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Detail of Fig. 10 in this article.

New Light on the Amarna Period from the

Northern Levant. A Clay Sealing with the
Throne Name of AmenhotepIV/Akhenaten
from the Royal Palace at Tall Mirife/Qana
Alexander Ahrens HeikeDohmann-Pflzner PeterPflzner

Abstract/Kurzfassung/
At Tall Mirife/Qana, one clay sealing with the throne name (prenomen) of Pharaoh
Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten (18th Dynasty) was discovered in the Bronze Age royal
palace. The article deals with the chronological and historical implications of the clay
sealing for the Late Bronze Age Northern Levant and the palace of the rulers of Qana.
Im bronzezeitlichen Palast von Tall Mirife/Qana wurde ein Tonverschluss mit dem
Thronnamen des Pharaos Amenhotep IV./Echnaton (spte 18. Dynastie) gefunden.
Der Artikel behandelt die chronologischen und historischen Implikationen des Tonverschlusses auf die nrdliche Levante und den Palast der Knige von Qana.

Syria Qana Late Bronze Age Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten 18th Dynasty Contextual Analysis
Syrien Qana Sptbronzezeit Amenhotep IV./Echnaton 18. Dynastie Befundanalyse

Introduction
During the excavation campaign of 2008 of the
Syrian-German Archaeological Mission at Tall
Mirife/Qana,1 one clay sealing with the throne
name (prenomen) of the Egyptian Pharaoh AmenhotepIV/Akhenaten (18thDynasty) was discovered in
RoomDK of the Bronze Age royal palace.2 The sealing was found among a number of both scarab and
cylinder seal impressions that were discarded in this
room.3 However, among the glyptic material found
in RoomDK, the clay sealing with the throne name
of AmenhotepIV/Akhenaten is only attested once.4
Moreover, it is the only impression of a seal of the
Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten found in the Levant to
date. Thus, it is a discovery of peculiar importance

for the understanding of the relations between Egypt

and the northern Levant during the 18th Dynasty and
for the chronology of the eastern Mediterranean in
the second half of the second millennium B.C.
1 All figures are courtesy of the Qana Excavation Project
(IANES, University of Tbingen). The Syrian-German Mission was jointly directed by Michel al-Maqdissi (DGAMS,
Damascus) and Peter Pflzner (IANES/University of Tbingen) in the season of 2008.
2 Room DK, item MSH08G-i0256; area A-7780 (locus
FS4876).
3 At least 25 scarab impressions found in Room DK also find
close parallels at Tell el-Amarna and are likely to have come
from Egypt, too. For these parallels, see Petrie 1894, pl. XV
nos. 134. 140. 156158.
4 See Dohmann-Pflzner Pflzner 2008, 4345; DohmannPflzner Pflzner 2011.

ZOrA 5, 2012, 232248

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Alexander Ahrens Heike Dohmann-Pflzner Peter Pflzner

Fig. 1 Overview of Room DK in the north-western wing of

the royal palace of Qana (Qana Excavation Project, IANES/
University of Tbingen; P. Pflzner).

The Functional and Stratigraphic

Context
The find context of the sealing of Akhenaten in the
royal palace of Qana is a very interesting and significant one. Room DK is part of the north-western
wing of the palace, a structural unit added to the
Middle Bronze AgeIIA main building, probably still
in use during the entire Middle Bronze Age II, and
erected on a lower terrace of the surrounding ground
(Figs.12). As the terrace was significantly lower in
elevation than the basement level of the adjoining central area of the palace, it was protected from erosion.
This resulted in an excellent state of preservation of
the architecture and the associated find contexts. Two
complete floor levels, one on top of the other, are preserved in the north-western wing, both constructed on
the lower terrace of the surrounding terrain: a lower
ground level, and a basement level underneath it. A
third and uppermost storey, the former main level (or:
upper level) is not preserved, but can be reconstructed
from architectural and depositional indications.
RoomDK is the chamber within the north-western wing where the largest quantity of objects was

ZOrA 5, 2012, 232248

found. They amount to a number of 1927 single items

(in addition to 780 collections of sherds, bones, samples or other objects). They all belong to a thick
deposition of refuse, 1.9m in height, which filled the
whole area of the small room with a size of 3.2 by
2.8m (Figs.34). This thick deposit is homogenous
in consistency and in the occurrence of objects, but
has accumulated in several successive levels, although obviously within a short time frame. Thirteen
different sub-levels could be distinguished during
the excavations. The sealing with the throne name
of Akhenaten was found in the uppermost of these
sub-levels.
The densely packed refuse contained thousands
of pottery sherds and hundreds of fragmented pottery
vessels, more than ten thousand animal bones, and the
extraordinary amount of 808 clay sealings (Fig.5). In
addition, there were a cylinder seal, several bronze arrowheads, and five administrative cuneiform tablets.
This assemblage of objects typically reflects activities
of administration and consumption within the royal
palace. It might have been connected to a kitchen
and magazine area, where food and other goods were
stored, processed and consumed. Within the frame

New Light on the Amarna Period from the Northern Levant

235

Fig. 2 Reconstructed plan of the royal palace of Qana

with Room DK in the north-western part (Qana Excavation
Project, IANES/University of Tbingen; A. Bianchi).

