Fig 1.
Regional map showing the location of Tell Atchana (base map data from Natural Earth: Https://www.naturalearthdata.com/. Map made by authors in ESRI ArcGIS).
Fig 2.
Map of Tell Atchana with excavation squares indicated (data courtesy of Alalakh Excavations Archive.
Map made by authors in ESRI ArcGIS).
Table 1.
Chronology of Tell Atchana.
Fig 3.
All 14C dates from burials at Tell Atchana, including tentative archaeological dating to period and relative archaeological era (indicated as [ERA], [PERIOD] to the left of the individual sample IDs).
Table 2.
14C dates newly published in this study.
Fig 4.
Mean annual δ18O values for modern precipitation in the regions surrounding Tell Atchana (isotopic data from online isotopes in precipitation calculator [123–125]: Https://wateriso.utah.edu/waterisotopes/index.html.
Map made by authors in ESRI ArcGIS).
Fig 5.
Geological map of the Amuq Valley and surrounding regions, with modern snail sample locations marked (data courtesy of the Amuq Valley Regional Project [AVRP].
Map made by authors in ESRI ArcGIS).
Table 3.
Contextual information of the total burial assemblage (location, date, and type), the numbers of graves available for sampling (i.e., excavated by Yener), and the numbers sampled for each analysis presented.
Table 4.
Demographic information of the total burial assemblage, the numbers of graves available for sampling (i.e., excavated by Yener), and the numbers sampled for each analysis presented.
Fig 6.
All δ18Oc ‰ (V-PDB) values of all samples analyzed in this study; continuous lines: Mean; pink line: Mean calculated from all human samples; black line: Mean calculated from all faunal samples.
Table 5.
All individuals included in this study.
Table 6.
All faunal samples.
Fig 7.
87Sr/86Sr ratios of snail, plant, fertilizer, and animal samples from this study and Meiggs [147]; continuous lines: Mean; dotted lines: ±2 SD from mean; black dotted lines: Local range for Alalakh, calculated from sheep/goat, deer, and rodent teeth of both studies; grey dotted lines: Local range for the Amuq Valley, calculated from modern and ancient snail shells of both studies, using the mean of the five ancient snails from Alalakh as representative for this location, and excluding the modern samples AK01 and the outlier from Haydarlar.
Note: sample G4.4 falls outside the ranges plotted in this graph and therefore appears blank.
Table 7.
Comparison between possible local ranges.
Fig 8.
All 87Sr/ 86Sr results, plotted against local ranges.
Continuous lines: mean; dotted lines: ±2 SD from mean. Black dotted lines: local range calculated from ancient faunal samples from Alalakh as explained in the Fig 7 caption; grey dotted lines: local range calculated from modern snails from the Amuq and the mean of ancient environmental samples from Alalakh as explained in the Fig 7 caption.
Table 8.
Summary of aDNA data production for this study.
Fig 9.
PCA: Scatterplot of PC1 and PC2 calculated on West Eurasian populations (Human Origins dataset; grey symbols) using smartpca with projection of ancient individuals (colored symbols).
Fig 10.
Admixture modeling (qpAdm) of Alalakh_MLBA, Ebla_EMBA, K.Kalehöyük_MLBA, and Sidon_MBA using Chalcolithic and Bronze age source populations.
Source proportions are plotted with -1SE. Abbreviations: E = early, M = middle, L = late, BA = Bronze Age, Chl = Chalcolithic.
Fig 11.
Kinship analysis with READ.
Fig 12.
Kinship analysis with lcMLkin.
Fig 13.
A) schematic representation of the spatial setting of the four individuals within the grave, after Yener [106]; B) osteological and genetic information of the Plastered Tomb individuals, including biological kinship; C) family tree.