1. Introduction The pottery sequence and the relative and absolute chronologies of the Middle Bronze Age in the Middle Orontes Valley have not yet been fully defined by archaeologists as a consequence of the surprisingly limited archaeological interest that the Syrian Orontes Valley has attracted until recent times, with the notable exceptions of the three important early twentieth century excavations of Tell Nebi Mend/Qadesh (Pézard 1931), Mishrifeh/Qatna (du Mesnil du Buisson 1935), and Hama (Fugmann 1958). The development of the large dam building projects in the Euphrates and Khabur Valleys from the late 1960s onwards gave rise to a massive concentration of archaeological investigations along these river valleys and, as a consequence, brought about the neglect of other regions of Syria such as the Orontes Valley. There only a relatively small number of sites were investigated using modern methodologies and excavation techniques aimed at exploring (amongst other things) issues of chronology and developing finely tuned pottery sequences. Thus far, significant MBA exposures have been reached only at Mishrifeh/Qatna (Al-Maqdissi et al 2002; 2009; Morandi Bonacossi 2007a), although excavations focusing on the second millennium BC are also on-going at the important sites of Tell al-Nasriyah (Al-Maqdissi et al 2010; 2011) and Tell ʿAcharneh (Fortin 2006). * The authors are deeply indebted to Hélène Sader and Marlies Heinz for the invitation to the stimulating workshop on the “The Middle Bronze Age Pottery of Lebanon in its Near Eastern Context” and the fruitful discussions we had on the northern Levantine ceramic assemblages of the MBA. Paragraphs 1 and 5 of this article were jointly written by both authors, §§ 2 and 4 by D Morandi Bonacossi, The Middle Bronze Age I–III pottery sequence from the Italian excavations at Mishrifeh/Qatna, Syria. Archaeological contexts and ceramic evidence* Marco Iamoni and Daniele Morandi Bonacossi ** Abstract The excavations carried out by the Italian Mission of the University of Udine at Mishrifeh have discovered significant MBA sequences that shed new light on the period and suggest a modification of the periodization currently in use. To date, the MBA has been traditionally divided into two phases (MB I and MB II), with Ebla providing the most important stratigraphic sequence in support of such scheme. However, this chronological framework does not seem to mirror adequately the pottery tradition nor indeed the stratigraphic sequences of the Northern Levant, especially as far as the last part of the period is concerned. The following study of selected MB archaeological contexts and ceramics from Qatna suggests that the MBA should be extended to include the entire 16th century, through addition of a third phase, the MB III. This is in better correspondence with the ceramic evidence and archaeological contexts and permits a more precise characterization of the MBA in the region. Keywords MBA, pottery, Qatna, chronology, Northern Levant and § 3 by M Iamoni. Additionally, we warmly thank the anonymous referee for his/her interesting comments and suggestions which have helped us to improve our article. It goes without saying saying that the authors are responsible for any remaining errors. ** University of Udine, Italy.