Pottery Traditions and Material Culture in Second Millennium BC Northern Mesopotamia

Contacts and New Horizons in the Land between the Tigris and the Zagros. Proceedings of a Workshop Held at the 12th ICAANE, University of Bologna, 7 April 2021

By (author) Costanza Coppini By (author) Valentina Oselini

Image coming soon

Publisher: Zaphon

Subjects: Ancient Near East

Series: marru

Series volume number: 19

Language: English

The resurgence of archaeological research in Iraq, and in particular in the Trans-Tigridian plains and Zagros foothills in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, has provided a brand new set of archaeological data, consisting of stratigraphic sequences and associated materials and architecture, and of settlement and land use patterns. The availability of this new information has opened up a great opportunity for integrating and widening the archaeological data from neighbouring regions such as Syrian and Iraqi Jezirah and the Tigris plains in general. Results from the workshop carried out in the frame of the 12th ICAANE in Bologna highlight the relevance of the Trans-Tigridian plains of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq in the research about second millennium BC material culture in Northern Mesopotamia. The papers explore a range of Middle Bronze Age ceramic sequences, and span to the second half of the second millennium, in the Middle Assyrian period. The sites analyzed in the papers include large urban centres as well as rural sites. Dominating the Navkur plain, the site of Gir-e Gomel holds a Middle Bronze Age sequence showing continuity of occupation in two different sectors in the Lower Town. Common pottery traditions have been detected, and above all the widespread of the so-called Khabur Ware. However, it is important to consider among the shared pottery tradition, the presence of unpainted pottery. This broad category gathers morphological types as well as technological choices both in the Middle and Late Bronze Age. Moreover, it has been pinpointed how the amount of data from this region is correlated to Central Mesopotamia, thus integrating and updating contacts and interregional interactions. Besides similarities in ceramic assemblages and the definition of ceramic regions, contributions in this volume result in their additions to the general discourse about chronology, which is far from being well-defined for the second millennium BC.

Coppini / Oselini: Introduction

Coppini: Pottery Traditions and Material Culture in 2nd Millennium BC Northern Mesopotamia: The View from Gir-e Gomel

Calini: Second Millennium BCE Ceramic Assemblages from Qasr Shemamok (Iraqi Kurdistan)

Oselini / Peyronel: Identity of a Countryside: The Second Millennium BC Pottery Assemblage from Helawa and Aliawa in the Erbil Plain (Kurdistan Region of Iraq)

Schwartz: The Second Millennium Ceramic Sequence from Kurd Qaburstan, Erbil Plain

Mas: 2nd Millennium BC Pottery from Bash Tapa (Kurdistan Region of Iraq): First Elements from the Late Bronze Age Sequence

Coppini / Eidem: Tell Shemshara: The Early Second Millennium Sequence

Verdellet / Tenu: The Thorny Issue of Defining the Second Millennium Pottery Assemblage at Kunara

  • By (author) Costanza Coppini
  • By (author) Valentina Oselini