The ´champagne-cup` period at Carchemish. A review of the Early Bronze Age levels on the Acropolis Mound and the problem of the Inner Town.

Abstract

The pioneer excavations conducted by the British Museum expedition at the famous site of Carchemish in the 1910’s brought to light a large number of buildings, sculptures and inscriptions which provide an outline of the urban layout of the Iron Age city and its monuments. While many scholars have often attempted to re-examine the epigraphic material as well as the style and chronology of the major works of this period in order to set them in a proper historical context, much less attention has been paid to the earlier levels mainly uncovered on the Acropolis mound, ranging from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. This paper discusses the archaeological evidence available and attempted to reconstruct the early occupation sequence at the site basing on published and unpublished data, now kept in the archivers of the British Museum in London.