Introduction

Site and Setting

Early Excavations

New Discoveries

Research Goals

Acknowledgments

Site and Setting

Zincirli (pronounced “Zin-jeer-lee”) is the modern Turkish name for the ruin mound (höyük, in Turkish) in which are buried the remains of the ancient city of Sam’al. The name Zincirli means “place of the chain” (Turkish zincir is “chain”). It got this name in the Ottoman period because a military well along the road that passed by the site possessed an iron chain—an unusual feature in this remote valley, populated at that time mainly by nomadic herders.

The ancient name Sam’al means “North.” The city was obviously so designated from the perspective of Semitic-speaking settlers coming from the south, who gave it this name, perhaps in the “Amorite” Middle Bronze Age in the early second millennium b.c., when an empire based in Aleppo (Halab) dominated most of Syria, or possibly even earlier, during the period of the Ebla Empire in the mid-third millennium b.c., when the site of Zincirli was first occupied. (The Semitic word ŚM’L means “left,” but it also means “north,” because that is the direction to your left as you face east, towards the rising sun. Likewise, the Semitic word for “right,” YMN, also means “south.”)

Another ancient name for Zincirli or the surrounding region that appears in various inscriptions is Y’DY. We do not know how to pronounce it, but it does not appear to be Semitic, indicating that there was at some point a non-Semitic-speaking population living in the area, as well. That population, and the name they gave to the site, most likely resulted from migrations into the Zincirli region that took place under the aegis of one of the foreign empires that dominated North Syria in the latter part of the second millennium b.c.—a migration either of Hurrian-speakers within the Mittannian Empire (ca. 1480–1340 b.c.) or of Luwian-speakers in the Hittite Empire (ca. 1340–1180 b.c.).

The well-fortified city of Sam’al guarded a major pass over the Amanus Mountains, which divide the Syrian interior from the Mediterranean Sea and the Cilician plain to the west. It therefore controlled the caravan traffic from inland Syria and Mesopotamia that traveled westward to the Mediterranean from the upper Euphrates River, leaving the river at a point about 100 kilometers (60 miles) due east of Zincirli, where the Euphrates comes closest to the sea. The heavily forested Amanus Mountains were famous in antiquity for their timber, especially tall pine and cedar, which was shipped overland to the Euphrates and then downstream to treeless southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq).

Physical Geography

Zincirli is situated in a fertile valley, about 60 kilometers (35 miles) south of the towering Taurus Mountains. The snow-capped Taurus range extends in an east-west direction across southern Turkey, reaching elevations as high as 3,700 meters (12,000 feet). It separates the Anatolian plateau to the north from the Syro-Mesopotamian region to the south. In ancient times, the Taurus Mountains were a major barrier to travel and communication. There were only a few routes by which they could be crossed: principally, the mountain pass known as the “Cilician Gates,” through which runs the modern highway from Ankara to Adana, located 160 kilometers (100 miles) west of Zincirli, on the far side of the Cilician plain; or, alternatively, by means of the upper Euphrates valley, 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Zincirli, which connects the northbound traveler with a series of mountain valleys in eastern Anatolia through which ancient caravans passed.

Zincirli lies immediately adjacent to the eastern foothills of the Amanus Mountains (called the Nur Dağları in Turkish; literally, “Mountains of Holy Light”), a steep north-south range that extends southward from the Taurus Mountains and separates the broad and lush plain of Cilicia from the Syrian interior and the Euphrates River. The city of Tarsus in Cilicia—birthplace of the Apostle Paul—is 160 kilometers (100 miles) west of Zincirli; the even more prominent classical city of Antioch on the Orontes (modern Antakya) is 110 kilometers (70 miles) to the south.  While Antioch is strategically positioned near the eastern outlet of the main southern pass over the Amanus range (the Belen Pass, known in classical times as the “Syrian Gates”), the site of Zincirli is positioned near the northern pass of the Amanus, astride the ancient caravan route that ran from the Cilician plain—famous for its horses—up through the forests and logging camps of the Amanus toward the Euphrates River, and from there to the great population centers of Mesopotamia.

