Tell Fekheriye Excavation Reports
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Edited by:
Peter V. Bartl
The project was carried out in cooperation with the Syrian Department of Antiquities and Museums and the Slovakian Archaeological and Historical Institute (SAHI).
Topics
Despite ongoing interest in Middle Assyrian glyptic art, the publications of Middle Assyrian seals and seal impressions from excavated sites in the Near East are very rare. The book is the first to offer a comprehensive study on the seal corpus from an archaeological site historically located in the western territory of the Middle Assyrian state.
The seal impressions and few original seals, which were found during the excavations in Tell Fekheriye (Syria), substantially add to our understanding of the iconographic repertory and the use of seals in the Middle Assyrian period. The corpus dates to the reigns of the Assyrian kings Shalmaneser I and Tukulti-Ninurta I in the 13th century B.C. It documents practices of governance and administration in the growing Middle Assyrian Empire, points to activities of high-ranking Assyrian officials and unfolds the pictorial reality of political and ideological intensions.
While finding detailed information on unpublished materials, their archaeological contexts and interpretations, the reader is also invited to follow a discourse on art, state and society for which the Middle Assyrian seal motifs from Tell Fekheriye provide an excellent case study.
The importance and primary role of the site of Tell Fekheriye (Syria) has always been emphasized in the research history of Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology. As known from excavations and written sources, the site was an important centre in the Mittani and the Middle Assyrian periods. However, a systematic study and analysis of the pottery has never been accomplished, although the material offers a local and regional perspective on the ceramic production of a Late Bronze Age urban centre.
This book fills this gap, offering an insight into the pottery from the site. The material provides a crucial set of data from Northern Mesopotamia, shedding new light on the Late Bronze Age, and in the phase of power alternation between the Mittani Kingdom and the Middle Assyrian state. This work illustrates the chrono-typological changes in the ceramic assemblages and provides an analysis of the functions related to the ceramic vessels, in context with other findings (sealings).
In the end, the analysis of ceramic material as a starting point leads the reader to the investigation of topics related to society and social behaviours, economy, and political assets and administration in this urban centre for roughly 300 years of its history.
