NORTH SYRIA AND CILICIA, C.1200 – 330 BCE Gunnar LEHMANN Department of Bible, Archaeology, and Ancient Near Eastern Studies Ben-Gurion University P.O.B. 653 Beer Sheva 84105 ISRAEL E-mail: gunnar.lehmann@gmail.com An investigation of Phoenicians and their relationship with north Syria and Cilicia during the Iron Age and the Achaemenid period will have to define what one holds to be ‘Phoenician’ and what is considered the area of the Phoenician homeland as opposed to its neighbouring areas such as north Syria and Cilicia. Phoenicians are elu- sive, in archaeology as well as in the historical record. Apparently, they never consid- ered themselves to be ‘Phoenicians’ and their own designations stress their regional city-state affiliations. Thus, with an emphasis on the political aspects, any relationship between Phoenicians with their neighbouring areas would in fact be the interaction of a particular Phoenician city-state with a foreign territory. In terms of economic aspects, these relationships are characterised by the marketing and distribution of spe- cific Phoenician products or trade goods produced by others and shipped by Phoeni- cians. While it is difficult to identify such activities in the historical record, it is even more problematic with the archaeological record. Ethnicity is notoriously hard to identify in the archaeological record. In order discuss the mutual relationships of the Phoenician city-states with north Syria and Cilicia, however, one has to identify ethnic markers of Phoenician material culture in the stratigraphical record of excavations there. On the other hand, chronological connections between Phoenicia and Syria/Cilicia can often be reconstructed without specific ethnic markers of Phoenicians since during the Iron Age it is often Cypriote, not Phoenician, pottery that connects the archaeological records of both areas. Another problem arises from the state of archaeological research in north Syria and Cilicia. While there are an impressive number of important archaeological sites in these areas, there are unfortunately only a limited number of excavations with a sufficient stratigraphic record. Some of which, unfortunately, have never been published. The chronology of Iron Age Syria is currently based to a large extent on one excavation, Stefania Mazzoni’s expedition to Tell Afis. We are lacking more published stratified records and it is difficult to connect and to date the available archaeological evidence