Joachim Bretschneider
Dr. Joachim Bretschneider is Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology at the Department of Archaeology at the University of Ghent (Belgium). He received his PhD in Near Eastern Archaeology from the University of Münster (Germany) in 1990 and was lecturer and professor at the Near Eastern Department of the KU Leuven until 2014.
In Syria, he directed the German excavations at Tell Beydar between 1993-2000. Since 1999 he leads the Belgian Excavation Mission at Tell Tweini (Syria). Currently, he is director of the Belgian participation in the Saudi-Belgian Research Project at Al-Ghat/Saudi Arabia and in 2014 he co-initiated the Pyla-Kokkinokremos excavation on Cyprus.
His main research interests focus on the transition Late-Bronze - Early Iron Age in the Levant and Eastern Mediterranean, the development of early urbanism in the Near East, inter-regional contacts, glyptic in administrative systems and Ancient Near Eastern art. He has written over 120 journal articles, books, book chapters, and reviews. His most recent books Bretschneider J. and G. Jans (eds.), About Tell Tweini (Syria): Artefacts, Ecofacts and Landscape. Research Results of the Belgian Mission (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta Series 281, in print;
Jans G. & Bretschneider J., Seals and Sealings of Tell Beydar/Nabada,(analyses the glyptic material of an Early Bronze Age official household in Northern Mesopotamia)
Address: Department of Archaeology
Ghent University
Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 35
B-9000 Gent
Belgium
In Syria, he directed the German excavations at Tell Beydar between 1993-2000. Since 1999 he leads the Belgian Excavation Mission at Tell Tweini (Syria). Currently, he is director of the Belgian participation in the Saudi-Belgian Research Project at Al-Ghat/Saudi Arabia and in 2014 he co-initiated the Pyla-Kokkinokremos excavation on Cyprus.
His main research interests focus on the transition Late-Bronze - Early Iron Age in the Levant and Eastern Mediterranean, the development of early urbanism in the Near East, inter-regional contacts, glyptic in administrative systems and Ancient Near Eastern art. He has written over 120 journal articles, books, book chapters, and reviews. His most recent books Bretschneider J. and G. Jans (eds.), About Tell Tweini (Syria): Artefacts, Ecofacts and Landscape. Research Results of the Belgian Mission (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta Series 281, in print;
Jans G. & Bretschneider J., Seals and Sealings of Tell Beydar/Nabada,(analyses the glyptic material of an Early Bronze Age official household in Northern Mesopotamia)
Address: Department of Archaeology
Ghent University
Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 35
B-9000 Gent
Belgium
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Tell Tweini or ancient Gibala is located in the Syrian coastal plain and represents the southernmost harbour of the Ugaritic Kingdom in the Late Bronze Age. As one of the few sites under excavation in the Northern Levant with a full archaeological sequence spanning the Early Bronze Age IV (ca. 2400 BCE) up to the Iron Age III period (ca. 500 BCE), Tell Tweini (Field A) is a key site for the study of the developments in the Northern Levant especially where the Bronze to Iron Age transition is concerned.
Tell Beydar, excavated since 1992 by a joint Syro-European expedition headed by Marc Lebeau and Antoine Suleiman, has produced more than 1500 sealings, representing 215 different designs, many of the finest quality. Eighty-five percent of these sealings can be ascribed to the final phase of the Early Jezireh IIIb Official Upper City Complex (dated around 2300 BC). This glyptic material is the largest corpus of Early Bronze Age sealings from Northern Mesopotamia attributed to an official household. The study of the different designs, the functional aspects and the contextual analyses of the sealings give an impression of the official administration in an Early Bronze Age palatial complex.
The authors were responsible for the glyptic study of the 1995 - 2001 seasons, but earlier published glyptic data - the 1994 season conducted by Béatrice Teissier and the 2002 - 2006 seasons by Elena Rova - have also been incorporated in this research.
based on eight seasons of excavations at Tell Tweini (Syria)
in the A and C fields (1999-2007)"
Pyla-Kokkinokremos (Cyprus) Papers/Press by Joachim Bretschneider
Since its discovery in the early 1950s, the Late Bronze Age settlement of Pyla-Kokkinokremos has occupied a prominent position in the debates surrounding the ‘collapse’ of Bronze Age Mediterranean societies c. 1200 BCE. Several elements contributed to the site’s particular status in the Late Cypriot IIC-IIIA settlement landscape:
- the short-lived character of the site – founded towards the end of the 13th c. BCE and abandoned during the first quarter of the 12th c. BCE
- its exceptional ‘casemate’ architecture
- its multi-ethnic material culture – with references to Sardinia, Crete, Egypt, Anatolia, the Syro-Palestinian coast and Mycenaean Greece.