Fig. 3 Upper levels of the refuse deposit in Room DK

(Qana Excavation Project, IANES/University of Tbingen;
K. Wita).

Fig. 4 Lower levels of the refuse deposit in Room DK

(Qana Excavation Project, IANES/University of Tbingen;
P. Pflzner).

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Alexander Ahrens Heike Dohmann-Pflzner Peter Pflzner

closely connected to the administrative and economic activities of the royal palace of Qana during
the 14th century B.C., as it stems from a functionally
and stratigraphically very well defined context within
the palace. This strengthens the historical importance
and relevance of the object.

The Clay Sealing: Typology and

Function
Fig. 5 Detail of dense refuse accumulation in Room DK
(Qana Excavation Project, IANES/University of Tbingen;
H. Dohmann-Pflzner).

of these functions, the sealings and tablets indicate

the administration of the goods, the pottery vessels
testify of the processing, distribution and consumption of food, and the animal bones represent slaughtering and consumption remains. Thus, they offer an
instructive insight into the regular economical and
service activities of this area of the palace.
This accumulation of refuse was deposited in
what is the lower ground level of RoomDK. The refuse must have been discarded into this room from a
higher elevation, probably from a room in the main
floor level (i.e. the upper ground level) of the palace,
which has not been preserved. Thus, the connected
activities can be reconstructed to have taken place in
the former main floor level of the palace, while the
lower ground level of RoomDK served exclusively
as a refuse chamber. Whether this, however, was the
case throughout the long use of the palace is unclear,
because the refuse exclusively belongs to the latest
use of the palace and must have been accumulated during the final years before the destruction of the palace
at around 1340B.C. This becomes clear through its
stratigraphic position: the refuse forms a homogenous
layer, which was intentionally deposited on top of an
earlier 2.5m thick layer of mud and decayed bricks.
There is no debris deriving from the final destruction
of the palace intermingled with the refuse layer. Thus,
the refuse deposition can be identified as a specific
process, well defined in time, happening before the final destruction of the palace. The deposit is attributed
to the pre-destruction phase G7b of the royal palace,
dated to the Late Bronze Age IIA period (see below).
In summary, the sealing with the impression
of the scarab of Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten can be

ZOrA 5, 2012, 232248

The small sealing with the impression of the scarab

of AmenhotepIV/Akhenaten has a peculiar shape: it
is hemispherical in form with a flat underside and a
regularly curved, convex upper side (Figs.6ac). The
diameter of the piece is 4cm, and its height is 2cm.
It is in the texture of clay. The convex upper side of
the sealing, where the seal has been impressed, is
well preserved, while more than half of the underside
is broken away. The scarab has been impressed five
times all over the convex upper side of the small lump
of clay. One impression was placed in the center of
the clay lump, while four identical others have been
impressed in a circle around the first one, at approximately regular distances to each other (Fig.7).
In the undamaged area of the underside negative
impressions of the sealed material are visible. There
are impressions of a textile cloth and of two simply
twisted ropes. The ropes are loosely twisted and have
a diameter of 5mm. This proofs that the clay sealing
was once attached to a piece of cloth which was tied
up by a cord. Furthermore, it is obvious that the cloth
must have rested on a flat surface. It is not possible
to say on which kind of container or other object the
cloth had once been placed. According to the small
diameter of the sealing, it could probably have been
the opening of a small bottle, which was covered by
a piece of cloth to protect its content. Theoretically,
however, it could also have been any other small, flat
object. As a consequence, it is not possible to exactly
identify the type of container which had been sealed.
Thus, the specific function of the clay sealing must
remain obscure.
It has to be noted that this specific hemispherical
type of clay sealing occurs several times within the
context of RoomDK. It is striking that almost all of
these pieces are of the same fine, light brown, unbaked clay. Furthermore, the hemispherical sealings
are often sealed with scarab impressions, while the
cylinder seal impressions presenting the majority
of the seal impressions from RoomDK are mainly
connected to different types of sealings. Therefore,
the hemispherical formal type tends to be associated
with a specific kind of clay and also with a specific

New Light on the Amarna Period from the Northern Levant

237

Fig. 6 Clay sealing with the throne name of Amenhotep

IV/Akhenaten. a. Top view. b. Side view. c. Bottom view
(Qana Excavation Project, IANES/University of Tbingen;
ab: C. Seitz; c: J. Gergovich).

