Lorenzo D'Alfonso

Seeking a Political Space: Thoughts on the Formative Stage of Hittite Administration in Syria

Abstract During the second half of the 14th century BC the Hittites conquered Northern and Central Syria. Although this wide region remained under the control of the Hittite Empire until its last days some 150 years later, the process of the installation of a new provincial administration was longer and more complex than scholars have assumed until recently. Two issues contributed to the complexity of the process: the dynamic between centre and periphery and that between indigenous administrations and new Hittite officials in charge in Syria. The present contribution gathers a number of clues for the identification of three phases in the existence of this new administration, the first two centred on the negotiation of the political space and the third on its proper realisation.