In 2014, Prof. Joachim Bretschneider (UGhent), Prof. Jan Driessen (UCLouvain) and Dr. Athanasia Kanta (Mediterranean Archaeological Society) inaugurated a new excavation project at Pyla-Kokkinokremos following previous successful investigations by Dr. Dikaios, Prof. Karageorghis and Dr. Kanta.
In Eastern Mediterranean history, 1200 BCE is a symbolic date. Its significance is tied to the important upheavals that destabilised regional-scale economic systems, leading to the dislocation of mighty Empires and, finally, to the “demise” of a societal model (termed “the Crisis Years”). Recent studies have suggested that a centuries-long drought, of regional scale, termed the 3.2 ka BP event, could be one of the motors behind this spiral of decline. Here, we focus on this pivotal period, coupling new palaeoenvironmental data and radiocarbon dates from Syria (the site of Tell Tweini) and Cyprus (the site of Pyla-Kokkinokremnos), to probe whether climate change accelerated changes in the Eastern Mediterranean’s Old World, by inducing crop failures/low harvests, possibly engendering severe food shortages and even famine. We show that the Late Bronze Age crisis and the following Dark Ages were framed by an ~ 300-year drought episode that significantly impacted crop yields and may have led to famine. Our data underline the agro-productive sensitivity of ancient Mediterranean societies to environmental changes, as well as the potential link between adverse climate pressures and harvest/famine.
Tell Tweini or ancient Gibala is located in the Syrian coastal plain and represents the southernmost harbour of the Ugaritic Kingdom in the Late Bronze Age. As one of the few sites under excavation in the Northern Levant with a full archaeological sequence spanning the Early Bronze Age IV (ca. 2400 BCE) up to the Iron Age III period (ca. 500 BCE), Tell Tweini (Field A) is a key site for the study of the developments in the Northern Levant especially where the Bronze to Iron Age transition is concerned.
Tell Beydar, excavated since 1992 by a joint Syro-European expedition headed by Marc Lebeau and Antoine Suleiman, has produced more than 1500 sealings, representing 215 different designs, many of the finest quality. Eighty-five percent of these sealings can be ascribed to the final phase of the Early Jezireh IIIb Official Upper City Complex (dated around 2300 BC). This glyptic material is the largest corpus of Early Bronze Age sealings from Northern Mesopotamia attributed to an official household. The study of the different designs, the functional aspects and the contextual analyses of the sealings give an impression of the official administration in an Early Bronze Age palatial complex.
The authors were responsible for the glyptic study of the 1995 - 2001 seasons, but earlier published glyptic data - the 1994 season conducted by Béatrice Teissier and the 2002 - 2006 seasons by Elena Rova - have also been incorporated in this research.
based on eight seasons of excavations at Tell Tweini (Syria)
in the A and C fields (1999-2007)"
Since its discovery in the early 1950s, the Late Bronze Age settlement of Pyla-Kokkinokremos has occupied a prominent position in the debates surrounding the ‘collapse’ of Bronze Age Mediterranean societies c. 1200 BCE. Several elements contributed to the site’s particular status in the Late Cypriot IIC-IIIA settlement landscape:
- the short-lived character of the site – founded towards the end of the 13th c. BCE and abandoned during the first quarter of the 12th c. BCE
- its exceptional ‘casemate’ architecture
- its multi-ethnic material culture – with references to Sardinia, Crete, Egypt, Anatolia, the Syro-Palestinian coast and Mycenaean Greece.
In 2014, Prof. Joachim Bretschneider (UGhent), Prof. Jan Driessen (UCLouvain) and Dr. Athanasia Kanta (Mediterranean Archaeological Society) inaugurated a new excavation project at Pyla-Kokkinokremos following previous successful investigations by Dr. Dikaios, Prof. Karageorghis and Dr. Kanta.
