Introduction

Traditionally, the term Middle Bronze Age (MBA) is applied to the rise and fall of Anatolian city-states during the first three centuries of the 2nd millennium bce, designating a period lasting one-fifth of the timespan allotted to the early part of the Bronze Age. This is an indication of the speed of developments that led to changes in social organisation when compared to earlier millennia. The arbitrary application of the tripartite divison of periods derived from the European archaeological tradition defines the label of MBA. On the other hand, a justification for distinguishing a new era is given by the many destruction levels all over Anatolia at the end of the 3rd millennium followed by new socioeconomic developments. Along the same lines, the end of the period, too, is marked by a series of widespread destructions ushering in a new political development, the territorial state. The Anatolian MBA is roughly contemporary with the Isin-Larsa Period followed by the Old Babylonian Kingdom in southern Mesopotamia, the Old Assyrian Period in northern Mesopotamia, the Syrian Middle Bronze I–II Period characterised by urban centres such as Ebla (Tell Mardikh III A–B), Mari (Tell Hariri) and the kingdom of Yamkhad, and the Middle Kingdom to Second Intermediate Period in Egypt. Close contacts were preserved with these neighbouring regions as indicated by imported artifacts, imported practices such as writing in cuneiform script, and connections in cult and culture tangible in architecture and iconography. Other contemporary cultures are the state of Elam, stretching south from the Susiana Plain to the Zagros highlands including Anshan (Tepe Malyan) along the Persian Gulf, and the Cretan Middle Minoan and Aegean Middle Helladic Period (roughly equal to the First Palace Period).