The Middle Bronze Age of the Euphrates Valley, Syria : chronology, regional interaction and cultural exchange

"The essential purpose of this study was to formulate a Middle Bronze Age ceramic chronology that could be used to determine the relative dates of archaeological sites located in the Euphrates Valley of Syria. Through a study of the pottery from the Middle Bronze sequence at the site of Tell Hadidi, I identified diagnostic vessel types that were thought best to characterize successive phases of the Middle Bronze Age. Following this, I reviewed the current ceramic evidence from excavated sites along the river and attempted to fix those sites'' occupations within the newly defined phases of the Middle Bronze Age on the basis of the presence or absence of these diagnostic categories..."