Assaf Kleiman

The emergence of the territorial kingdoms across the Ancient Near East has stimulated much discussion over the years. Following extensive fieldwork in the southern Levant, it became clear that this process was conspicuously marked by the destruction of prominent urban communities, changes in material culture, and transformations in settlement hierarchies. Eventually, these events paved the way for the appearance of several socio-political entities that were profoundly different from their predecessors. In this article, I explore the northern extent of this phenomenon, focusing on the Kingdom of Hamath as a case study. Based on an examination of the Iron Age I/II transition in selected archaeological sites in central Syria, it will be suggested that in contrast to the situation in the southern Levant, the main urban centers of this polity began developing already in the 11 th century and survived without any significant disturbance until the fall of the capital in 720 BCE. This means that a regional crisis was one of many possible trajectories to statehood across the Iron Age Levant.