Fig. 7 Clay sealing with the throne name of Amenhotep IV/

Akhenaten: drawing (Qana Excavation Project, IANES/University of Tbingen; K. Hammed al-Hammud).

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Alexander Ahrens Heike Dohmann-Pflzner Peter Pflzner

type of seal. There are only variations in the diameter and in the height of the sealings; sometimes the
pieces show impressions of leather, instead of textile,
on the underside. We can conclude that these sealings
belong to a particular functional group. Interestingly,
the scarab impressions on the hemispherical sealings
show only Egyptian or Egyptianizing motives and
iconography. Whether this indicates that all of these
sealings also represent goods brought from Egypt
remains an open question for further studies, yet it
seems likely. With reference to the impression of
the sealing with the throne name of AmenhotepIV/
Akhenaten, we might with a high degree of probability say that this specific piece had been sealed in
Egypt and that the goods sealed by it had been transported from there to Qana.

The Impression
Clay sealing MSH08G-i0256 features the impressions of one single seal that was used five times to
evenly cover the entire surface of the sealing.5 The
actual seal that was used for the impression (length:
1.4 cm, width: 1.0 cm)6 carried the throne name
of AmenhotepIV/Akhenaten in hieroglyphs (Nfrpr.w-R -w -n-R ).7
Numerous parallels for clay sealings with impressions featuring the throne name of Akhenaten, as
well as scarab seals and faience bezel rings displaying this specific arrangement of hieroglyphs, are attested in Egypt, notably at Tell el-Amarna, the ancient
capital Akhetaton.8 The clay sealing from RoomDK
is the first archaeological attestation of Pharaoh
AmenhotepIV/Akhenaten at Qana (Figs.810).

The Historical Implications of the

Clay Sealing
Pharaoh AmenhotepIV/Akhenaten, tenth ruler of the
18thDynasty, reigned over Egypt for seventeen years
(ca. 135313369 or 13511334B.C.10). He spent the
first five years of his reign at Thebes in Upper Egypt
before moving the court to his newly erected capital
Akhetaten (t-Jtn, modern Tell el-Amarna) in Middle
Egypt in his 56th year. Along with the radical religious changes during his rule and the subsequent
move to the new capital, Amenhotep IV changed his
personal name (Jmn-tp [nr q Wst]) to Akhenaten
(-n-Jtn). However, the throne name (or prenomen) of
the king (Nfr-pr.w-R -w -n-R ), which is also featured
on the clay sealing, remained unchanged throughout
his rule, thus making it difficult to determine the exact

ZOrA 5, 2012, 232248

date within the kings reign when the object(s) sealed

by the clay sealing were sent to Qana.11 The throne
name of the king is also the name commonly featured
in the corpus of the Amarna letters, here rendered as
Naphururija, Namhurija and other variations in the
cuneiform texts, all without the epitheton w -n-R .12
Two of the five Amarna letters from Qana
(EA 5256, but perhaps also including EA 57?),13
written by King Akizzi, are explicitly addressed to
Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten (EA 53 and 55) and are
thus generally to be dated to his reign.14 Although
it is unclear when exactly these letters were written
during his reign, it can be surmised on the basis of the
internal political information given in these letters
that they were written after the move to Akhetaten,
i.e. most probably after the year 6 of his reign. Additionally, the political turmoil in regions of the northern Levant reflected in the letters seems to point to
a rather late date in the kings reign. The letters from
Qana regularly refer to specific events in the area,15
presumably because the great threat of the approaching Hittites made relations in the buffer zone of
prime importance for Egypt.16
5 For the typology of clay sealings of the Amarna period, see
Hope 1993, 9193; Kuckertz 2003, 714.
6 Measurements are reconstructed on the basis of the seal impression outline.
7 See von Beckerath 1999, 143 (T 13); Kuckertz 2003, 33
34. 6061 (note 668).
8 Petrie 1894, pl. XIV, 3335; Peet Woolley 1923, pl.
55; Pendlebury 1951, pls. 8183 (type IV); Shaw 1984;
Kuckertz 2003, 714 (II.2.4: Flach gewlbte Verschlsse;
II.2.5: Flache Scheiben); Budka 2005.
9 See von Beckerath 1997; Schlgl 1993.
10 Kitchen 2000; Kitchen 2007.
11 See von Beckerath 1999, 142.
12 See the different variations in Knudtzon 1915, 487; Albright
1946, 17 no. 34; Bryce 1990; Moran 1992, xxxivxxxix.
125127; Hess 1993, 116; Miller 2007 a.
13 See the discussion in Mynov 2005, 445446; see also
Goren Finkelstein Naaman 2004, 9496.
14 The rest of the letters from Qana refering only to the
king, see Moran 1992, 123129; Mynov 2005, 448449.
Mynov (449) writes that the royal prenomen () could
not be known to Akkizi of Qana from the letters addressed
by the king of Egypt to his vassals. While this may be true
on the basis of the known Amarna letters sent from Egypt
to Qana, the clay sealing from Qana might argue otherwise, especially when considering the possibility that the
object which was once sealed by the clay sealing found at
Qana was part of a larger group of objects accompanied
by an Egyptian delegation. The Egyptian officials and other
personnel present at the site, not least when interpreting
between the ruler of Qana and the Egyptian envoy, surely
would also have mentioned the throne name of the king.
15 The so-called Archive of Idanda, which was discovered in
2002 in the debris of the Late Bronze Age palace of Qana
clearly refers to events which took place shortly before
Akizzi became king of Qana; for the archive, see Richter
2002; Richter 2003; Richter 2008.
16 Akizzi of Qana most probably ruling shortly before or at
the time of uppiluliumas Second Syrian War. For the

