The Aleppo hinterland (Topoi A-I-6)

The area under investigation was the region around Aleppo (Syria), with a ray of about 30-35 kilometres. The project was divided in a historical-philological part and in an archaeological part. The most relevant preliminary result was probably the fact that the environs of Aleppo prove to be characterized by a series of empty and full spaces for settlement, or, from another point of view, by lines of dense anthropic presence and total absence of sites in pre-Hellenistic Antiquity. This pattern responds primarily to three convenience requirements: proximity of water sources, availability of resources, strategic position. The region under investigation looked very promising for the exploration of second rank, smaller, possibly rural sites in the hinterland of Aleppo, an aspect of Bronze Age and Iron Age settlement structure often neglected by research.