Continuity and Change in the Town Planning and Material Culture of Iron Age II and III Mishrifeh, Central Syria

Abstract

The paper presents the archaeological evidence concerning the Iron Age II and III from the excavations conducted at Mishrifeh by the Italian component of the joint Syrian-Italian mission. The archaeological data excavated in nine years of archaeological exploration will be surveyed and integrated with data already published from the site so as to permit a brief discussion of the different types of evidence (town planning, residential architecture, craft and productive activities, funerary practices, administration patterns, material culture, site function) obtained from Mishrifeh from the 9th to the mid 6th century BC and an exploration of the “continuity and change” issue in this important site of Central Syria at the time of the Luwian-Aramaean principalities and the Assyrian domination.