Violence, conflagrations and the destruction of Bronze Age cities in the ancient Near East

The siege and conquest of ancient cities was a popular topic for epic tales and ballads during the Bronze Age and Iron Age. The story of the fall of Troy to the Achaeans (Mycenaeans) is described in Homer's poem the Iliad, composed in the 8th century BCE (Homer, 2011). While the details found in the Iliad were mythological, attacks against such cities were very real and likely acted as a plausible framework for the story. When the site of Hisarlik (the most plausible site of Troy) in Turkey was excavated, destruction layers with ash were identified dating to around 1300, 1180, and 1050 BCE (Mac Sweeney, 2018, p. 32). Jericho was a late Bronze Age city in Canaan whose destruction by the Israelites was described in the biblical Book of Joshua (Joshua 6: 1–27). However, the destruction layer noted at excavation (dating to around 1400 BCE) does not match the date indicated by historical descriptions of the event (to around 1230 BCE), leading to debates as to the degree to which ancient narratives reflect true events (Kennedy, 2023). Jerusalem was the capital of the Kingdom of Judah in the Iron Age. In the 6th century BCE, it was a vasal kingdom of the Assyrians. When Judah failed to pay their agreed tribute, the Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar II invaded in 598–597 BCE and conquered Jerusalem. When they continued to refuse tribute, he returned in 587–586 BCE and sacked the city (Lipschits, 2021; Matthews, 2018).

Examples such as these are well known to many today, but countless other ancient cities were never the focus of an epic story that has been handed down through the centuries, and so the surrounding events have been forgotten. Indeed, we remain unsure of the ancient name of many of the excavated early towns and cities in the Near East, so it is quite a challenge to compare information found in ancient written texts with excavation finds at any one particular site.

In their recently published article in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, Cheryl Anderson presents her study of the human remains recovered from the excavations at Kaman-Kalehöyük in Turkey (Anderson, 2024). This ancient town was found to have a destruction layer of ash dating to the mid-18th century BCE. The date falls within what is known as the Assyrian Trading Colonies period or Old Assyrian period (Palmisano, 2018). The skeletons of 73 men, women and children were found scattered across the excavated site, distinct from any town burial grounds. All were from areas of the town that show evidence for destruction and burning, and 80% showed charring on their bones. Two individuals have good evidence for sharp force trauma to the skeleton, compatible with bladed weapons. This does suggest that the destruction was due to a violent episode and not just a natural disaster such as an out-of-control town fire or earthquake. However, if the individuals died from weapon injuries during the sack of the town by an invading army, then we might expect to find a much higher number of individuals with such wounds. While wounds to the soft tissues would not be detectable from the analysis of the skeletal remains, it seems unlikely that everyone died from soft tissue wounds alone.

One intriguing finding is that 33 of the individuals were found in specific rooms. This raises the possibility that the population barricaded themselves into these rooms in order to protect themselves from being attacked by the invading troops. However, their recovery in the ash layer might indicate that they were trapped inside and then died from smoke and heat in the ensuing blaze. Others were found buried together in pits and may represent the disposal of the dead in the days after the sack of the town, possibly by those inhabitants who survived. This scenario vividly brings to life the dark events of Bronze Age warfare and conquest, of raids against neighbouring settlements, and the rise and fall of early kingdoms. While we will never know for sure what happened at the destruction of this town in Anatolia, we do know it must have been a terrifying day for its inhabitants.