The Iron Age II-III Pottery Assemblage from Karkemish and Yunus

During the 2011 excavation campaign at Karkemish and Yunus, the joint Turco-Italian expedition brought to light several later Iron Age contexts, with their pottery assemblages. A preliminary analysis of the Iron Age (hereafter IA) II-III pottery is proposed here on the basis of this fresh evidence as well as on the results of the excavations conducted by C. L. Woolley. The IA II-III materials retrieved by the British Museum expedition came from the Hilani, the Lower Palace area, the Storm-God Temple, the King's Gate, as well as from some buildings of the Outer Town and the Yunus cemetery. Most of these areas have been newly investigated by the joint Turco-Italian Expedition in 2011. In particular the efforts were concentrate in the so-called "Lower Palace Area", where three operations were opened: area A (Storm-God Temple), area B (Hilani) and area C (King's Gate). Another area (D) was opened at the edge of the Inner Town with the aim of studying Woolley's "South Gate". In the Outer Town, area E was opened in order to intercept the alleged Assyrian city wall, while close to the Syrian border, we documented the remains of House A and investigated a small part of a cremation cemetery (Area F). Therefore during the 2011 excavations, domestic, religious, palatial, funerary and military contexts have been investigated. This variety might provide the basis for future studies dealing with functional interpretations of spaces and of the pottery assemblages.