A Palace in the Eastern Mediterranean Tradition as Construction Technique and Plan: Oylum Höyük Middle Bronze Age I Palace

Abstract

In recent years, excavations in the Northwest Area of Oylum Höyük have revealed a large palace structure dating back to the Middle Bronze Age I. In the building, which was destroyed by a fire, the skeletons of two women who died during the fire and broken vessels with missing lower parts were found, indicating an attack and looting. The hearths uncovered within the spaces, along with grinding stones on clay platforms and fragments of storage vessels, indicate that the excavated section of the palace consisted of kitchens, storage rooms, cellars, and workshops.

The thick walls of the monumental building, of which approximately 1050 m² was uncovered, were built with mud bricks. The rectangular planned main part of the palace, which has a courtyard in the west and a mud brick terrace in the east, consists of a series of spaces on two axes. Architectually, the multistoreyed Oylum Höyük Palace has the closest parallels in Tilmen Höyük MBA Palace, Alalah Yarimlim Palace and Tell Mardikh West Palace (Fig. 4a-d). The multi-storey palace plan, consisting of space series extending along a courtyard wing, differs from the traditional Syrian and Mesopotamian palace plans, which contain spaces arranged around courtyards. Apart from the plan concept, thick mud-brick walls, stairwells showing that they are multi-storey, and using of wooden columns and column bases are common features of the Oylum MBA I Palace, Tilmen Höyük MBA Palace and Alalah Yarimlim Palace. This architectural tradition which emerged in early 2^nd millennium BC, reveals a new understanding of Syrian palace architecture, especially in the northern part of the Eastern Mediterranean.

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