Author Description

English summary: The discovery of an undisturbed and richly outfitted royal grave complex in Tall el-Mishrafe in 2002, which had been undisturbed for more than three-thousand years, has placed our understanding of life and death in Syria during the second millennium BCE to a new level. In the fourth volume of the series "Qatna Studies" (Qatna-Studein), over a thousand precious objects discovered in the rock-cut tombs are presented in a published format for the first time. From the wealth of archaeological information, new questions emerge about the meaning and value of jewelry in terms of their concrete socio-structural context. In order to answer these questions, it is necessary to consult cuneiform sources, which document commerce in jewelry at the royal courts of the Middle and Late Bronze Age cultures in Syria. Among these is a group of inventory texts from the royal palace at Qatna itself, in which the treasury of the palace deities is described. These texts have been analyzed in Elisa Rossberger's detailed work and compared to the archeological evidence from the royal grave. From this study there arises the possibility to combine previously unresolved concepts with concrete objects, materials and their crafting. The information about the manufacture, use, and meaning of jewelry in the world of the living also helps to better understand its function in funerary practices. The royal tomb was transformed for a limited amount of time with colorful textiles, valuable jewelry, and pictures that were later removed when the body received a secondary and final burial. Beauty and splendor served the living, but they played no role in the world of the dead. German description: Die Entdeckung einer seit mehr als drei Jahrtausenden unberuhrten, reich ausgestatteten koniglichen Grabanlage in Tall Misrife, dem antiken Qa'na, im Jahre 2002 hat unser Wissen uber das Verhaltnis von Lebenden und Toten im Syrien des 2. Jahrtausends v. Chr. auf eine neue Grundlage gestellt. In Ban