Alalaḫ

The key strategic site of Alalaḫ (Tell Atchana, 20km east of Antakya), situated only 400 m east of the northernmost bend of the Orontes river. Alalaḫ was the capital of the kingdom of Mukiš, which was under Mitannian sovereignty until it was conquered by the Hittites ca. mid-14th century BCE.

Given its location at one of the entry points from Anatolia to Syria, controlling Alalaḫ was crucial for the Hittites. After Šuppiluliuma conquered Mukiš, it became a Hittite province ruled by Hittite-appointed officials, although local political representatives maintained some power. It continued under Hittite overlordship until the fall of Alalaḫ, sometime during the first decades of the 12th century BCE.

The site was first excavated by Leonard Woolley immediately before and after the Second World War (1937–1939 and 1946–1949). In the excavations, hundreds of texts were discovered at two separate levels—Alalaḫ VII and Alalaḫ IV. While the former level dates back to the Middle Bronze Age, the latter dates to the Late Bronze Age (Mitanni period) and consists of some 300 texts, which were found in the palace and its surroundings. Excavations were resumed in 2003 under the direction of K.A. Yener (Chicago Oriental Institute).

Since the Alalaḫ archive was first published by Wiseman (1953), its impressive corpus of legal texts has been subject to remarkable studies (e.g. von Dassow 2008).