh and in the Amuq remains poorly understood, in terms of chronology and its local impact. A key question is the degree to which changes evident in the archaeological records should be credited to population movements or to the reorganization of social, economic and political structures by the local population. One of the explanations has been emphasised by the study of the locally-made Late Helladic IIIC or Aegeanizing pottery. The analysis of this particular type of pottery, will help to reconstruct the history not only of Alalakh but also of the Amuq Valley and will help to better define a relative chronology for the transitional period between the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age in the Amuq Valley and neighbouring regions.
More than a pile of sherds: functional analysis and social behaviour during Late Bronze-Early Iro... more More than a pile of sherds: functional analysis and social behaviour during Late Bronze-Early Iron Age Alalakh The transition from the Late Bronze to the Iron Age in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Iron Age is recognised as a period of major social and historical significance. It witnesses the end of the Hittite Empire and the emergence of new polities in Northern Syria and SouthEastern Turkey. Despite being at the centre of these changes, the Late Bronze-Iron Age transition at Alalakh and in the Amuq remains poorly understood in terms of chronology and its social impact. A key question is the degree to which changes evident in the archaeological records should be credited to population movements or to the reorganization of social, economic and political structures by the local population. This paper will analyse the pottery found in the newly excavated early Iron Age contexts of Alalakh from a functional point of view in order to identify possible changes in habits and to determine any change or continuity in the way people used the vessels and how this possible change affected their social behaviour.
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Articles by Mariacarmela Montesanto
recognised as a period of major social and historical significance. Despite being at the centre of these
changes, the Late Bronze Age II-Iron Age III at Alalakh and in the Amuq valley generally remains poorly
understood in terms of chronology and local development. This paper presents the pottery assemblage
coming from selected Late Bronze Age II–Iron Age III contexts from the sites of Alalakh and Sabuniye
Hittite empires had on the local material culture (i.e. pottery) during the Late Bronze Age (15th–12th century BCE) in the Northern Levant. The Northern Levant includes modern South-eastern Turkey and Northern Syria at the crossroads between Anatolia and Mesopotamia. The region has always played a crucial role in understanding interaction and acculturation processes between different social groups. During the Late Bronze Age, the Northern Levant was first part of the Mittani kingdom (15th–14th century BCE), while later on (14th–12th century BCE) it became part of the Hittite empire.
According to Marxist theory, the concept of “Ideology” was understood as a means employed by political elites to shape and influence social behaviours. More often, ideology is used to describe the strategies used by a kingdom or an empire to assert itself over the conquered society. In relation to this theory, scholars assumed a connection between ideology and material culture by linking the imperial political presence and the appearance of a specific pottery industry and typology.
Therefore, the imperial presence is associated with the consequent appearance of non-local pottery types.
The article will present a series of case studies to review the interactions between the Late Bronze Age empires and the local population in the Northern Levant.
In particular, the contribution will focus on the selective integration in the
local pottery typology of non-local types to understand the impact that these empires had on social habits and local identities.
Conference presentation by Mariacarmela Montesanto
recognised as a period of major social and historical significance. Despite being at the centre of these
changes, the Late Bronze Age II-Iron Age III at Alalakh and in the Amuq valley generally remains poorly
understood in terms of chronology and local development. This paper presents the pottery assemblage
coming from selected Late Bronze Age II–Iron Age III contexts from the sites of Alalakh and Sabuniye
Hittite empires had on the local material culture (i.e. pottery) during the Late Bronze Age (15th–12th century BCE) in the Northern Levant. The Northern Levant includes modern South-eastern Turkey and Northern Syria at the crossroads between Anatolia and Mesopotamia. The region has always played a crucial role in understanding interaction and acculturation processes between different social groups. During the Late Bronze Age, the Northern Levant was first part of the Mittani kingdom (15th–14th century BCE), while later on (14th–12th century BCE) it became part of the Hittite empire.
According to Marxist theory, the concept of “Ideology” was understood as a means employed by political elites to shape and influence social behaviours. More often, ideology is used to describe the strategies used by a kingdom or an empire to assert itself over the conquered society. In relation to this theory, scholars assumed a connection between ideology and material culture by linking the imperial political presence and the appearance of a specific pottery industry and typology.
Therefore, the imperial presence is associated with the consequent appearance of non-local pottery types.
The article will present a series of case studies to review the interactions between the Late Bronze Age empires and the local population in the Northern Levant.
In particular, the contribution will focus on the selective integration in the
local pottery typology of non-local types to understand the impact that these empires had on social habits and local identities.