New Light on the Amarna Period from the Northern Levant

Fig. 8

239

Fig. 9

Figs. 810 Clay sealing with the throne name of

AmenhotepIV/Akhenaten: details of scarab impression
(Qana Excavation Project, IANES/University of Tbingen;
C. Seitz).

Fig. 10

That also a mutual exchange of objects took place

between Qana and Egypt during the reign of AmenhotepIV/Akhenaten apart from the historical information given in the Amarna letters is now archaeologically attested for the first time by the clay sealing
found at Qana. Beyond doubt, the clay sealing attests
to the existence of an Egyptian object that was sent to
Qana from Egypt.17 The apparent dispatch of Egyptian goods to Qana might also well be seen in the
light of Akizzis pleas for such objects in the letters
sent to the Egyptian king.18 Also at Tell el-Amarna, a
large number of clay sealings were found, exemplifying the high level of complexity and differentiation
within the royal administration.
The clay sealing found at Qana is also of prime importance as only few objects naming AmenhotepIV/
Akhenaten have been found in the entire Levant so

far. These objects include two, possibly three, fragmentary stone vessels made of calcite-alabaster from
the royal palace at Ras Shamra/Ugarit and one scarab
chronology of the historical events in the northern Levant
during the Amarna period and its aftermath, and the many
problems pertaining to reconstruction of these events, see
Klengel 1969, 108134; Klengel 1992, 107116; Klengel
2000, 248249; Khne 1973; Krauss 1978, 3645; Bryce
1990; Gabolde 1998; James 2000; Richter 2002, 615616;
Richter 2003, 178179; Richter 2008; Miller 2007 a; Miller
2007 b; Miller 2007 c; Gromova 2007, esp. 299; see now
also Cordani 2009; Simon 2009; Wilhelm 2009; Breyer
2010, 164202; Devecchi Miller 2011.
17 It is probable that the clay sealings of Egyptian origin found
at Qana and thus also the objects they once sealed are
only to be seen as the tip of the iceberg of Egypto-Levantine relations during this period.
18 For a compilation of the various objects sent see CochaviRainey 1999; Forstner-Mller Mller Radner 2002.

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Alexander Ahrens Heike Dohmann-Pflzner Peter Pflzner

made of gold naming Queen Nefertiti from the Late

Bronze Age shipwreck at Uluburun.19
Two of the stone vessels from RasShamra/Ugarit
mention Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten here already
named Akhenaten , the cartouche of the God Aten
and QueenNefertiti.20 On the basis of the specific
rendering of the name of the God Aten and the mention of the name Akhenaten, the two vessels can be
dated to the time span of years 612 of the king.21
This chronological frame, however, can only be applied for the date of the manufacture of the stone vessels and not for their eventual dispatch to Ugarit.22
The scarab of the royal consort Nefertiti from
the shipwreck at Uluburun (late 14th centuryB.C.) is
the only other object dating to the reign of AmenhotepIV/Akhenaten that has been found in the Mediterranean and northern Levantine regions so far.23 Since
the queen died late in the reign of Amenhotep IV/
Akhenaten, it is clear that the scarab must have been
manufactured during the reign of the king.24 However, discussing the scarab, Weinstein argues that the

