Geopolitics of the Orontes valley in the Late Bronze Age LUIGI TURRI University of Verona, Dipartimento di Culture e Civiltà Abstract The Orontes valley is a heterogeneous area located at the border of the humid Mediterranean zone and the dry Syrian steppe: surrounded by mountains, it has narrow valleys, deep gorges, marshes, extensive fertile plains, and marked differences in climate. All these factors have greatly influenced settlement in the region throughout its history. Their effects were exacerbated by the chaotic political situation that characterized the valley during the Late Bronze Age, when, along the river, the Great Powers of the time found themselves in direct contact for the first time. The paper tries to analyze how the region’s morphology and natural environment affected both the local settlements and areas of foreign influence. Keywords Late Bronze Age, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Orontes, Settlement, ancient geography West & East 281 Monografie, 2 Luigi Turri Introduction The Orontes, which rises not far from Baal- bek, because of its height on the sea level could be According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, geopoli- considered a mountain river for almost 2/3 of its tics is the «analysis of the geographic influences on 610 km course. The first part of its path is that of a power relationships in international relations» and, typical mountain stream, very steep, often dry and though «in contemporary discourse, geopolitics has without a proper bed; it becomes a permanent wa- been widely employed as a loose synonym for interna- tercourse only at Hermel, thanks to the springs of tional politics», more practically it is the study of the Ayn ez-Zerqa.3 Since the river’s greatest supply of «political effects of geography – particularly climate, water comes, as here, from underground springs topography, arable land, and access to the sea».1 scattered along its whole length, Weulersse defined The conditioning of history by geography is par- the Orontes as «the river that is born from itself».4 ticularly evident in a heterogeneous environment In the northern part of the Beqaa the river flows such as that of the Orontes valley. A quick glance at through a deep gorge between the Lebanon and the region’s topography shows clearly how diverse Anti-Lebanon ranges, and for this reason its water its landscape is, creating niches where local king- cannot be used for irrigation. This situation is re- doms arose, largely secluded one from the other, peated several times along the river’s path and this and how at the same time it represents one of the difficulty of using its waters for agricultural purpos- main connection and transition areas between dif- es – if not through the use of machinery such as the ferent parts of the world – Europe to the north, Af- famous norias – is another peculiar characteristic rica and the Arabian Peninsula to the south, Asia to of the Orontes that differentiates it from the other the East. During the LBA, this led the local king- large rivers of the Near East, the Tigris, the Euphra- doms, whose ambitions for growth were limited by tes and the Nile. their geographical positions, to become involved in Outside of the Beqaa, the natural barrier of the the clash of the great international powers. basalt flows to the south of Homs transforms it into Lake Qattina. Thanks to its significant flow rate and precipitation of more than 500 mm/year, the river 1. The River Valley is not depleted by evaporation, and restarts its run on the Homs basaltic plain, then forming a great The Orontes is the main watercourse in the Levant, bend in the region of Hama, the only area of the and its drainage basin covers over 23,000 km2 be- valley with reduced rainfall, around 300 mm/year. tween the Mediterranean and continental Asiatic In the Ghab its flow is revitalized by the increased areas, surrounded by the Syro-Lebanese coastal strip rainfall and by 30 springs distributed along the gra- to the west, the Amanus mountains to the north, ben, where once it used to stagnate in marshes, now the Syrian desert to the east and the Hauran region drained. to the south-east.2 This extensive area has contrast- After passing through a deep cut between Jisr ing characteristics and is more a patchwork of small esh-Shoghur and Jisr el-Hadid, it emerges onto the different geographic units than a uniform zone. Amuq plain, where a U-turn saves it from the Amuq marshes. Finally, the Orontes turns into a normal Mediterranean river and pours its waters into the sea, to the south of Samandağı. 