Although Qatna has been the object of systematic
archaeological investigations since 1999 (leaving aside
the campaigns of the French Mission under the direction
of Robert du Mesnil du Buisson) and although
it is, together with Mari, Aleppo and Carchemish,
among the most important Syrian capitals of the Middle
Bronze Age, its remains of that period were, until
a few years ago, still poorly known. With the exception
of the Royal Palace (whose major period of use
is, however, the Late Bronze Age), clearly identifiable
Middle Bronze Age buildings have been surprisingly
absent in the excavations carried out in Qatna. This
gap has started to be filled since 2006 thanks to the
discovery by the joint Syrian-Italian mission of the
so-called Eastern Palace, a Middle Bronze Age public
building discovered in Operation T and located on the
acropolis of Qatna, east of the Royal Palace.
An account of the excavation results is presented here
which updates the state of research by integrating with
new data the information already published in a preliminary
description of the building. Consideration of
the complete evidence available to date allows a first
interpretation of the building’s place within the Middle
Bronze Syrian palace tradition to be put forward.