scarab seal belonged to an official person and was

only later after losing its original function as a
seal, thus probably after the death of both Nefertiti
and Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten dispatched to the
Levant.25 A second possibility for the scarabs presence in the shipwreck, according to Weinstein, could
well be the tomb robbery of graves of high officials
of the Amarna period.26 In both cases, the scarab
would have reached the Levant only after the reign of
AmenhotepIV/Akhenaten.
It seems unlikely that objects that were sent off to
destinations located in the northern Levant were transported overland all the way from Egypt.27 Rather, a
seaborne route, starting from the major ports in the
eastern Nile Delta (e.g. from Peru-nefer, now probably to be identified with the site of Tell ed-Daba)28
and terminating at important northern Levantine
ports such as Tyre,29 Sidon,30 Byblos31 or Ullaza
(Khan al-Abd or Tell et-Taal at the mouth of the
Nahr al-Bared?),32 seems to be a much more likely
scenario. At these ports, the ships cargo would then

19 Objects naming his father and predecessor Amenhotep III,

however, have been found at numerous sites in the entire
Levant. In the northern Levant, scarabs, four fragmentary stone vessels naming the king (vessels RS 16.340,
RS17.58, RS11.329, and RS 111.[116]) and one fragmentary commemorative scarab (RS 16.94) have been found at
Ras Shamra/Ugarit, see Lagarce 2008, 263265 figs. 13.
272274 figs. 1011; see also the compilation of objects
naming Amenhotep III by Weinstein 1989, 26; Weinstein
2001, 231236. A further scarab with the throne name of
Amenhotep III was recently found in the Late Bronze Age
Lower City Palace of Qana (pers. comm. D. Morandi
Bonacossi). A stone vessel naming Pharaoh Horemhab
was also found at Ras Shamra/Ugarit (RS 17.420/421), see
Lagarce 2008, 268269 fig. 6 (a second stone vessel naming
Horemhab was found at the site, but is not published yet;
pers. comm. B. Lagarce). For Horemhabs alleged activities
in the northern Levant, see Miller 2007a; Wilhelm 2009. A
stamped handle with the throne name of Smenkhkare was
found at the site of Tell Jerie in southern Palestine, see
Goldwasser 1990, 29 fig. 1; for an ivory carving with the
cartouche of Smenkhkare at Ugarit, see Gabolde 2012. Additionally, a fragment of a stone vessel made of calcite with
the cartouches of Ay was found at Assur, its findspot above
the stone foundations of the palace of Adad-Nirari I, see von
Bissing 1940, 150151 fig.2; Yalcn Pulak Slotta 2005,
655 no. 233 (VAM8293). For all of these objects, however,
a clear and secure date for their dispatch to the sites cannot
be given.
20 The two stone vessels (RS 15.202 and RS 15.203, now kept
in the National Museum Damascus) were found within the
archives centrales (i.e. loci 30 and 31) of the royal palace, see Desroches-Noblecourt 1956, 167 fig. 120; Lagarce
2008, 266267 figs. 45; Fragment RS 16.340 (attributed to
Amenhotep III) possibly mentions Akhenatens throne name
(Jmn-tp nr q Wst) before year 6, see Gabolde 2012; for
the fragment, see Lagarce 2008, 263 fig. 1.
21 Lagarce 2008, 274; years 414 according to Gabolde 2012.
22 A later date for their dispatch cannot be excluded, since the
find context of the vessels (loci 30 and 31) is problematic in
terms of stratigraphy, see Schaeffer 1954, 4142; Lagarce

2008, 264. That relations with Egypt existed during the

Amarna period, however, might be supported by the socalled Marriage Vase of Niqmaddu II, ruler of Ugarit (ca.
1340 B.C). This clearly Levantine production features Egyptianizing elements that compared to Egyptian parallels
seem to provide a late fourteenth-century date for the vessel,
roughly contemporary with the reigns of AmenhotepIV/
Akhenaten through Ay, see Desroches-Noblecourt 1956,
209218; Feldman 2002, 79. On Ugarits political status,
see also Singer 1999; Altman 2008, 4142.
For the find context of the scarab, see Bass et al. 1989,
67; for the scarab see Weinstein 1989, 1729 figs. 2930;
Weinstein 2008, 358 no. 223; Yaln Pulak Slotta 2005,
598 no. 112; Bachhuber 2006.
Krauss 1978; Krauss 1997 a; Krauss 1997 b; Krauss 2007;
see also Loeben 1986.
Weinstein 1989, 23.
Weinstein 1989, 24.
Admittedly, in letter EA 255 written to the king of Egypt by
Mut-Balu, king of Pella in the Jordan Valley, the king refers
to caravans transporting goods that were destined north to
Hanigalbat. In this specific case it remains unclear why the
goods were sent to such a northern locale via the Pella in the
Jordan Valley, see Moran 1992, 308.
Bietak 2005.
According to Amarna letter EA 155 (Knudtzon 1915, 633
639; Moran 1992, 241242), sent by ruler Abi-milki of Tyre
to the Egyptian king, the city of Tyre apparently was considered a personal estate or domain of princess Meritaten,
one of the daughters of Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten, for
Abi-milki refers to Tyre as the city of Mayati and calls
himself the servant of Mayati, see Albright 1937, 191
196; Jidejian 1969, 1421; Hachmann 1982 a, 3536; Giles
1997, 201213; Siddall 2010, 2730. With the relative dating given in the letter, EA 155 probably dates to the last
years of Amenhotep IV/Akhenatens reign, but perhaps even
the alleged coregency with or succession of Smenkhkare.
Sadah 2004, 110112. 123125; Doumet-Serhal 2004, 78;
Doumet-Serhal 2008.
Montet 1928; Moran 1992.
Bartl 2002, 2427; Gubel 2009, 223224.

