New research on Middle Bronze Age chronology of Western Syria
Uwe Sievertsen

This paper deals with an ongoing research project of the speaker which aims at refining the Middle Bronze Age chronology of Western Syria on the basis of stratified pottery assemblages. Here, the term "Western Syria" implies an area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Euphrates, that means pottery from the coastal region and from Inner Syria shall be taken into account. The study of pottery from the current excavations of the University of Tübingen in the palace of Tall Mishrife / Qatna shall serve as a starting point. Comparisons can be drawn with material from several Western Syrian sites, among others Tell Nebi Mend, Hama, Ebla, Alalakh and Ugarit. This will be used as a basis for a more precise definition of the pottery tradition of Middle Bronze Age Western Syria which at the same time has to be distinguished from contrasting pottery traditions of neighbouring regions as Southern Syria, the Lebanon and Northern Palestine. Finally it is planned to compare the pottery sequence of Western Syria to systems of absolute chronology in Egypt and Mesopotamia in order to examine to what extent the different chronological approaches can be correlated with the archaeological findings from the region in question.