Across the border : Late Bronze-Iron Age relations between Syria and Anatolia : proceedings of a symposium held at the Research Center of Anatolian Studies, Koc University, Istanbul, May 31 - June 1, 2010 / edited by K. Aslıhan Yener.

International conference proceedings.

Includes bibliographical references.

Introduction : Imperial Demise and Forging Emergent Kingdoms / K. A. Yener -- SECTION A : Excavations in Levantine Turkey and Levantine Syria -- Chapter 1. New Excavations at Alalakh : The 14th–12th Centuries BC / K. A. Yener -- Chapter 2. The Late Bronze Age Fortresses at Alalakh : Architecture and Identity in Mediterranean Exchange Systems / M. Akar -- Chapter 3. Tayinat in the Early Iron Age / T. P. Harrison -- Chapter 4. Chatal Höyük in the Amuq : Material Culture and Architecture during the Passage from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age / M. Pucci -- Chapter 5. The Crisis of Qatna at the Beginning of the Late Bronze Age II and the Iron Age II Settlement Revival. A Regional Trajectory towards the Collapse of the Late Bronze Age Palace System in the Northern Levant / D. Morandi Bonacossi -- Chapter 6. Shedding New Light on the Elusive Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages at Tell ‘Acharneh (Syria) / M. Fortin and L. Cooper -- Chapter 7. Sabuniye : A Late Bronze-Iron Age Port Settlement on the Northeastern Mediterranean Coast / H. Pamir -- Chapter 8. A Re-evaluation of the Late Bronze to Early Iron Age Transitional Period : Stratigraphic Sequence and Plain Ware of Tarsus-Gözlükule / S. Yalçın -- Chapter 9. Exploring Sirkeli Höyük in the Late Bronze Age and its Interregional Connections / E. Kozal -- Chapter 10. The Transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age at Tell Afis, Syria (phases VII-III) / F. Venturi -- SECTION B : Excavations in Eastern Turkey and Eastern Syria -- Chapter 11. Across Assyria’s Northern Frontier : Tell Fekheriye at the End of the Late Bronze Age / P. V. Bartl and D. Bonatz -- Chapter 12. Between the Musku and the Aramaeans : The Early History of Guzana/Tell Halaf / M. Novák -- Chapter 13. Some Implications of Revised C14 and Dendrochronological Dating for the “Late Bronze Levels” at Tille Höyük on the Euphrates / G. D. Summers -- Chapter 14. The Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age Transition : A Perspective from the Upper Tigris River / T. Matney -- Chapter 15. Neo-Hittite Melid : Continuity or Discontinuity? / M. Frangipane and M. Liverani -- Chapter 16. Pottery as an Indicator of Changing Interregional Relations in the Upper Euphrates Valley. The Case of the Late Bronze-Iron Age Assemblages from Arslantepe/Malatya / F. Manuelli -- Chapter 17. New Excavations at the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age Site of Gre Amer on the Garzan River, Batman Province / G. Pulhan and S. R. Blaylock -- SECTION C : Funerary practices, texts and the arts -- Chapter 18. Funerary Practices and Society at the Late Bronze-Iron Age Transition. A View from Tell Shiukh Fawqâni and Tell an-Nasriyah (Syria) / A. Tenu -- Chapter 19. Working Ivory in Syria and Anatolia during the Late Bronze-Iron Age / A. Caubet -- Chapter 20. Arts and Cross-Cultural Communication in the Early 1st Millennium : The Syro-Anatolian Contact / S. Mazzoni -- Chapter 21. The Luwian Inscriptions from the Temple of the Storm-God of Aleppo / J. D. Hawkins -- Chapter 22. Qadesh, Sea-Peoples, and Anatolian-Levantine Interactions / K. Strobel -- Chapter 23. An Amulet with the Names of Ramesses II from the Roman Baths at Ankara / H. Peker.

One of the most intriguing issues facing archaeologists working in the second millennium BC is the collapse of Late Bronze Age palace economies and the rise of smaller principalities called Iron Age kingdoms. Some of these kingdoms retain vestiges of the previous Hittite Empire while others represent an ethnic diversity of newly emerging centers of power. The decentralized kingdoms stretch from Cilicia to the Tigris River and are situated on both sides of the modern border of Syria and Turkey. Theories about this political transition have varied from environmental causes, internal dynastic squabbles in Hattusha, to marauding bands of mythical "Sea Peoples". Modern political realities across the border between Turkey and Syria have often minimized the flow of scholarly information about this important collapse. This book compares archaeological data from new as well as established excavations dating to the Late Bronze and Iron Ages. Special attention is given to significant new understandings of chronology that will contextualize the structural collapses at the end of the Late Bronze Age and will illuminate the rise of new Iron Age kingdoms and their imperial ambitions.