In Eastern Mediterranean history, 1200 BCE is a symbolic date. Its significance is tied to the important upheavals that destabilised regional-scale economic systems, leading to the dislocation of mighty Empires and, finally, to the “demise” of a societal model (termed “the Crisis Years”). Recent studies have suggested that a centuries-long drought, of regional scale, termed the 3.2 ka BP event, could be one of the motors behind this spiral of decline. Here, we focus on this pivotal period, coupling new palaeoenvironmental data and radiocarbon dates from Syria (the site of Tell Tweini) and Cyprus (the site of Pyla-Kokkinokremnos), to probe whether climate change accelerated changes in the Eastern Mediterranean’s Old World, by inducing crop failures/low harvests, possibly engendering severe food shortages and even famine. We show that the Late Bronze Age crisis and the following Dark Ages were framed by an ~ 300-year drought episode that significantly impacted crop yields and may have led to famine. Our data underline the agro-productive sensitivity of ancient Mediterranean societies to environmental changes, as well as the potential link between adverse climate pressures and harvest/famine.
The site of Pyla-Kokkinokremos represents a singularly short-lived settlement in the island’s Late Bronze Age history. Established only a generation or so prior to its eventual abandonment in the early 12th century BC, the site provides important evidence relating to the crucial period at the end of the 13th and the beginning of the 12th century BC. Former excavations suggest the entire plateau of ca. 7 ha to have been densely occupied. Excavated parts on the plateau were laid-out regularly within a perimeter ‘casemate’ wall. During the 2018 season excavations continued both on the west and east lobe in an effort to better understand the layout, organisation and functional specialisation of the settlement.
According to an official press release, the excavations are conducted under the direction of Prof Joachim Bretschneider (University of Ghent & KU Leuven), Dr Athanasia Kanta (Mediterranean Archaeological Society) and Prof. Dr Jan Driessen (Université Catholique de Louvain) and took place from March 27th to April 24th 2016.
Based on recently published parallels from Assur - in motif and style - and according to the comparative chronological categorization the Tweini seal can be dated to the 13th century BC, probably to the reign of Tukulti-Ninurta I (1243-1207 BC). This period is well attested in the rich archaeological record of Level 7 -Late Bronze Age II at Tweini. Since the floor deposit comprising this cylinder seal was dated to Level 6AB - Iron Age II, the seal consequently appears to have been kept over a long period.
Geology, 47, 2019
by David Kaniewski, Nick Marriner, Rachid Cheddadi, Christophe Morhange, Joachim Bretschneider, Greta Jans, Thierry Otto, Frédéric Luce and Elise Van Campo
The Al-Ghat project is four-fold:
1. The study of the iconographical material incised on rocks (G. Jans, A.-S. Van Vyve & J. Bretschneider),
2. The study of the textual material incised on rocks (J. Tavernier & E. Gorris),
3. A survey project looking for early human activity (Ph. Van Peer), and
4. The topographical documentation of several significant sites in the Al-Ghat region (N. Kress).
our species in a landscape different from today.
is primarily known from the Ebla Archives, which cover a period of less than 50
years before the Akkadian domination. Aside from the archives and the royal
inscriptions of Sargon and Naram-Sin, mentioning military campaigns to the
North and the destruction of Mari and Ebla, textual evidence, including seal inscriptions,
is scarce.
The already lively dispute concerning the historical reconstruction of military
events at the end of the Early Dynastic period and the beginning of the Akkadian
hegemony in Syria can be enriched by the recently unearthed seal impressions
from Mari and Tell Beydar. During the Early Dynastic as well as the
Akkadian period important historic or military events were often translated to
historical documents as well as to royal art.
4500 Jahre alte Palastbürokratie im Norden Mesopotamiens zu entschlüsseln.
Über 1500 Siegelabrollungen dokumentieren komplexe Sicherungssysteme innerhalb des Palastes von Nabada. Die mit figürlichen Bildszenen verzierten Siegelbilder waren Meisterwerke der Steinschneidekunst und bieten einen tiefen Einblick in die Glaubens- und Lebenswelt dieser Zeit.