ZOrA 5, 2012, 232248

23

24
25
26
27

28
29

30
31
32

New Light on the Amarna Period from the Northern Levant

have been unloaded, and part of the objects finally

reached their destinations overland with caravans,
sometimes also led or accompanied by Egyptian official delegations, as is also attested in the corpus of
the Amarna letters.
Although it is a moot point to try to track down
the exact route by which objects were dispatched
from Egypt to Qana, two general routes may seem
to stand out on the basis of the written evidence
provided by the Amarna letters and the specific sites frequently mentioned in these pertaining to movement of goods and personnel. One of these two
routes on which Egyptian goods might have reached
Qana would start at one of the ports along the northern Levantine littoral, probably at Tyre or Sidon,
and then would continue via the Pass of ezzin33
into the Beqaa Valley, where the Egyptian garrison
town of Kumidi (Kmid el-Lz)34 was located. From
Kumidi northwards, the route would pass Qadesh on
the Orontes (Tell Nebi Mend)35 and then finally reach
Qana. A possible second route would start in the
Plain of Akkar (the harbor of Ullaza somewhere located here), where also the Egyptian garrison town of
umur (Tell Kazel)36 was located farther inland, and
then reach Qana via the Gap of Homs (Fig.11).37

The Chronological Implications of

the Clay Sealing
The sealing with the impressions of the scarab is both
dated by its inscription and its stratigraphical context.
Both lines of evidence can be connected in order to
establish a chronological benchmark for the northern
Levant and Syria in the second half of the 14th century B.C.
As the seal was most obviously used as an administrative document for the shipment of goods from
Egypt to Qana, it can be concluded that it must be
contemporary with the actual reign of the mentioned
pharaoh (ca. 1353/511336/34 B.C.). There is no
argument that the Egyptian bureaucracy would have
continued to use the pharaohs seal for economic
transactions considerably after his death, especially
in view of the political changes occurring in Egypt
during his successors.
A date of the sealing and the associated dispatch
of goods from Egypt to Qana during the second half
of the second millennium B.C. conforms well with the
assumed date of the deposition in RoomDK before
the final destruction of Qana and the royal palace at
around 1340B.C., during the reign of the Hittite King
uppiluliuma I (13551320B.C.) and in the wake of
the Hittite incursions into Syria.38 That the deposition

241

Fig. 11 Map of Egypt and the Levant during the 14thcentury B.C. (Qana Excavation Project, IANES/University of
Tbingen; map compiled by A. Bianchi).

predates the destruction can be concluded from the

lack of any destruction debris within the refuse accumulation, which is so omnipresent in many other
parts of the royal palace, such as HallC,39 the palace
Well-RoomU,40 or CorridorAQ leading to the Royal
Hypogeum.41 The fact that the mentioned deposition
process in Room DK does, on the other hand, not
considerably predate this destruction becomes clear
especially through the pottery inventory of the refuse
deposit.42 It is typologically very similar to if not

33 Kuschke 1977.
34 Hachmann 1982 a; Hachmann 1982 b; Hachmann 2001.
35 Pzard 1931; Parr 1983; Bourke 1993, 155158; Millard
2010.
36 Hachmann 1982 a, 2330; Badre 2009 (with further references).
37 Klengel 2000, 240; see also Gubel 2009, 226227.
38 Pflzner 2007, 4243.
39 See the destruction debris discovered by Comte R. Du
Mesnil du Buisson (1935, 7179) in what he called Le temple de Nin-Egal, which is identical to Hall C.
40 Dohmann-Pflzner Pflzner 2006, 7885; DohmannPflzner Pflzner 2008, 157162; Dohmann-Pflzner
Pflzner 2008, 6571.
41 Novk Pflzner 2003, 138151.
42 A detailed study of the Late Bronze Age pottery from Room
DK and from other contexts of the royal palace is currently
carried out by S. Dpper (University of Tbingen).

