An aerial view of the mound at Tell Tayinat.

Tell Tayinat Archaeological Project

Project Type Research Project
Status Active
Field Domain Archaeology & Fieldwork
Time Period Bronze Age
Regions Turkey

Overview

The Tayinat Archaeological Project (TAP) is a multi-disciplinary project investigating the historical development of urban institutions and the rise of early state-ordered societies in the ancient Near East. Tell Tayinat is a large archaeological mound located in the Amuq Plain, at the northern bend of the Orontes River, approximately 30km east of Antakya (ancient Antioch) in southeast Türkiye. As the royal capital of a succession of historically attested Bronze and Iron Age kingdoms (ca. 3200–600 BCE), Tayinat has been an important bellwether of social and cultural change. The Tayinat Archaeological Project (TAP) has been exploring Tayinat since 1999, and to date, it has opened wide horizontal exposures of close to 3000m² dated to the Early Bronze Age IV, and to the Iron I, II, and III, examining all periods of occupation at the site.

An aerial view of the mound at Tell Tayinat.

An aerial view of the mound at Tell Tayinat.

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Help advance archaeological research at Tell Tayinat in southeastern Türkiye. Your support sustains excavation, documentation, conservation, and analysis.

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History of the Project

Tell Tayinat was the scene of large-scale excavations by the University of Chicago in the 1930s, which uncovered several large palaces, a temple, and numerous beautifully carved stone reliefs, sculptures, and stelae inscribed with Luwian (Neo-Hittite) hieroglyphic inscriptions, and helped to identify the site as ancient Kunulua, capital of the Neo-Hittite/Aramaean Kingdom of Patina/Unqi. After a 70 year hiatus, the Tayinat Archaeological Project (TAP) was launched in 1999 as part of the Amuq Valley Regional Project (AVRP), which had been systematically documenting the archaeology of the Amuq Plain since 1995. Since 1999, TAP has successfully documented the well-preserved Iron Age settlement at Tayinat, as well as the site’s earlier levels, dating to the 3rd millennium BCE, when Tayinat represented the primary urban center in the region.

