The Development Of Pottery Technology From The Late Sixth To The Fifth Millennium Bc In Northern Jordan

This study is divided into two main parts. Part one presents the ethnoarchaeological study that has been conducted on (late-Sixth to Fifth Millennium BC) pottery production in northern Jordan (the Ajlun Mountain area). It includes the location and environmental setting of the study area, the context of pottery production with reference to potters' socio-economical contexts, and their identity. It also includes the context of pottery production and a description of the technological traditions that have been identified among the potters. Chapters 4 and 5 have been devoted to measuring and explaining the causes of technological similarities as well as differences in the potters' out-put. Part 2 presents the archaeological study. It includes a description of the site of Abu Hamid and its environmental setting. Moreover, it presents the chronology and the sequence of occupation at the site, as well as the spatial and temporal contexts of the sampled pottery sherds. Further, it presents morphological and metric descriptions of the pottery assemblages. Chapters 8 and 9 are devoted to the identification of archaeological pottery forming techniques and the measuring of the technical variations among them. The last chapter presents the explanations of these technical variations.

THIS ISSUE CONTAINS INVESTIGATING DOMESTIC ECONOMY AT THE BEGINNING OF THE LATE CHALCOLITHIC IN EASTERN ANATOLIA: THE CASE OF ARSLANTEPE PERIOD VIII Cristiano Vignola, Francesca Balossi Restelli, Alessia Masi, Laura Sadori, Giovanni Siracusano KURA ARAXES CULTURE AREAS AND THE LATE 4TH AND EARLY 3RD MILLENNIA BC POTTERY FROM VELI SEVIN’S SURVEYS IN MALATYA AND ELAZIg, TURKEY Mitchell S. Rothman CULTURAL ENTANGLEMENT AT THE DAWN OF THE EGYPTIAN HISTORY: A VIEW FROM THE NILE FIRST CATARACT REGION Maria Carmela Gatto PASTORAL STATES: TOWARD A COMPARATIVE ARCHAEOLOGY OF EARLY KUSH Geoff Emberling A CLAY DOOR-LOCK SEALING FROM THE MIDDLE BRONZE AGE III TEMPLE AT TEL HAROR, ISRAEL Baruch Brandl, Eliezer D. Oren, Pirhiya Nahshoni CASE BASTIONE: A PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENT IN THE EREI UPLANDS (CENTRAL SICILY) Enrico Giannitrapani, Filippo Iannì, Salvatore Chilardi, Lorna Anguilano OLD OR NEW WAVES IN CAPO GRAZIANO DECORATIVE STYLES? Sara T. Levi, Maria Clara Martinelli, Paola Vertuani, John Ll.Williams

The Kura Araxes, a cultural tradition of the late 4thand 3rd millennia BC, has recently become a focus of international archaeological research. It was first discovered in the mountains of the Taurus and the South Caucasus. From near the beginning of the tradition evidence suggests that populations bearing some of its hallmarks, black-burnished, handmade pottery and a ritual of the hearth, spread out over a wide region of the Taurus, Zagros, and Caucasus Mountains, and as far south as the area of the Sea of Galilee in the southern Levant. Recent research has questioned whether the simple narrative of a discreet homeland and unassimilated migrants fairly describes the ancient reality. One of the key dependent variables used to trace the prehistory of the Kura Araxes cultural tradition is pottery. This article discusses the cultural meaning and interpretive use of pottery, but also the limits of pottery style alone to reconstruct prehistory. It adds previously unpublished material from Veli Sevin’s surveys in Malatya and Elazığ provinces to the larger database for study of the Kura Araxes.

This study presents the results of an analysis of three Late Neolithic pottery assemblages from Wadi Ziqlab, northern Jordan. These sites were occupied during the 6th millennium BC (calibrated) and are therefore contemporary with sites in other parts of the southern Levant that are attributed to the Wadi Rabah culture. The assemblages are analyzed from a stylistic perspective, broadly defined, which includes an examination of technological style in addition to a more traditional examination of vessel form and surface treatment. Different stages in the pottery production sequence are investigated using a range of analytical techniques, including thin-section petrography and xeroradiography. While there are some similarities between the assemblages, there are also some noticeable differences.The results of the pottery analysis are used to explore the nature of community in the context of the Late Neolithic. A critique of more traditional archaeological approaches to prehistoric communities leads to a re-conceptualization of community that combines interactional and ideational perspectives. Similarities in pottery among the sites, especially technological similarities, suggest that pottery producers may have comprised a dispersed community of practice. At the same time, pottery may have also been a symbolic marker of community boundaries. Differences in pottery among the sites, including surface treatment, may reflect the flexibility of these boundaries as different parts of the dispersed community negotiated their place in it.The presence of variation among contemporary pottery assemblages in a localized area suggests that social organization during the 6th millennium may have been more complex than is normally assumed for the Late Neolithic in the southern Levant. A dispersed community, with its members spread throughout the wadi, would require a sufficiently complex and flexible system of relationships to maintain it. Failing to acknowledge this has contributed to the difficulties archaeologists have encountered when trying to understand the culture-history of the 6th millennium BC in and east of the Jordan Valley.

The time period between the end of the Ubaid and the beginning of the Uruk expansion is one of the least known, yet most important eras in the ancient history of the Middle East. This era, which is often referred to as the "Post-Ubaid" period, is marked by major structural changes such as the rise of social hierarchies, technological innovations and economic reorganisation, which eventually led to the emergence of proto-states and cities. The recent finding of "Post-Ubaid-related" sites in regions deemed to be located far beyond the Ubaid purview, such as Cilicia, Cappadocia or the south Caucasus, has added another dimension to this picture: these sites suggest that the organic relationships more or less implicitly established between the "Post-Ubaid horizon" and the Ubaid world may in fact be much weaker than once thought.

A long-overdue advancement in ceramic studies, this volume sheds new light on the adoption and dispersal of pottery by non-agricultural societies of prehistoric Eurasia. Major contributions from Western Europe, Eastern Europe and Asia make this a truly international work that brings together different theories and material for the first time. Researchers and scholars studying the origins and dispersal of pottery, the prehistoric peoples or Eurasia, and flow of ancient technologies will all benefit from this book.

Ancient and suggestive Country, where history has left majestic marks of its passage. A varied and spectacular landscape that ranges from the Jordan Valley to the hills, from the mountains to the desert, to the sandy shores of the Red Sea. And then the large and lively Amman, the Castles of the Desert, and the splendid Petra, the "Red Rose City", one of the seven New Wonders of the World. All this is Jordan, a Country to discover, which this book illustrates and reveals thanks to detailed texts and splendid images.

In Excavations at Tall Jawa, Jordan: Vol. 3, The Iron Age Pottery, Michèle Daviau presents a detailed typology of the Iron Age pottery, studying formal changes, fabric composition, forming techniques, painted designs and surface treatment.