American Journal of Archaeology 104 (2000) 163–220 163 The Amuq Valley Regional Project, 1995–1998 K. ASLIHAN YENER, CHRISTOPHER EDENS, TIMOTHY P. HARRISON, J. VERSTRAETE, AND TONY J. WILKINSON Abstract The Amuq plain in southeast Turkey is of major im- portance to the development of Near Eastern cultural sequences. Recent investigations of geoarchaeology, settlement patterns, and individual sites now provide a framework for the assessment of the original work by the University of Chicago and Sir Leonard Woolley. Geoarchaeological investigations provide a dynamic context for the interpretation of settlement patterns and show that sedimentation over the plain has been variable and patchy. The density and patterning of set- tlement has changed through time, partly in response to changes in the local environment, partly as a result of developments in the political economy. Excavations at Tells Kurdu and al-Judaidah as well as section-cleaning operations at other sites in the area have started to provide a radiocarbon framework for the original chronology and are filling in gaps in that sequence. At the site of Kurdu, approximately 15 hectares in area, domestic and perhaps public architecture are now be- ing defined more coherently than in the first investi- gations, and the excavations are supplying insights into a subsistence economy that tapped into a verdant mosaic of local environments.* introduction Set between the Tigris-Euphrates river basins and the Mediterranean Sea (fig. 1), the Amuq valley in southeastern Turkey has held the attention of Near Eastern archaeologists for more than half a century. This is not surprising given the scope of the original archaeological investigations, as well as the geo- graphical endowments and diverse cultural remains of the Antakya (ancient Antioch) area. Four princi- pal cultural zones come together in this interaction zone: Anatolian (Hittite and Hurrian), eastern Med- iterranean (Aegean and Cypriot), Levantine and Pal- estinian (Egyptian and Canaanite), and northern Syro-Mesopotamian (Hurrian/Mittani and Assyrian- Babylonian). The fertile Amuq valley receives plenti- * Research for this article was supported by grants from the National Geographic Society, the Oriental Institute, the Institute of Aegean Prehistory, the Kress Foundation, the Fulbright Program, and numerous private donors. The research was conducted under the auspices of the Turkish Ministry of Culture, Director General of Monuments and Museums. In Ankara we were greatly assisted by the Acting General Director of Monuments and Museums, Kenan ful rainfall and is framed by the metalliferous, for- ested Amanus and Taurus mountain ranges to the west and north, and gently rolling limestone hills to the south and east. Three major rivers penetrate these natural barriers: the Kara Su, the Afrin, and the Orontes. The last-named river, apparently once navi- gable from the sea to at least Antioch if not to the Amuq valley, provides access to the Mediterranean Sea. The watercourses through the valley form part of a lush environment that includes one of the largest expanses of level, arable land situated within south- east Turkey. The African-Dead Sea Rift system carved out a major north-south route that links Malatya and the Sakçegözü to the north, through the Amuq, to the Beqa’a, Jordan Valley, and Gulf of Aqaba further south. Countless migrating people and animals have moved and been constrained along this natural cor- ridor, and its landscapes have provided unique com- binations of resource niches for human exploitation. In the Amuq valley the landscape sets the stage for rich agriculture and transhumant pastoralism, both of which continued to be important activities into the 20th century. Inspired by James Henry Breasted, 1 the “Syrian- Hittite Expedition” team from the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago went to the Amuq valley between 1932 and 1938 to find a site with monumen- tal architecture of the late Hittite, Iron Age kingdom of attina. One aim of the original Oriental Insti- tute project was to provide a thorough reconnais- sance of the settlements in the valley. This survey, un- dertaken by R.J. Braidwood, C.W. McEwan, and others from the Chicago team, recorded 178 sites that ranged in age from the Neolithic to the Islamic periods. Braidwood’s survey, which provided a con- sistent and comprehensive record of all visible sites, set new standards for the time and provided an ar- ˘ H Yurttagül. We thank the Antakya Archaeological Museum director and staff members Hüseyin Dinçer, Faruk Kılınç, Murat Süslü, and Aslı Tütüncü. Special acknowledgement and thanks go the Mustafa Kemal University and its rector (president), Professor Haluk Ipek, and provost, Professor Miktat Do anlar, for their continued help and guidance. 1 Breasted 1933, 301 – 9; McEwan 1937, 8 – 16. g ˇ