Gold von Konigen und Gotter: Zur Bedeutung von Goldobjekten in den syrisch-nordlevantinischen Konigtumern der Mittleren und Spaten Bronzezeit ausgehend von den Funden aus den Gruften von Qatna.

• Author: Feldman, Marian H.

Gold von Konigen und Gotter: Zur Bedeutung von Goldobjekten in den syrisch-nordlevantinischen Konigtumern der Mittleren und Spaten Bronzezeit ausgehend von den Funden aus den Gruften von Qatna. By IVANA PULJIZ. Qatna Studien, vol. 10. Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWITZ VERLAG, 2021. Pp. xlvi + 609, illus. [euro]178.

In the tenth volume of the Qatna Studien series (of which nine have appeared in print), Ivana Puljiz investigates the roles played by and meanings ascribed to gold objects in the Middle Bronze and Late Bronze Age kingdoms of Syria and the northern Levant. The broader social and cultural questions of the study expand out of an analysis of the gold objects excavated from an unlooted rock-cut tomb chamber (numbered VII) under the royal palace at Qatna in western Syria. This corpus of artifacts is placed in a comparative dialogue with gold objects found elsewhere at Qatna, especially those from the so-called Royal Hypogeum, as well as at other sites in Syria and the northern Levant, along with a review of relevant textual evidence from the same region. Having multiple goals for the study, Puljiz presents her conclusions in four separate "synthetic essays" (numbered one through four, corresponding to chapters 18 through 21): "Continuity and Change in the Use of Gold at Qatna"; "Regional and Chronological Trends in the Gold Assemblages from Royal Tombs in Syria and the Northern Levant"; "The Role of Gold in the Middle and Late Bronze Age Syrian and Northern Levantine Polities"; and "Approaches to the Social Meaning of Gold."

Puljiz begins by laying out in detail the region of study, what she calls Syria and the northern Levant, emphasizing that the two geographical designations are understood as a single, coherent region (p. 3). Within this area, in addition to the initial publication of Qatna's Tomb VII materials and a review of gold items from elsewhere at Qatna, she surveys gold artifacts from Byblos, Ebla, Kamid el-Loz, Alalakh, and Ugarit, as well as textual evidence from Mari, Alalakh, Qatna, Emar, and Ugarit, spanning the Middle and Late Bronze Ages. Each of these receives a separate chapter in the volume (chapters 7-17, not including the two chapters, 5 and 6, devoted to Qatna Tomb VII). This compendium of gold objects and related texts derives from already published materials, but its collection in one place offers a useful comparative catalogue. While there is good reason to think of Syria and the northern Levant as a coherent cultural...