Qatna and the Networks of Bronze Age Globalism

In October 2009, the exhibition Treasures of Ancient Syria was opened in the Landesmuseum Württemburg in Stuttgart. The focal point of the exhibition was the newly discovered ancient city of Qatna, center of a 2nd millennium BC kingdom of the same name located in present day Syria. The inauguration of the exhibition served as an occasion to invite this field of study’s large international academic community to a conference entitled Qatna and the Networks of Bronze Age Globalism. Hence, from 17th to 20th October 2009, the newest research findings on Qatna, Syria, and the neighboring regions in the 2nd millennium BC were presented and discussed in Stuttgart and Tübingen. The papers published within this book are organized into various thematic categories: Section I, Qatna and the International World of the Bronze Age; Section II, Qatna and Its Syrian Neighbours: Historical Relations and Cultural Contacts; Section III, Materials from Qatna and International Exchange; Section IV, Archaeological and Scientific Investigations at Tell Mishrife/Qatna in a Diachronic Perspective; in Section V, the closing discussions of the conference are published. The proceedings of the conference published within this volume provide a truly unique insight into the world of the ancient Near East in the Middle and Late Bronze Age.