The Upper Khabur and the Upper Tigris valleys between the end of the Late Bronze Age and the Beginning of the Iron Age: an assessment of the archaeological evidence (settlement patterns and pottery)

The transition from the end of the Late Bronze Age into the Iron Age, and the changes in the political and cultural systems of Upper Mesopotamia, have been the focus of in-depth archaeological and historical research. It is one of the key issues considered in current debate. The surveys and excavations carried out in recent decades in Northern Syria and in South-Eastern Turkey have yielded new evidence to reconsider important aspects of local 2nd and 1st millennium cultures. The primary goal of this article is to offer a preliminary synthesis of Late Bronze Age-Iron Age settlement in the river valleys of the Upper Khabur and the Upper Tigris. This takes into account the main results which have come to light from old and recent excavations, and from small and large regional surveys. Equally significant, however, is the exploration of how the archaeological evidence can be integrated successfully with written sources to reconstruct historical events.