The Regeneration of the Late Bronze Age Traditions and the Formation of the Kingdom of Malizi

In recent years, excavations and studies of the main Syro-Anatolian Late Bronze and Iron Age capitals have been resumed; among others, the site of Arslantepe, located in the Malatya province (SE Turkey) a few kilometres away from the Upper Euphrates River. Arslantepe is identi?ed as the ancient city of Malitiya known from Hittite texts, and later as the capital of the independent Early Iron Age reign of Malizi from inscriptions on monuments discovered at the site and in its territory. The formation of this kingdom, at the beginning of the 12th century BC, has so far been evaluated exclusively on the basis of the iconography and style of the bas-reliefs found at Arslantepe and the epigraphic and palaeographic analysis of the Luwian hieroglyphic inscriptions carved on rock monuments widespread in the region. The fundamental outcomes, concerning the continuity of the sculptural cycles and king genealogies from the Anatolian Hittite and north-Syrian Late Bronze Age traditions can nowadays be cross-examined in the light of the newly excavated Early Iron Age levels at the site. The paper aims at reviewing the chronology, formation and historical development of the Kingdom of Malizi, setting the archaeological sequence and related remains unearthed at Arslantepe in the context of the political evolution of the Euphrates region during the last centuries of the 2nd millennium BC.