El Qitar/Til Abnu: A Bronze Age Fortress on the Euphrates, Syria

El Qitar is a significant site for monitoring, documenting and testing several trends in military, political and social organization during the Middle and Late Bronze Ages. Changes in warfare from the preceding Middle Bronze period into the Late Bronze Age included the widespread use of chariotry and emergence of a military elites. Together with (sedentary) population changes, this led to smaller armies and the abandonment of massive earthen rampart fortifications around major urban, perhaps allowing the Hittites to more readily conquer this part of the Euphrates River. Whether there was an increased functional and socio-economic differentiation among settlements in the Late Bronze Age, when they became integrated into larger regional polities, will be examined.

Thomas McClellan has excavated extensively in the Middle East, in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. Concentrating in Syria on the Euphrates River, he has directed and co-directed excavations at el-Qitar and Tell Banat.