Begleitende Untersuchungen

Ein archäologisches Großprojekt wie die syrisch-deutschen Ausgrabungen in Qatna wäre heute nicht mehr denkbar ohne die Teilnahme zahlreicher Spezialisten vor allem aus den Naturwissenschaften, welche mit ihren Kenntnissen einen wichtigen Beitrag zur möglichst umfassenden Analyse aller in den Ausgrabungen geborgener Objekte und Materialien liefern. Sie ermöglichen uns Einblicke in viele Bereiche des menschlichen Lebens und der Umwelt des Menschen, die dem Archäologen selbst nicht zugänglich wären. Hier finden sie Informationen oder Hinweise zu den an den Ausgrabungen in Qatna angeschlossenen Untersuchungen von Spezialisten aus zahlreichen Disziplinen.

• "Simone Riehl (Archäobotanik): Palace economy at Qatna (Tell Mishrifeh), Syria
• Katleen Deckers (Geoarchäologie): Anthracological research in the Fertile Crescent
  • Katleen Deckers holds a Margarethe-von-Wrangell Habilitation Fellowship at the University of Tübingen. She specialises in  anthracology and geoarchaeology and has collaborated on many projects  in the Near East. She is investigating the Qatna charcoal material, to  understand the use of wood and to gain insight into the former  vegetation. Her preliminary results can be summarized as followed:
    The wood charcoal remains from the palace of Qatna indicate that large  parts of the roof consisted of Cedrus, although it is possible that  Juniperus and Quercus were used as well in the roof construction,  albeit to a lesser extent. The large number of Cedrus charcoals found  in several areas, and the overall surface area of the palace that  would have been covered, attest to the enormous amount of Cedrus logs  that must have been transported from relatively long distances. They  manifest the power of the King of Qatna, but may dually intimate a  depletion of woody resources in the local environment. In particular,  the reduction in use of the riverine vegetation from EBA to palace use  contexts (MBA or LBA) is remarkable and may relate to deforestation of  this vegetation type. This deforestation was potentially related to  the large water works that took place within the riverine environment  from the MBA onwards and also may be tied to increased populations.
    Although palatial texts indicate the importance of the role of fruit  trees for the palace economy in the Levant, the Qatna Palace samples  do not contain many charcoal remains of fruit trees. This may be due  to the fact that garbage will normally not have been disposed of  within the palace and that the contexts sampled have nothing to do  with processing or storing of these crops. Nevertheless, it is  remarkable that some of the vessels contained remains of olive  charcoal; although we cannot rule out that they could have arrived  there upon the destruction and collapse of the palace.
    The wood and charcoal remains from the tomb of the kings provide  information on the use of wood within the tomb. Some, such as the  willow and beech which were used for arrows, were probably locally  available. Others, like the wood for the cedar coffin, came from  further away. The charcoal distribution from the tomb closely mirrors  the percentages from the palace area, which may be partially explained  by the collapsed rubble from the palace corridor falling in to the  tomb upon its destruction.

• see also in Deckers, K.(2011) Wood use in the palace of Qatna. In:  Deckers, K. (ed.) Holocene Landscapes through Time in the Fertile  Crescent. Subartu XXVIII, 157-172.
• and in Deckers. K. (2011) Wood remains from the Qatna Royal Tomb. In:  Pfälzner, P. (ed.) Interdisziplinäre Studien zur Königsgruft von  Qatna. Harrossowitz Verlag, 403-409.