The Early Bronze Age in the Upper Tigris Region: A View from Hirbemerdon Tepe

The Third Millennium BCE is a key moment for understanding the evolution of complex societies in ancient Mesopotamia and Anatolia. In fact, this period of great transformation is marked by the emergence of new elite groups, by the creation of large city-states with re- gional power, by an increase of belligerency between city-states and, in the final phase, by the emergence of territorial conquests by leading groups and city-states (i.e., the Akkadian and Ur III period). The transformation of complex ancient Mesopotamian societies dur- ing the Early Bronze Age has been widely studied; however, it is in the so-called peripheral regions (as is the case of the Upper Tigris Region – hereinafter, UTR) that this phenom- enon has been less scrutinized. Thus, in this article the archaeological data associated with this specific period at the site of Hirbemerdon Tepe will be presented and discussed in connection with the data available from other sites within the UTR in order to establish a coherent chronological sequence as well as to identify commonalities among the groups inhabiting this region and their cultural links with neighboring areas. This exercise is of particular interest due also to the recent chronology established by the ARCANE work group for the Third Millennium BCE in the whole Near East (Lebeau 2014). According to this chronological framework the Tigris Region (i.e., represented by the Syro-Iraqi sec- tion of the upper Tigris) has been divided into 9 different subphases and it is against this framework that we will use the data available from Hirbemerdon Tepe in order to estab- lish a more coherent chronology at the site and, hopefully, in relation to the whole UTR.