Head of a king, probably Yarim-Lim, brother of king Abban of Yamhad (modern Aleppo).
Black diorit. Height: 19 cm, width: 16½ cm. Amorite (Old Syrian), c. 1800 BC.
Excavated in Tell Açana, about 25km east to the city of Antakya.

Tell Açana is the modern name of the ancient site of Alalakh, which was a late Bronze Age city-state. It was founded by the Amorites around 2000 BC, when the first palace was built. In the 18th-16 th century BC, the city was part of the kingdom of Yamhad (modern Aleppo) and governed by Yarim-Lim and his descendents, according to the short chronology found at Mari, at that time Alalakh was destroyed, most likely by Hittite king Hattusili I, around 1580 BC.
In the 15th century BC Alalakh was again the seat of a local dynasty, which was vassal of Yamhad. In the mid-14th century BC, the Hittite Suppiluliuma I assumed control of northern Syria, then including Alalakh, that he incorporated into the Hittite Empire. The city was probably destroyed by the Sea People in the 12th century BC and never reoccupied. Excavations revealed palaces, temples, private houses and fortifications.

Correspondent: J.M.Criel, Antwerpen.
Sources: ‘Land of Civilizations, Turkey’ – Catalogue of the Fukuoka Exhibition (Japan), 1985 & Wikipedia.