Thoughts on the reception and rejection of Aegean and Cypriot ceramics in the Amuq Plain during the Late Bronze and Iron Ages

The Amuq Valley (currently Hatay province in Turkey) experienced a large diffusion and appreciation of Mycenaean and Cypriot ceramics like the whole Northern Levant during the Late Bronze Age. These pottery types were transported in the Eastern Mediterranean for their content and/or for their intrinsic value. By end of the Late Bronze Age, with the collapse of the Eastern Mediterranean trading system and the presence of political turmoil in the northern Levant, a new phenomenon took place: local pottery production started to include locally manufactured vessels, which were Mycenaean in style and permeated the local repertoire at all social levels. Two sites, Alalakh/Tell Atchana, currently excavated by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism under the directorship of Aslıhan Yener, and Chatal Höyük excavated by the Oriental Institute Chicago in the 1930’s provide crucial information on these periods. This article presents the archaeological evidence from these two sites, both of which seem to mirror ways of acceptance and resistance of Mycenaean and Cypriot products in the Late Bronze Age II (1400-1160 BC) and in the Iron Age I (1160-900 BC). In the 15th-14th century BC Alalakh, the capital of the region, was part of the well-known trade of foreign vessels, while Chatal, only a village, did not experience the same large phenomenon. During the 13th century BC the amount of Mycenaean imports decreased radically at both sites, while in the 12th-11th cent. BC the local production of Mycenaeanizing pottery, especially at Chatal, seems to be the result of a phenomenon of local hybridization rather than of commercial contacts. In contrast, Cypriot pottery started appearing at Alalakh in the Middle Bronze Age and continued to appear until the end of the Late Bronze Age II, which comprises always of imported vessels throughout. At Chatal Höyük Cypriot imported vessels are present in the Late Bronze II levels.