Building XVI and the Neo-Assyrian Sacred Precinct at Tell Tayinat

Settlement Planning and Urban Symbology in Syro-Anatolian Cities

“…A square arrangement of stone blocks that the original excavators were at a loss to explain (Haines 1971, 45, pl. 74B) has now been demonstrated by the renewed excavation to have been located immediately in front of temples Building II and the newly discovered Building XVI (Harrison & Osborne 2012). Given the location of Building XVI behind this curious feature (Fig.…”

“…The second major source of urban data is the large-scale excavation campaigns that have been undertaken at the site, first in the 1930s by the Syrian-Hittite Expedition of the University of Chicago (Haines 1971), and more recently since 2004 by the Tayinat Archaeological Project of the University of Toronto (Harrison 2009;Harrison & Osborne 2012;Welton et al 2011). Figure 3, a composite plan combining all of this information, reveals what we currently know of the layout of Kunulua during the ninth and eighth centuries bc, the stratum excavators refer to as the site's Second Building Period -only a fraction of the city, to be sure, but nevertheless a reasonably robust sample size.…”

Beyond megadrought and collapse in the Northern Levant: The chronology of Tell Tayinat and two historical inflection episodes, around 4.2ka BP, and following 3.2ka BP

“…Later historical records, dating to the 9 th -early 8 th centuries BCE, refer to the kingdom as Patina or Unqi [ 64 – 66 ]. The Assyrians took control of the city in 738 BCE and the region became part of their province of Kinalia under an Assyrian governor [ 65 – 69 ].…”

“…Although new inscriptional evidence is beginning to provide a historical framework for this period, the precise chronology of these historical developments remains fluid, uncertain, and largely based on paleographical grounds as newly emerging finds regularly require the revision of historical chronologies and king lists [ 60 – 62 , 98 , 99 ]. In the 9 th –8 th centuries BCE, historical documentation becomes more frequent from Neo-Assyrian records, as a result of their increasing contacts with this region, and then their takeover and administrative control from the late 8 th century BCE onward [ 65 – 68 , 100 ]. Following the conquest of Kunulua–the ancient name in this period for Tell Tayinat–by the Assyrian ruler Tiglath-pileser III in 738 BCE, Tayinat became the capital of the Assyrian province of Kinalia [ 58 , 64 , 65 , 101 ].…”

A Stele of Sargon II at Tell Tayinat

“…Other significant finds made by the Syrian-Hittite Expedition include, inter alia, a number of stone fragments inscribed with Luwian hieroglyphs (CHLI 1/2, 365-378), a double lion column base (Haines 1971, 53 f and Plates 80 f), and the pottery that formed the basis of the first-millennium phases of the Amuq Valley Sequence (Swift 1958). The University of Toronto's Tayinat Archaeological Project resumed excavations at the site in 2004, highlights of which include uncovering a substantial Early Bronze Age occupation (Welton 2011;Welton/ Batiuk/Harrison 2011), a monumental stone sculpture of a lion (Harrison 2012a), a colossal sculpture, inscribed with Luwian hieroglyphs, of Šuppiluliuma II, king of Palistin/ Walastin (Harrison/Denel/Batiuk 2013;Weeden 2013, 12), and a second temple in antis containing a collection of Neo-Assyrian cuneiform tablets including one inscribed with Esarhaddon's Succession Treaty (Lauinger 2011;Lauinger 2012;Harrison/Osborne 2012). Amid these architectural, sculptural, and textual riches, it is perhaps understandable that four broken pieces of basalt bearing fragmentary cuneiform inscriptions have received little attention.…”