IN 1993 AND 1994 excavators made a surprising discovery: a collection of clay tablets with a meticulous record of the palace's daily accounts. Since then, we have found 216 tablets inscribed with a cuneiform script familiar from southern Mesopotamia. Most of the tablets were part of the floor of a house; they had evidently been discarded and reused as building material. We came across a heap of trash thrown over the palace wall, including many tablets. These written documents date to 2350 B.C.E., their age making them an important key to the culture.
The tablets are curious in one aspect: the script is Sumerian, but the language is Semitic. Philologists assume that Semites migrated into Mesopotamia around the end of the fourth millennium B.C.E., intermingling with Sumerians and finally dominating Mesopotamian civilization. They adopted the Sumerian script—the only one available—to express their own language. The tablets of Tell Beydar represent the largest collection of Old Semitic texts found in the Kha-bu-r area.
The Semitic royal cities of Mari and Ebla had yielded archives of this period. Mari, discovered in the 1930s, lay halfway between southern and northern Mesopotamia and formed a link between the two cultures. Around 2400 B.C.E. it ruled much of the region to its north. Ebla, in western Syria, was discovered in 1968 by an Italian team led by Paolo Matthiae of the University of Rome "La Sapienza." Here the archaeologists found an extensive archive of cuneiform tablets, which describe trade relations with Nagar and Mari. Nagar was said to lie on an international trade route between the mountains, which were rich in ores, and southern Mesopotamia, with its major center at Kish.
archeologen een 4.300 jaar oud paleis op. Meer dan 1.500 zegels
en verzegelingen vertellen over het leven in een van de oudste paleizen van Noord-Mesopotamië.
Nabada, machtige stad in
Noord-Mesopotamië
Nabada bereikte zijn culturele hoogtepunt rond
het midden van het derde millennium v. Chr. Toen
was de politieke en economische macht van de
regio geconcentreerd in een aantal grote steden
zoals Kisch, Lagash, Umma, Ur en Uruk in Irak en
Tell Chuera, Ebla, Nagar, Urkish, Nabada en Tuttul
in Syrië.
Nabada diende onder andere als rust- en bevoorradingsplaats
voor internationale handelskaravanen
die de grote centra van het Middellandse
Zeegebied, Mesopotamië en Anatolië verbonden.
In de eerste helft van het derde millennium v. Chr.
bouwden de eerste bewoners van Tell Beydar een
circulaire nederzetting van 600 meter in diameter.
Op het einde van de 25ste eeuw werd Nabada
onder het bewind van Nagar (Tell Brak) geplaatst.
Een ringvormige omwalling van vijf meter breed
beveiligde de stad. Het paleis en de tempels van
Nabada in het centrum van de stad werden nog
extra beschermd door een massieve binnenmuur.
Veel muren van het paleiscomplex, opgetrokken
uit ongebakken leemtichel, zijn tot vier meter hoog
bewaard, inclusief de deuropeningen.
Rond 2.300 v. Chr. veroverden de Akkadiërs de
stad, waarna ze werd verlaten. De benedenstad
werd vanaf 1.500 v. Chr. opnieuw bewoond door
de Mitanni. In de 7de eeuw v. Chr. bouwden de Assyriërs
een nieuwe stad op de ruïnes van de Mitanni
What is most striking about this burial is indeed not the grave goods themselves – though indicative of elite status and certainly wealth (21 bronze objects, 2 silver (?) and 65 ceramic) they are not unusual. Indeed the lack of more jewelry or gold objects is perhaps notable. But the indications of ritual actions performed in conjunction with the burial is highly significant and offers substantial clues to the identity of the individual therein. The adze was carefully broken just below the head; the broken staff placed in the dead man’s hand, the adze head placed just to the side of where it would have been if unbroken. The largest of the daggers (the most likely to have been an actual, used weapon) was stabbed into a carefully made pile of stones. A large animal, possibly equid , was butchered and placed beneath a similar pile of stones. A figurine, perhaps representing the ‘spirit’ of the man, was cut in two. Except for the last of these, whose meaning is uncertain, these actions relate not simply to the cessation of life but to the cessation of office or role. The adze is a symbol of power; the dagger and equid (?) the tools of a warrior. The personal ornaments though silver were simple – the diadem perhaps may indicate high status, but there was no jewelry besides the bracelet, and even the beads found were not from a necklace worn by the deceased. Indeed the diadem and possibly the bracelet are themselves probably functional – indicative of a particular rank and not simply general wealth.""