Late Bronze II Sealing Practices in the Northern Levant in Light of New Evidence from Karkemish

This article offers an analysis of sealing practices and some administrative procedures during the Late Bronze Age II (LB II) in North Levantine cities in light of the evidence for clay sealings from archaeological contexts. The entire region extending from the Middle Euphrates valley to the Syrian coast was subjugated by the Hittite king Suppiluliuma I in the 3rd quarter of the 14th cent. bc. Until the collapse of the Hittite Empire, cities and local kingdoms of the region remained under the Hittite control. The influence of the new suzerains has been detected in the archival materials and administrative tools retrieved from the major political centers, such as Emar and Ugarit. In fact, diplomatic texts, treaties and economic documents provide us with detailed information about the political history of this particular region and the social organization of its urban centers and their relations with the Land of Hatti and other political players of the Late Bronze Age. In addition, seals and sealings shed light on administrative procedures of complex bureaucratic systems.