ZOrA 5, 2012, 232248

242

Alexander Ahrens Heike Dohmann-Pflzner Peter Pflzner

Fig. 12 Late Bronze Age IIA bowls, deposited in the refuse

of Room DK (Qana Excavation Project, IANES/University of
Tbingen; H. Dohmann-Pflzner).

indistinguishable from the pottery found in the various destruction contexts within the palace area.43
The prevailing types, particularly the flat bowls with
un-accentuated rims,44 clearly represent the typical
forms of the Middle-Syrian IB pottery repertoire, dated to the period around 14001340 B.C. at Qana, i.e.
contemporary to the Late Bronze AgeIIA (Fig.12).45
Thus, the sealing with the throne name of Pharaoh
Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten, the associated MiddleSyrian IB pottery, and the stratigraphical context of
the deposit within RoomDK closely intertwine to
form a strong chronological benchmark for the Late
Bronze AgeIIA period, with the RoomDK assemblage to be dated rather precisely between 1360 and
1330 B.C.46

Conclusions
Although scarab seal impressions on clay sealings
have been found in the Levant before,47 the clay
sealing with the throne name of AmenhotepIV/
Akhenaten is so far the first archaeological attestation of this king at Qana, and adds to the very
few objects naming this king in the entire eastern
Mediterranean. The sealing most probably along
with the other clay sealings with scarab impressions
found in this room , however, were surely disposed
of soon after the objects arrival at the site. These
sealings from the royal palace at Qana are the only
archaeological proof known thus far apart from
the evidence of such Egypto-Levantine contacts
provided in the corpus of the Amarna letters of a
shipment of Egyptian goods to the northern Levant,

ZOrA 5, 2012, 232248

and Qana, during the king Akhenatens reign. Additionally, it seems highly unlikely that a seal naming AmenhotepIV/Akhenaten was still used after
the kings death. The clay sealing vividly attests to
an existing exchange of goods taking place between
Egypt and the court of Qana that was hitherto unknown in the archaeological record, although at the
moment one cannot specify what exactly was sent
to Qana from Egypt. Typologically, the clay sealing probably sealed a small container or vessel, as
clay sealings of that specific size generally seem to
be restricted to smaller objects on the basis of the
sealings found at Tell el-Amarna.48 With a very high
probability, the clay sealing with the throne name of
AmenhotepIV/Akhenaten found in RoomDK most
likely attests to a larger group of Egyptian objects
that were dispatched to the site of Qana, as is also
clearly evidenced by the numerous other scarab impressions found in the refuse deposit of the same
room. Since Akizzi of Qana apparently seems to
have been witness to the destruction of the royal
palace, probably caused by a Hittite attack,49 the
recipient of Akhenatens envoy to Qana might have
43
44
45
46

Dohmann-Pflzner Pflzner 2006, 6465.

Dohmann-Pflzner Pflzner 2006, figs. 19. 32.
Pflzner 2007, fig. 15.
Several 14C datings of organic materials from Room DK are
currently underway at the University of Tbingen in order to
further specify this time frame.
47 Scarab seal impressions have already been found at the
site of Qana (see Ahrens 2003, with further literature);
however, since the scarabs used for these are of Levantine
origin, they cannot provide archaeological proof of direct
Egypto-Levantine connections. A scarab seal impression
naming Thutmose III was found at Tell Deir Alla in the
Jordan Valley (DA 3456 C/K5.4); see van der Kooij 2006,
214 fig. 12.4. 217. A clay sealing with a (local?) scarab
impression was also found at Pella, see Smith Potts 1987,
64 pl. 40 no. 3. Additionally, scarab seal impressions on
ceramics are also attested in the archaeological record, e.g.
at Tell el-Ajjul in southern Palestine (naming Thutmose
III/Hatshepsut); see Petrie 1932, pl. VIII no. 117; Sparks
2007, 110 no. 125. Just for the sake of completeness, one
should also mention two scarabs naming Thutmose III
(Mn-pr-R ) and a fayence ring bezel naming Thutmose I
( -pr-k-R ), which were found at Hama on the Orontes.
It must be kept in mind that these objects were all found in
strata dating to a much later period, and may have arrived
at the site only after the New Kingdom; they were probably
never used for administrative purposes, see Riis 1948, 157
fig. 198bc. 159 fig. 202.
48 Kuckertz 2003, 715. 60 no. 3; 65 no. 7; 90 no. 36; 95 no.
48; 96 no. 49. See now also Hoffmeier van Dijk 2010 for
a significant number of seal impressions from Tell el-Borg
in North Sinai, mentioning the names of several members of
the royal family of Akhetaten and pharaohs of the late 18th
Dynasty. The seal impressions attest to a military presence
at this fort during the late 18th Dynasty.
49 As mentioned in Akizzis letter (EA 55) to Amenhotep IV/
Akhenaten, see Moran 1992; for the divergent views on who
destroyed the royal palace, see Pflzner 2007, 4243; Richter 2002, 614616; Richter 2008.

