Al Mina and Sabuniye in the Orontes Delta: the Sites

AL MINA AND SABUNIYE IN THE ORONTES DELTA: THE SITES

Hatice Pamir

Al Mina, In the Orontes delta, functioned as one of the important trading centres of the eastern Mediterranean between the 8th and 4th centuries B.C. The site was explored, excavated and soon after published by Sir Leonard Woolley,1 who hoped to ﬁnd traces of links between the early civilisations of the Aegean and the cultures of the Near East.2 The results of his excavation and his suggestion that the site was the main trading centre of the Greeks in the eastern Mediterranean led to a heated discussion concerning Al Mina and its geopolitical status. This discussion, which centres on whether Al Mina was founded as an emporion by Greek settlers or merchants, or by Phoenicians whose merchants traded there alongside Greeks and Cypriots, continues to engage archaeologists and historians.3 In order to clarify the issue, fresh archaeological evidence has been col- lected from the site and combined with a regional perspective. The Orontes Delta Survey Project began in 1999, as part of the Amuq Valley Regional Project, under the auspices of the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago and the Mustafa Kemal University, Antakya, Turkey.4 The project aims to complement Woolley’s research and to conduct a comprehensive investigation of the Orontes delta. Its main purpose is to collect long-term archaeological and envi- ronmental evidence of human activity in the area. The investigation

1 Woolley 1937, 1–15; 1938, 1–30, 133–70. 2 Woolley 1938, 1. 3 For the last several decades Al Mina has been a central issue for classical archaeologists and historians interested in Greek colonisation, Mediterranean trade, and cultural contacts between East and West. For the history of research at Al Mina, see Boardman 1999, 135–63. See also Kearsley 1999, 109–32; Boardman 1990, 169–90; 2002; Waldbaum 1997, 1–18; Graham 1986, 51–65; Perreault 1993. See also J. Boardman’s chapter in the present volume. 4 See detailed publication of the results of the project in Pamir and Nishiyama 2002. See also Boardman 2002. 536 hatice pamir includes systematic surface surveys and geological analysis of the sed- iment deposited by the Orontes river. In addition, geomorphologi- cal research has been set in train to deﬁne the changes to the coastline caused by tectonic and seismic movements. It is hoped that the project will move discussion about Al Mina into a new phase. This chapter is a brief overview of what we have been under- taking in the Orontes delta, with special focus on the surface surveys at two important sites: Al Mina and Sabuniye.

The Geographical and Cultural-Historical Context of the Orontes Delta

Al Mina’s location on the northern bank of the Orontes river was ideal for local as well as international trade. The river provided navi- gable access from the Mediterranean to Antiocheia (modern Antakya/ Hatay).5 Its delta, on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, was shaped and reshaped by both alluvial deposits and tectonic movements.6 The delta is triangular, approximately 40 km2 in area, with Samanda[, Cilli and Çevlik serving as interstices (Fig. 1).7 Of importance is the fact that the delta region is closely connected both culturally and physically with the Amuq plain, which in turn is connected by overland trade routes with the Anatolian highlands to the north, North Syria and Upper Mesopotamia to the east, South Syria and Palestine to the south, and the Mediterranean coast to the west.8 In the 2nd millennium B.C. Tell Atchana (ancient Alalakh) was the chief political and administrative centre in the plain, its main access to the Mediterranean and beyond (especially Cyprus and the Aegean) apparently being through the Antakya Gorge and along the Orontes to the delta. Woolley’s excavation revealed that the only Iron Age port city in the delta was Al Mina, which he considered to be the port for Alalakh.9 He claimed that the earlier periods had been swept out to sea by the changing courses of the river.10

5 Several ancient sources (Strabo 16. 2. 7) state that the Orontes river was nav- igable in at least certain periods in antiquity. The Gorub Papyrus mentions its nav- igability in 246 B.C. (Holleaux 1942, 281–309). Riverboats were sailing up the Orontes (upwards of 4.8km) at least 30 years ago (Admiralty Chart 1976, 100). 6 Erol and Pirazzoli 1992, 320. 7 Erol 1963, 8. 8 Alkim 1969, 280; Yener et al. 2000, 163. 9 Woolley 1937, 2, 12. 10 Woolley 1937, 4.