GEOCHEMICAL AND PETROGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF LATE BRONZE AGE CYPRIOT CERAMICS (WHITE SLIP I AND II AND MONOCHROME) FROM TELL ATCHANA/ ALALAKH (HATAY) IN THE AMUQ VALLEY* S. HACIOSMANOĞLU, 1 † M. KİBAROĞLU, 2 G. SUNAL, 1 E. KOZAL 3 and P. GUTSUZ 1 1 Faculty of Mines, Department of Geological Engineering, Istanbul Technical University, İstanbul, Turkey 2 Institute for Pre-and Protohistory and Medieval Archaeology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany 3 Institute of Archaeology, Faculty of Letters and Sciences, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Çanakkale, Turkey White Slip ware, both White Slip I and II, and Monochrome ware are Middle to Late Bronze Age Cypriot pottery types found across a large area of the Eastern Mediterranean region. A vast quantity of these wares has also been uncovered in Tell Atchana/ancient Alalakh in Hatay in southern Anatolia. We analysed a total of 56 White Slip (n = 36) and Monochrome potsherds (n=20) from Tell Atchana using XRF, ICP–MS and petrographic thin-section methods. The main aim of the study was to explore the compositional characteristics of the wares and to determine whether they are local imitations of the Cypriot White Slip and Monochrome wares or represent Cypriot exports to this region. The analytical results proved that White Slip I and II were produced from raw clay of mafic and ultramafic source rocks exposed in the Troodos Massif, available in the Limassol area of southern Cyprus and traded to Tell Atchana. Examples of Monochrome ware excavated in Tell Atchana were also imported to the region, most probably from east/north-east Cyprus. These results demonstrate a close trading connection between Tell Atchana/Alalakh and southern Cyprus during the Middle to Late Bronze Age. KEYWORDS: EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN, TELL ATCHANA, AMUQ VALLEY, CYPRUS, LATE BRONZE AGE, CHEMICAL ANALYSIS, PETROGRAPHY INTRODUCTION The Amuq Valley, located in Hatay province in southern Turkey (Fig. 1), plays an important role in interconnecting the Anatolian highlands, the Syro-Mesopotamian lowlands and the Eastern Mediterranean (the Aegean, Cyprus, the Levant and Egypt) during the second millennium BC. Tell Atchana (ancient Alalakh) is a mound of approximately 22 ha, located on the Orontes River in the Amuq plain. The site was once the capital of the Kingdom of Mukish. Multiple campaigns of excavation by Sir Leonard Woolley (1930s–1950s; Woolley 1955) and by Aslıhan Yener since 2003 have revealed a long sequence of palaces, temples and fortifications, and written records, as well as luxurious objects and imported materials, besides those materials used on a daily basis (Yener 2010 (ed.), see also Yener 2013). Cypriot pottery is widely distributed in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Late Bronze Age, attesting to the cultural and trade connections between Cyprus and various regions of the Eastern Mediterranean. Tell Atchana plays an important role in this interaction, as it is one of the sites *Received 4 October 2016; accepted 28 April 2017 †Corresponding author: email haciosmanoglu@itu.edu.tr Archaeometry 60, 3 (2018) 471–488 doi: 10.1111/arcm.12328 © 2017 University of Oxford