The Eastern Palace of Qatna and the Middle Bronze Age Architectural Tradition of Western Syria

Although Qatna has been the object of systematic archaeological investigations since 1999 (leaving aside the campaigns of the French Mission under the direction of Robert du Mesnil du Buisson) and although it is, together with Mari, Aleppo and Carchemish, among the most important Syrian capitals of the Middle Bronze Age, its remains of that period were, until a few years ago, still poorly known. With the exception of the Royal Palace (whose major period of use is, however, the Late Bronze Age), clearly identifiable Middle Bronze Age buildings have been surprisingly absent in the excavations carried out in Qatna. This gap has started to be filled since 2006 thanks to the discovery by the joint Syrian-Italian mission of the so-called Eastern Palace, a Middle Bronze Age public building discovered in Operation T and located on the acropolis of Qatna, east of the Royal Palace. An account of the excavation results is presented here which updates the state of research by integrating with new data the information already published in a preliminary description of the building. Consideration of the complete evidence available to date allows a first interpretation of the building’s place within the Middle Bronze Syrian palace tradition to be put forward.