TRADED GOODS IN THE ‘AMUQ DURING THE IRON AGE: CYPRIOT, PHOENICIAN AND AEGYPTIAN ARTEFACTS AT CHATAL HÖYÜK

This paper presents and analyses the imported goods in the large village of Chatal Höyük, located on the north-eastern corner of the Mediterranean at the eastern fringes of the Amuq plain, over a period of 600 years: from the Iron Age I to the end of Iron Age III (1150-550 BC). The aim of this contribution is to identify and discuss how the presence and absence of Cypriot and Phoenician materials, as well as their variability compared to materials from other areas (Egypt and Assyria), may reveal specific patterns in the trade networks in the NE Mediterranean and within the Amuq plain itself. The detailed analyses of the imports and of their contexts show that connections with Cyprus, although transforming during the Iron Age, were the steadiest, whereas the import of Egyptian and Assyrian materials was directly related to specific economic and historical changes. Moreover, even though Iron Age trade in the Northern Levant (from the 9th century BC) is usually connected to the well-known Phoenician and Cypriot networks in the Mediterranean, the ephemeral presence of Phoenician materials at Chatal may point towards a different intraregional trade organization. This picture fits well within the political and social history of the Iron Age Amuq and, in part, mirrors the political relations between the area and its neighbouring countries.