The long, narrow valley in which Zincirli is situated is only 10 to 20 kilometers (6 to 12 miles) in width. This valley lies along a major geological fault formed by the clash of two tectonic plates. In fact, it is the northernmost extension of the 6,000-kilometer (3,700-mile) Syro-African Rift that skirts the eastern shore of the Mediterranean and includes the Orontes River valley in Syria, the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, the Sea of Galilee, Jordan River, and Dead Sea, and extends all the way to Mozambique in East Africa.

These rift valleys were natural corridors of travel and communication in ancient times. The inhabitants of Zincirli were therefore always in close contact with people to the south in the  Orontes region and elsewhere in Syria. Through the valley near Zincirli flowed the Karasu River, a northern tributary of the Orontes that joins it in the plain of Antioch (the “Amuq”).

Climate, Flora, and Fauna

Zincirli is in a “Mediterranean” climatic zone characterized by hot, dry summers and cool, rainy winters, with abundant resources for rainfed agriculture in the valley bottom and for pasturing herds and flocks in the nearby hills. The Amanus Mountains receive substantial precipitation, averaging 1,000 millimeters or more per year. In ancient times, before modern deforestation due to logging and overgrazing, the mountain slopes supported dense forests consisting mainly of coniferous species such as fir, spruce, cedar, pine, and juniper. This region was thus a major source of high-quality timber and other tree products such as resin, which were exported to the great cities of Mesopotamia from very early times.

East of Zincirli, where annual rainfall rapidly declines with increasing distance from the sea due to the “rain-shadow” cast by the Amanus, the dense forest gave way to a typical Mediterranean scrubland or “maquis,” consisting of clumps of terebinth, oak, pistachio, and other small trees and broad-leaved evergreen shrubs—many of them aromatic, such as mint, laurel, and myrtle.

Wild game abounded around Zincirli in ancient times, as attested in the hunting scenes found on Iron Age stone reliefs at Zincirli and in animal bones excavated at the site. Native to the wooded mountains and foothills near the site were deer, hares, and wild boars, as well as large predators such as wolves, lions, and bears. The streams and marshes of the Karasu valley were home to a wide variety of fish, turtles, and water fowl, augmented by the millions of migratory birds that passed through the narrow valley in their seasonal movements from Russia to Africa.

In addition to these wild resources, the ancient inhabitants of Zincirli farmed the rich soils of the valley, raising wheat and barley, as well as various vegetables, and cultivating grapes, olives, and figs—for all of which there is excavated botanical evidence as well as ancient textual documentation. These crops, combined with the herding of sheep, goats, and cattle, and the hunting of wild game, provided a typical Mediterranean subsistence economy in ancient Sam’al.

[Last revised on  May 10, 2009.]

The upper mound of Zincirli—the royal citadel of Iron Age Sam’al—with the Amanus Mountains rising behind it to the west.

The Neubauer Expedition to Zincirli

 

Satellite image of the site of Zincirli showing modern fields, roads, and canals. The plan of Iron Age Sam’al is superimposed, showing the location of the buried city walls, gates, and central citadel, which had its own walls and gate. A modern village occupies the northwestern quadrant of the site. (Each grid square measures 100 × 100 meters.)

A view of the Karasu valley, facing east, from the foothills about a kilometer west of the site of Zincirli, which is marked by the patch of dark green trees in the middle distance.

A deer-hunting scene carved on stone orthostats that lined the south gate of Iron Age Sam’al, now on display in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum. The scene shows a hunter with bow and arrow, chasing two fleeing stags—one with an arrow piercing its neck, with the hunter’s dog close behind—and a lion.

Satellite image of the lower Orontes valley (the plain of Antioch or “Amuq”), looking north towards the the Karasu valley, which is bounded on the west by the steep Amanus Mountains. The northeastern corner of the Mediterranean Sea (the Gulf of Iskenderun) is visible in the upper left. The yellow line stretches from the important Iron Age site of Tell Ta‘yinat, near the meandering Orontes River, to Zincirli Höyük, a distance of 100 km (60 miles). The large walled cities at Ta‘yinat and Zincirli were the capitals of two neighboring kingdoms.

Sources

Contact:

Dr. David Schloen

Associate Professor

University of Chicago

1155 East 58th Street

Chicago, Illinois  60637

d-schloen@uchicago.edu

Carved stone orthostat depicting a lion-headed hunter, found in 1888 in the Iron Age citadel gate of Sam’al, and now on display in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum