Таййнат қаласы: Ортос өзені жағасындағы ежелгі мәдениеттер ошағы

Archaeological site on the Orontes river in Hatay Province, Turkey

Tell Ta'yinat is a low lying ancient tell on the east bank at the bend of the Orontes River where it flows through the Amuq valley, in the Hatay province of southeastern Turkey about 25 kilometers south east of Antakya (ancient Antioch), and lies near Tell Atchana, the site of the ancient city of Alalakh. Tell Ta'yinat has been proposed as the site of Alalaḫu, inhabited in late 3rd millennium BC, mentioned in Ebla's Palace G archive; and in later times as Kinalua, the capital city of an Iron Age Neo Hittite kingdom. Among the findings are an Iron Age temple and several 1st millennium BC cuneiform tablets.

Archaeologist Timothy Harrison, the dig director for many years starting in 2004, supports the identification of the site with Kinalua, the capital of a Neo Hittite/Aramean Iron Age kingdom. It is a possible site of the city of Calneh mentioned in the Hebrew Bible.

Four seasons of archaeological excavations were conducted at the site by the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute from 1935 to 1938, led by Robert Braidwood. From 1999 to 2002, the Oriental Institute returned to the site, as part of the Tayinat Archaeological Project, to conduct mapping and surveying and to examine the original excavations. New excavations at the site were begun by a team from the University of Toronto in 2004, after a survey in 2003. Continued excavations in the summer of 2005 exposed more of the Iron Age temple as well as part of one of the early Iron Age II bit hilanis. A significant amount of earlier Iron Age I material was also uncovered as well as small amounts of Early Bronze Age material. Excavations have continued now for a total of 13 seasons, through 2016. Findings have included a significant Iron Age temple, a number of 1st millennium BC cuneiform tablets, and initial structures from the earlier Bronze Age settlement. A lecture by James Osborne, on "The Syro Anatolian City States: A Neglected Iron Age Culture" addresses aspects of the site.

The site consists of an upper mound of about 20 hectares and a lower mound (now under floodplain cover, extending to the north (around 200 meters), east (around 100 meters), and southeast (slight extent). About 550 square meters of the upper mound (north and east sides) have been removed by modern bulldozer activities. In the Early Bronze Age the site was somewhat larger than the current upper mound at around 25 hectares, based on coring and surface collection, with the remains measuring in at 3 to 6 meters in depth.

Archaeological excavation at the tell has indicated, in conjunction with ancient written sources, that the site was a major urban centre in two separate phases, during the Early Bronze Age and Early Iron Age.

Red black burnished ware (Khirbet Kerak ware) was found in Phases H and I, corresponding to the Early Dynastic period in Mesopotamia. This pottery is believed to be influenced by the Kura Araxes culture, arriving into this area around 3000 BC. In the Amuq Plain, Tell Tayinat was the largest settlement in the EBIVB. The structural remains from Tell Tayinat have been from the Early Bronze IVB period (Phase J). Among the finds are 17 anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines in a style typical of the region at that time. Also found were two wheels, copper alloy metal fragments, spindle whorls and loom weights. Notable finds were a cylinder seal and two clay sealings.

The Oriental Institute campaigns (1935–38) brought to light several large palaces in the style known as bit hilani. The 2005 excavations exposed part of one of the early Iron Age II bit hilanis.

Langis Barsetti, D. "Building Kunulua Block by Block: Exploring Archaeology through Minecraft", Near Eastern Archaeology 84(1), pp. 62–70, 2021
Batiuk, S., and Harrison, T. P. "The Metals Trade and Early Bronze Age Craft Production at Tell Tayinat", pp. 48 66, in Overturning Certainties in Near Eastern Archaeology: A Festschrift in Honor of K. Aslihan Yener, ed. C. Maner, M. T. Horowitz, and A. S. Gilbert. Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2017
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Fales, Frederick Mario. "After Ta'yinat: the new status of Esarhaddon's adê for Assyrian political history", Revue d'assyriologie et d'archéologie orientale 106.1. pp. 133 158, 2012
Manning, S. M., Lorentzen, B., Welton, L, Batiuk, S., Harrison, T. P. "Beyond megadrought and collapse in the Northern Levant: The chronology of Tell Tayinat and two historical inflection episodes, around 4.2ka BP, and following 3.2ka BP", PLOSOne, October 29 2020. Harrison, T., "The Iron Age I–II Transition in the Northern Levant: An Emerging Consensus? ", Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology, pp. 325–351, 2021
Harrison, Timothy P. "The Neo Assyrian governor's residence at Tell Ta‘yinat", Journal (The Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies) 40, pp. 23 33, 2005
Janeway, Brian. "The nature and extent of Aegean contact at Tell Ta'yinat and vicinity in the Early Iron Age: Evidence of the Sea Peoples". In "Cyprus, the Sea Peoples and the Eastern Mediterranean: Regional Perspectives of Continuity and Change". Scripta Mediterranea, Scripta Mediterranea, pp. 27 28, 2006
Roames, Jim. "The Early Iron Age metal workshop at Tell Tayinat, Turkey", MRS Online Proceedings Library 1319.1, pp. 1 7, 2011