Information AboutAlalakh |
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HISTORY Alalakh was founded during the Middle Bronze Age in the 2nd Millennium BC , as one of the first great cities of the Fertile Crescent . The first palace on the citadel of Alalakh was built c. 2000 BC , contemporary with the Third Dynasty Of Ur . The written history of the site, under the name Alakhtum, begins with inscriptions of Mari in the 18th century BCE, when the city was part of the kingdom of Yamhad (modern Aleppo ). An inscription records that King Sumu-epeh sells the territory of Alakhtum to his son-in-law Zimri-Lim, king of Mari, retaining for himself overlordship. After the fall of Mari in 1765 BCE, Alakhtum came once again under the authority of Yamhad , and evolved its more familiar ancient name of Alalakh. King Abbân of Aleppo bestowed it upon his brother Yarim-Lim, in gratitude for not having participated in a revolt against him, and a dynasty of Yarim-Lin's descendents was founded, under the hegemony of Aleppo, that lasted to the very end of the 17th century, when Alalakh's commercial relations in Syria, and with Babylonia and Cyprus, documented in cuneiform tablets, were temporarily interrupted when it was sacked by the Hittite King Hattusili I , in the second year of his campaigns. After a hiatus of less than a century, Alalakh became the seat of a local dynasty. In the first half of the 15th century, a certain Idrimi, son of the king of Aleppo who had been deposed by the new regional master, " in "Ammija in the land of Canaan", where the Hapiru recognized him as the "son of their overlord" and "gathered around him;" after living among them for seven years, he led his Habiru warriors in a successful attack by sea on Alalakh, where he became king. In the mid-14th century, the Hittite Suppiluliuma I defeated king Tushratta of Mitanni and assumed control of northern Syria, including Alalakh, which he incorporated into the Hittite Empire . Inscriptions record his ruling upon rival territorial claims between the Mushki of Alalakh and his other vassals in Ugarit , Nuhassa and Aleppo. The Peoples Of The Sea destroyed Alalakh in the 12th century; in line with the other cities of the Levant, there is a gap in structures, writing or works of art at Alalakh between 1200 and 850 BC , the Dark Ages of the Ancient Near East. The site was never reoccupied, the port of Al Mina taking its place during the Iron Age . EXCAVATION The remains of the city preserved by ''Tell Atchana'' were excavated by the British Archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley in the years 1935 - 1939 and 1946 - 1949 , during which palaces, temples, private houses and fortification walls were discovered, in 17 archaeological levels reaching from Calcolithic (Level XVII, c.3400 –3100 BCE to Late Bronze Age (Level 0, 12th century BCE). The site was briefly re-investigated by a University Of Chicago team in 2000 , before the launch of a major annual excavation effort by the same institution in 2002 . Excavations at Alalakh have produced a body of written material that is second in importance only to that from Ugarit . About five hundred cuneiform tablets were retrieved at Level VII, (Middle Bronze Age) and Level IV (Late Bronze Age). The inscribed statue of Idrimi, a king of Alalakh after c. 1500 BC , has given a unique autobiography of Idrimi's youth, his rise to power, and his military and other successes (now in the British Museum ). Akkadian texts from Alalakh include word lists, astological omens and conjurations, as well as economic records that attest to intense trade with other cities, including Ugarit and the Hittite capital Hattusas involving grain, wine and olive oil. REFERENCES
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