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Umm El-Marra and the Westward Expansion of the Mittani Empire

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Umm El-Marra and the Westward Expansion of the Mittani Empire UMM EL-MARRA AND THE WESTWARD EXPANSION OF THE MITTANI EMPIRE IN NORTHWESTERN SYRIA by Adam Sebastian Maskevich A dissertation submitted to Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Baltimore, Maryland March, 2014 © 2014 Adam Sebastian Maskevich All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT The Bronze Age occupation of Umm el-Marra, a medium-sized regional center in western Syria, lasted, with varying degrees of intensity, for more than a millennium. During this time, the communities who inhabited the site and the political regimes that ruled them left their unique marks on the built environment and material culture. This dissertation studies these phenomena during the Late Bronze Age occupation of Umm el-Marra in the mid-second millennium through a synthesis of the excavation records of the site, archaeological comparanda, textual evidence, ethnoarchaeology, and applicable theory. The Mittani Empire was the dominant power in northern Syria during the Late Bronze occupation of Umm el-Marra. Most of what is known about Mittani comes from external sources, many of whom were antagonistic and, thus, provide a biased view of the empire and its inhabitants. Through analysis of the Late Bronze Age levels at Umm el-Marra, this work provides an evaluation and exploration of the nature of everyday life in the Mittani empire. As such, it offers a new resource for understanding Mittani, in particular, and the functioning of imperial regimes in general, from the perspective of daily lived existence in households, neighborhoods, and a specific community. As communities and their constituent families change over time, they have different needs of the dwellings and landscapes they inhabit. These shifting needs are often reflected in the built environment. In this dissertation, I approach the interpretation of the excavated data through a temporal rubric to create a better understanding of how the members of the Late Bronze Age community of Umm el-Marra experienced their world. ii This dissertation suggests that the Late Bronze Age occupation of Umm el-Marra was an attempt by Mittani to create a node of control on the Jabbul Plain to help incorporate the region into the empire. The fortunes of Late Bronze Age Umm el-Marra rose and fell with those of Mittani. Both waning political fortunes and the community’s internal demographic shifts led to the gradual abandonment of much of the site before its destruction. This archaeologically visible process sheds light on the life-cycle of communities and the nature of abandonment. Advisor: Glenn M. Schwartz Committee Chair: Alan Shapiro Readers: Marian Feldman, Niloofar Haeri, and Jacob Lauinger iii For my parents iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would first like to thank my advisor, Glenn Schwartz. On a practical level, I am grateful to him for allowing me to use the data from Umm el-Marra for this dissertation. More importantly, however, his intellectual rigor and attention to detail have constantly challenged me and have been of immeasurable benefit to my own scholarship. His dedication to his students is truly admirable and I am grateful for it. I am also grateful to the Department of Near Eastern Studies at The Johns Hopkins University for being such a welcoming home over the course of my graduate career. The breadth of knowledge of the faculty and their enthusiasm for sharing it has been enriching both professionally and personally. My fellow students have been a constant source of support and inspiration and I count myself fortunate to have had the chance to work with them. Scholarship is often a solitary endeavor but I have been lucky enough to have companions that I consider both colleagues and friends. They have helped to sustain me over the years and will forever have my deepest gratitude. Though there have been more than I can ever name here, I would especially like to thank Lance Allred, Christopher Brinker, Paul Delnero, Alexandra Kleinerman, Jennifer Swerida, Elizabeth Waraksa, and Robert Webber. Most importantly, I have to thank my family, particularly my parents, for their unwavering support of my interest in archaeology over the years. It has been a long journey to get to this point and we have travelled it together. For this I am more grateful than I can ever express. It is to them that this dissertation is dedicated. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT_________________________________________________________________ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS_____________________________________________________v TABLE OF CONTENTS______________________________________________________vi LIST OF FIGURES___________________________________________________________ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION____________________________________________________________1 History of Bronze Age Occupation___________________________________________4 Excavation Methodology__________________________________________________6 Theoretical Considerations_________________________________________________9 Households______________________________________________________12 Neighborhoods___________________________________________________20 Community______________________________________________________22 CHAPTER 2 EXCAVATED REMAINS FROM LATE BRONZE AGE UMM EL-MARRA_________26 1. The Lower Town_____________________________________________________26 West Area A_____________________________________________________26 West Area B_____________________________________________________60 Northwest Area___________________________________________________64 North Area A_____________________________________________________81 Southeast Area___________________________________________________97 vi 2. The Acropolis______________________________________________________128 Acropolis Center_________________________________________________128 Acropolis North_________________________________________________146 Acropolis East___________________________________________________154 Acropolis West__________________________________________________155 CHAPTER 3 COMMUNITY, HOUSEHOLD, AND SETTLEMENT HISTORY IN THE LATE BRONZE AGE_____________________________________________________________158 Introduction___________________________________________________________158 Creating Community: The Initial Resettlement of Late Bronze Age Umm el-Marra__158 The Mature Phase of Occupation at Umm el-Marra (1): Private Households________165 The Mature Phase of Occupation at Umm el-Marra (2): Institutional Households____169 The Mature Phase of Occupation at Umm el-Marra (3): Economy________________174 Staple Cereal Production___________________________________________175 Bread, Space, and Time___________________________________________177 Seasonality, Obligation, and Demographics in an Agricultural Community___179 The End of the Mature Phase_____________________________________________181 Coda: Destruction, Resettlement, and Abandonment___________________________185 Conclusions___________________________________________________________187 CHAPTER 4 CONTEXTUALIZING UMM EL-MARRA IN THE LATE BRONZE AGE WORLD__191 Introduction___________________________________________________________191 Resettlement__________________________________________________________196 vii Mature Phase__________________________________________________________211 Decline______________________________________________________________229 Conclusions___________________________________________________________232 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS____________________________________________________________235 BIBLIOGRAPHY___________________________________________________________244 viii LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 1: Map of Syro-Mesopotamia with Inset of the Jabbul Plain_________________________3 Fig. 2: Excavation areas of Umm el-Marra__________________________________________7 Fig. 3: First phase of Late Bronze Occupation in West Area A__________________________27 Fig. 4: Second phase of Late Bronze Occupation in West Area A________________________33 Fig. 5: Mittani Common Style Cylinder Seal from West Area A_________________________35 Fig. 6: House 3/The "Burned House" from West Area A_______________________________40 Fig. 7: Detail of the Burned House in West Area A___________________________________42 Fig. 8: Alabaster jar from the Burned House________________________________________48 Fig. 9: Glazed jar from the Burned House__________________________________________49 Fig. 10: Northern end of Room 4 in the Burned House with mudbrick pedestal and bench____51 Fig. 11: Plan of the agglutinative building, terrace, and ancillary architecture in the Northwest Area__________________________________________________________________65 Fig. 12: Detail of the agglutinative building in the Northwest Area______________________66 Fig. 13: Detail of terrace and ancillary architecture in the Northwest Area_________________77 Fig. 14: Central Room House next to the Middle Bronze wall in the Northwest Area________80 Fig. 15: Second Late Bronze phase in North Area A__________________________________85 Fig. 16: Obverse of the tablet from North Area A____________________________________87 Fig. 17: Reverse of the tablet with seal impression from North Area A___________________88 Fig. 18: Third Late Bronze Phase in North Area A___________________________________93 Fig. 19: Plan of the Complex in the Southeast Area___________________________________96 ix Fig. 20: Figurine of a seated deity from the Southeast Area___________________________105 Fig. 21: Rooms 9-15 of the Complex in the Southeast Area___________________________112 Fig. 22:
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