The Chronology of the Royal Palace of Qatna Revisited. A Reply to a Paper by Mirko Novák, Egypt and the Levant 14, 2004

Qatna’s Royal Palace has been jointly investigated by Syrian, Italian and German teams between 1999 and 2006. Its layout has been nearly fully explored and – considering the poor preservation state of the building – its functional organisation reconstructed as far as possible. However, what remains uncertain is the chronology of the building, which is still a matter of debate, especially as far as its foundation is concerned. Several proposals for dating the construction of the Royal Palace – among which M. Novák’s article in Egypt and the Levant 14, 2004 (“The Chronology of the Royal Palace of Qatna”, 299–318) is the most recent and comprehensive – have been put forth, but none of these is based upon firm stratigraphic data and archaeological materials found in situ. The broad stratigraphic and material evidence excavated in eight years of archaeological exploration by the Italian expedition is critically reviewed and compared with the evidence presented by Novák with the goal of achieving a more precise and reliable chronology for the foundation of Qatna’s Royal Palace.