243

New Light on the Amarna Period from the Northern Levant

been Akizzi himself or one of his predecessors, e.g.

Idanda (also: Idadda) of Qana, whose archive was
found within the debris of Corridor RoomAQ of the
palace leading to the royal tomb.50
Ultimately, the find of the clay sealings in
RoomDK also would seem to put an end to the
common scholarly belief that during the reign of

AmenhotepIV/Akhenaten the direct Egyptian political involvement in the northern Levant ceased to
exist. It also must be noted here, however, that it is
difficult to judge on the basis of the present evidence
whether Qana politically belonged to Egypts sphere
of influence at the time the letters were written or still
remained loyal to the rulers of Mittani.

Addresses
Alexander Ahrens M.A.
Deutsches Archologisches
Institut
Orient-Abteilung
Auenstelle Damaskus
POB 11870
Damascus
Syria
ahrens@damaskus.dainst.org
Heike Dohmann-Pflzner M. A.
Prof. Dr. Peter Pflzner
Universitt Tbingen
Institut fr Kulturen des Alten
Orients (IANES)
Abteilung Vorderasiatische
Archologie
Schloss Hohentbingen
Burgsteige 11
72070 Tbingen
Germany

heike.dohmann-pfaelzner@uni-tuebingen.de
peter.pfaelzner@uni-tuebingen.de

50 For the archive, see Richter 2002; Richter 2003; Richter

2008.

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244

Alexander Ahrens Heike Dohmann-Pflzner Peter Pflzner

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Inhaltsverzeichnis
In memoriam Eugen Wirth, Ricardo Eichmann Margarete van Ess . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Mesopotamien und regional bergreifende Themen

Nico Becker Oliver Dietrich Thomas Gtzelt idem KksalSchmidt Jens Notroff Klaus Schmidt, Materialien zur Deutung der zentralen
Pfeilerpaare des Gbekli Tepe und weiterer Orte des obermesopotamischen Frhneolithikums . . .

14

Maria Theresia Starzmann, Die Lithikfunde vom Fstkl Hyk. Technologie

und Handwerk in der Halaf-Zeit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Daniel Lau, Ein lter Frhdynastisches Siegel aus K/L XII/XIII in Uruk-Warka . . . . . . . . . . 74
Magorzata Daszkiewicz Margarete van Ess Gerwulf Schneider,
Pottery and Clay from Uruk, Southern Iraq. Laboratory Analysis of Pottery Fabrics from the
Late Uruk to the Seleucid Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Margarete van Ess Arnulf Hausleiter Haydar H. Hussein Nader B.
Mohammed with contributions by Emmanuele Petiti and Francelin Tourtet,
Excavations in the City of Arbil, 20092011. The Neo-Assyrian Tomb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Levante
Karin Bartl Abdelqader Farzat Wael al-Hafian, The Late Neolithic
Site of Shir. New Results from 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Florian Klimscha, Die absolute Chronologie der Besiedlung von Tall Hujayrt
al-Ghuzln bei Aqaba, Jordanien, im Verhltnis zum Chalkolithikum der sdlichen Levante . . . . 188
Felix Hflmayer, gyptische Imitationen zyprischer Base-Ring-Krge im stlichen
Mittelmeerraum. Ein Beispiel fr Kulturkontakt im zweiten Jahrtausend v. Chr. . . . . . . . . . . .

210

Alexander Ahrens Heike Dohmann-Pflzner Peter Pflzner,

New Light on the Amarna Period from the Northern Levant. A Clay Sealing with the
Throne Name of Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten from the Royal Palace at Tall Mirife/Qana . . . . . . 232
Fred Albertson, The Date on Two Dated Palmyran Funerary Reliefs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Rafah Jouejati, Les mosaques dune glise apostolique Tell Aar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

ZOrA 5, 2012, 58

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Arabische Halbinsel und der Region verwandte Themen

Sarah Japp, Der sogenannte Verwaltungsbau in Sirwh. Vertreter eines besonderen
Bautypus in Sdarabien . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
Hinweise fr Autoren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

ZOrA 5, 2012, 58

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