Alalakh (Tell Atchana; Hittite: Alalaḫ) is an ancient archaeological site approximately 20 kilometres (12 mi) northeast of Antakya (historic Antioch) in what is now Turkey's Hatay Province.

The site was thought to have never been reoccupied after that, but archaeologist Timothy Harrison showed, in a (2022) lecture's graphic, it was inhabited also in Amuq Phases N-O, Iron Age, c. 1200-600 BC.

[7] Alalakh was founded by the Amorites (in the territory of present-day Turkey) during the early Middle Bronze Age in the late 3rd millennium BC.

[10] In the early Middle Bronze II (c. 1800 BC), in Yener's Period 8 (Woolley's level VIII), in which a palace and a temple, as well as intramural burials, were found.

The written history of the site may begin under the name Alakhtum, with tablets from Mari in the 18th century BC, when the city was part of the kingdom of Yamhad (modern Aleppo).

There was a later palace, an archive, some temples, a city wall, a tripartite gate, households, workshops, extramural and intramural burials were excavated.

[13] In the 18th to 17th centuries period transition, Alalakh was under the reign of Yarim-Lim, and was the capital of the city-state of Mukiš and vassal to Yamhad, centered in modern Aleppo.

[15][11] A recent Yener's paper considers Palace's Level VII destruction by Hattusili I to have taken place in his second year, in 1628 BC.

The inscription records Idrimi's vicissitudes: after his family had been forced to flee to Emar, he left them and joined the "Hapiru people" in "Ammija in the land of Canaan."

The Hapiru recognized him as the "son of their overlord" and "gathered around him"; after living among them for seven years, he led his Habiru warriors in a successful attack by sea on Alalakh, where he became king.

[19] However, according to the archaeological site report, this statue was discovered in a level of occupation dating several centuries after the time that Idrimi lived.

But recently, archaeologist Jacob Lauinger considers the statue and inscription can be dated to Woolley's Level III (/II), c. 1400-1350 BC, around 50 to 100 years after Idrimi's lifetime.

[21] The socio-economic history of Alalakh during the reign of Idrimi's son and grandson, Niqmepuh and Ilim-Ilimma I, is well documented by tablets excavated from the site.

Nevertheless, recent interpretations of this period by archaeologists indicate that, following the destructions of Level IV, the Alalakh castle complex was successively rebuilt three times.

[30] After several years' surveys beginning in 1995, the University of Chicago team had its first full season of excavation in 2003 directed by K. Aslihan Yener.

[31][32][33][34][35] In 2006, the project changed sponsorship and resumed excavations directed by K. Aslihan Yener under the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Mustafa Kemal University in Antakya.

According to Manfred Hutter, the Amik Valley, corresponding to the ancient state of Mukish, and especially Alalakh, was the area where the Syrian and Anatolian goddess Kubaba was originally worshiped.

[39] According to ancient DNA analyses conducted by Skourtanioti et al. (2020) on 28 human remains from Tell Atchana belonging to the Middle and Late Bronze Age period (2006-1303 cal BC), the inhabitants of Alalakh were a mixture of Chalcolithic Levantines and Mesopotamians, and were genetically similar to contemporaneous Levantines from Ebla and Sidon.