1 Deudney 2013 2 The basins of the Afrin and the Karasu, tributaries of 3 the Orontes, are included in the 23,000 km2 but not the Ruj It is difficult to establish a precise starting point for the (Weulersse 1940, pp. 34-35). This is therefore to be consid- river. Some consider it to be Ayn ez-Zerqa, where underground ered an estimate by default. See also Marfoe 1998, pp. 21-22 springs, spread over 500 m in the river bed, pour out water at an 3 and Besançon, Sanlaville 1993a, p. 16. Weulersse 1940 average of 12 m /s. From here there is a 570 km journey to the is still the reference work for the physical geography of the sea. Orontes. See more literature in Turri 2015, pp. 21-54. 4 Weulersse 1940, p. 21. West & East 282 Monografie, 2 Geopolitics of the Orontes valley in the Late Bronze Age The whole region is of relatively recent forma- Considering this geographical setting, it was nat- tion and is crossed by a number of faults, several of ural that the LBA great powers, pharaonic Egypt and which formed during the Cenozoic.5 Here tectonics the kingdoms of Mitanni and Hatti, met and clashed has predominated over water erosion, and this is the along the river. This led to the development of a cos- reason for the river’s complex course: the Orontes, mopolitan, ‘international’ culture – normally found unlike most rivers, did not create the valley in which in coastal cities such as Ugarit but visible as well in the it flows, but was born after it. Because of this par- valley’s big palaces, at Qatna and Alalakh – and was ticular conformation, the river’s catchment area in- also the origin of the permanent political instability cludes a large part of the massifs aligned along the and repeated breakdown of alliances that character- valley and its limit corresponds roughly to the 250 ized the valley’s history in the following centuries. mm isohyet.6 In addition to this particular geographical po- These topographical features have a significant sition, other factors have influenced over time the influence on the climate; temperature and precip- history of the people who lived along the river, such itation vary considerably and suddenly, not only as environment changes. A general drying of the cli- from north to south: westwards, the coastal moun- mate had already started between the EBA and the tain ranges mitigate the humid Mediterranean cli- MBA, partly as a result of the impoverishment of mate, while eastward lower mountains partially al- the soil due to a large-scale increase in exploitation, low the arid desert climate to penetrate. This is the but during the LBA – when the ecological and en- reason why two thermal gradients, one longitudinal vironmental data used to study these trends become and the other latitudinal, must be taken into con- incoherent – against a background of constant and sideration for the Orontes valley.7 progressive global temperature increase, dryer peri- In such a varied heterogeneous region – which ods started to alternate with wetter ones, growing in lies in a natural area of transition, connecting Eu- frequency and intensity, until widespread drought rope, Asia and Africa – the only common unifying and famine afflicted the whole Levant at the begin- feature is the river valley, that has always offered a ning of the Iron Age.9 connection between north and south. Considering The decrease in rainfall went hand-in-hand with that the western mountains seaward often slope di- the degeneration of the pre-existing natural envi- rectly into the sea leaving no space for valleys, and ronment, exacerbated by anthropic factors. The de- that they are rich in streams which flow into the sea forestation of the lower areas of the Beqaa and the through gorges, breaking the coastline, the valley Ghab had been accomplished thousands of years provides the easiest – and almost the only practica- earlier, but in the Bronze Age it was extended to ble – land route between Anatolia and the Mediter- the highlands too.10 Pollen diagrams from Mishrife/ ranean world to the north and Palestine, Egypt and Qatna show that at the beginning of the EBA IV the the Arabian peninsula to the south.8 Longitudinal- primeval oak forests had already been destroyed, re- ly, a couple of passages through the coastal moun- placed in the MBA by secondary shrublands or Juni- tain ranges connect the sea to the valley and then perus forests. These forests too decreased during the to the caravan routes that proceed across the Syr- MBA/LBA transition, probably in part because of ian desert to Mesopotamia and the Iranian plateau, the large-scale use of wood as fuel, and were replaced continuing towards the Far East. by scattered deciduous oaks and the landscape be- came more open, though not a proper steppe.11 5 See Brew 2001, pp. 131-138 and Marfoe 1998, pp. 23. 12. 9 Roberts et Al. 2011, pp. 151-152; Kaniewski et 6 Weulersse 1940, pp.