The Tell Tayinat Team

Select Publications

  • Radovan Kabatiar. “Aquatic Diversity and Fishing Practices at Tell Tayinat (Türkiye) in the Iron Age.” International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 36 (2026): 1–11.
  • S. Klassen, L. Welton, S. Batiuk, Z. Kuşdil Sak, T. Harrison, and E. Denel. “Tell Tayinat Archaeological Project (TAP): Season 2017–2019.” The Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies Journal 14 (2022): 45–51. 
  • Tim Harrison. “The Iron Age I–II Transition in the Northern Levant: An Emerging Consensus?” Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology 1 (2021): 325–351. 
  • D. Langis-Barsetti. “Building Kunulua Block by Block: Exploring Archaeology through Minecraft.” Near Eastern Archaeology 84 (2021): 62–70. 
  • J. Unruh and C. Harbeck. “Conservation Decision-Making in the Field: A Case Study.” Journal of the Institute of Conservation 44 (2021): 3–24. 
  • 2020 Ertepinar, P., Hammond, M.L., Hill, M.J., Biggin, A.J., Langereis, C.G. Herries, A.I.R., Yener, K.A., Akar, M., Gates, M.-H., Harrison, T., Greaves, A.M., Frankel, D., Webb, J.M., Özgen, İ., and Yazicioglu, G.B. Extreme geomagnetic field variability indicated by Eastern Mediterranean full-vector archaeomagnetic records. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 531. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2019.115979 
  • Janeway, B. “What’s in a Face? An Anthropomorphic Pictorial Sherd from Tell Tayinat” Pp. 201–222 in Anadolu Prehistoryasına Adanmış Bir Yaşam: Jak Yakar’a Armağan/ A Life Dedicated to Anatolian Prehistory: Festschrift forn Jak Yakar. Edited by Barış Gür and Semra Dalkılıç. Ankara: Bilgin Kültür Sanat. 
  • Manning, S.M., Lorentzen, B., Welton, L, Batiuk, S., Harrison, T.P. Beyond megadrought and collapse in the Northern Levant: The chronology of Tell Tayinat and two historical inflection episodes, around 4.2ka BP, and following 3.2ka BP. PLOSOne. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240799 
  • Welton, L. EBIV ceramic production in the Orontes Watershed: petrography from the Amuq and beyond. Levant 52(1-2): 215–236. 
  • Welton, L. The Amuq in the Early Bronze Age III-IV from a Levantine Perspective. Pp. 51–71 in New Horizons in the Study of the Early Bronze III and Early Bronze IV of the Levant, ed. S. Richard. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns. 2019 
  • Harrison, T. Tell Ta’yinat (anciennement Kunulua). Les Néo-Hittites du Palastin/Walastin. Pp. 219–31 in Royaumes oubliés. de l’empire Hittite aux Araméens, Paris: Lienart and Musée du Louvre. 
  • Harrison, T., Denel, E., Batiuk, S., Tayinat Höyük Kazıları. 2017. Kazi Sonuclari Toplantisi 40, Cilt 3: 483–502. 
  • Karakaya, D. Botanical Aspects of the Environment and Economy at Tell Tayinat from the Bronze to Iron Ages (ca. 2.200 – 600 BCE), in south-central Turkey. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Tübingen. 
  • Karakaya, D. and Riehl, S. Subsistence in Post-Collapse Societies: Patterns of Agroproduction from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron Age in the Northern Levant and Beyond. The Iron Age I in the Levant. A View from the North (Part I), ed. by L. Welton and H. Charaf. Archaeology & History in the Lebanon 50-51: 136–63. 
  • Osborne, J., Harrison, T., Batiuk, S., Welton, L., Dessel, J.P., Denel, E., and Demirci, Ö. Urban Built Environments of the Early First Millennium BCE: Results of the Tayinat Archaeological Project, 2004-2016. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 382: 261–312. 
  • Welton, L. A New Start or Business as Usual? Evidence from the Earliest Iron Age I Levels at Tell Tayinat. The Iron Age I in the Levant. A View from the North (Part I), ed. by L. Welton and H. Charaf. Archaeology & History in the Lebanon 50–51: 70–92. 
  • Welton, L., Harrison, T., Batiuk, S., Ünlü, E., Janeway, B., Karakaya, D., Lipovitch, D., Lumb, D. and Roames, J. Shifting Networks and Community Identity at Tell Tayinat in the Iron I (ca. 12th to mid 10th Cent. BCE). American Journal of Archaeology. Vol. 123, No. 2 (April 2019): 291–333. 
  • 2018 Akıncı, Y. and Denel, E., Kubaba – Kütüphane Kedisi. Kedici 28: 22–26. 
  • Denel, E. and Harrison T. Neo-Assyrian Tayinat. Pp. 364–379 in The Assyrians. Kingdom of the God Aššur from Tigris to Taurus, ed. K. Körğulu and S.F. Adalɪ, Istanbul: Yapı Kredi Kültür Sanat Yayıncılık. 
  • Harrison. T. Foreword. Pp. ix-x, in Sea Peoples of the Northern Levant? Aegean-Style Pottery from Early Iron Age Tell Tayinat. Studies in the Archaeology and History of the Levant 7. Leiden: Brill. 
  • Harrison, T. and Denel, E. Neo-Assyrian Tayinat. Pp. 364-79 in The Assyrians: Kingdom of the God Aššur from Tigris to Taurus. ed. K. Köroğlu and S. Ferruh Adalı. Istanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları. 
  • Harrison, T., Denel, E., and Batiuk, S., Tayinat Höyük Araştırmaları, 2016. Kazi Sonuclari Toplantisi 39, Cilt 1: 563–571. 
  • Janeway, B. Sea Peoples of the Northern Levant? Aegean-Style Pottery from Early Iron Age Tell Tayinat. Studies in the Archaeology and History of the Levant 7. Leiden: Brill. 2017 
  • Batiuk, S., and Harrison, T. P. The Metals Trade and Early Bronze Age Craft Production at Tell Tayinat. Pp. 48-66 in Overturning Certainties in Near Eastern Archaeology: A festschrift in Honor of K. Aslihan Yener, ed. C. Maner, M. T. Horowitz, and A. S. Gilbert. Leiden, Boston: Brill. 
  • Denel, E. and Harrison, T. P., The Neo-Hittite Citadel Gate at Tayinat (Ancient Kunulua). Pp. 137-55 in The Archaeology of Anatolia: Recent Discoveries (2015-2016), Vol. 2. ed. S. Steadman and G. McMahon. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 
  • Harrison, T. P. The Genius of Neo-Assyrian Imperialism: Recent Discoveries at Tell Tayinat in the North Orontes Valley. AUB Archaeological Museum Newsletter 31/2:14–20. Harrison, T. P. Royal Self-Representation and the Legitimation of Authority at Tayinat (Ancient Kunulua). Pp. 277-99 in Herrschaftslegitimation in vorderorientalischen Reichen der Eisenzeit, ed. C. Levin and R. Müller. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck Verlag. 
  • Harrison, T. P., Denel, E., and Batiuk, S. Tayinat Höyük Kazıları, 2015. Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı 38/1: 539-54. Osborne, J.F. and Karacic, S. Urbanism beyond the Acropolis: The Tayinat Lower Town Project Surface Survey, 2014-2015, Anatolica XLIII, 37-70. 
  • Ünlü, E. Tell Tayinat Yereşiminde Gec Tunc – Erken Demir Cagi Geciş Donemi Seramikleri Üzerinden Amik Ovasi’Nda Görülen Yerel Devamliliklar ve Dogu Akdeniz Baglantilari. Pp. 91-112 in OLBA 24. Mersin: Mersin University Publications of the Research Center of Cicilian Archaeology.

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