Syria and the chronology of the Iron Age

Resumen

Recent archaeological activity in Syria has produced new documents which can be used in fixing the clrronology of the Iron Age. The emergence of the Iron Age can be dated to the last quarter of the 12th century after a crisis period (first quarter of the 12th cent.) and a subsequent squatter reoccupation (second and third quarter of the 12th century. Iron Age IA,B,C coverirlg the end of the 12th tlre 11th and 10th centuries, can be defined mainly on the base of the sequence of occupation of Tell Afis.

Considerations of a historical and archaeological nature point to the heginning of tlre 9th century as a reliable turning point frorn Iron I to Iron II. Iron IIA and B, documented by several rebuilding activities in most sites, cover the 9th and 8th centuries dominated by the increasing territorial competition of the local kingdoms confronted with Assyrian expansion. The end of Iron Age IIB is marked by more or less severe destructions occurring in the last quarter of the 8th cent. which are often followed by an extensive replanning during Iron III, in the 7th - mid 6th centuries, a period characterized by cultural homogeneization and Assyrian acculturation.