Material Identity in Northern Levant during the 8th Century BCE: !e Example from Chatal Höyük

Settlements in the Amuq region underwent political and “ethnic” turmoil during the Early Iron Age and !ourished during the 9th and 8th centuries BC, establishing a new political balance and resisting an increasing Assyrian pressure. We speak about a Syro-Hittite material culture with speci"c identity markers: iconographic representations of the elite, architectural structures expressing power and an urban layout in order to carry out religious rituals. #e expression of dynastic power and religious rituals are usually more conservative and related to an elite; as a result, this article analyses the existence of a Syro-Hittite household material identity during the 8th century BCE, as opposed to an Assyrian one. Five inventories found in domestic primary contexts of the Iron Age II will provide an overview "rst on the archaeological culture they belong to, and secondly on the habits they mirror. Although speci"c group markers could be identi"ed, the area of di$usion of these “identity markers” and their di$erences with the neighboring Assyrian material culture seem to suggest the existence of a speci"c material identity in the northern Levant and Syria.