Urkesh Ceramic Analysis
Categorization: Lexicon

FOR REVIEW

Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati – January 2014, May 2023

All the ceramics excavated at the site are given q numbers based on the feature where they are found. Q stands for quantity. These q numbers are assigned differently for every excavation unit starting always with q1. The evidence for assigning a date to all features in every unit of the excavation comes from a number of convergent contextual paths within that excavation unit. These paths include first of all the stratigraphic emplacement and context analysis of the features. These contextual paths are linked then to typological paths which include the study of the ceramics through categories in the roster and lexicon. Other typological paths include well stratified texts such as seal inscriptions and cuneiform tablets, seal iconography and other objects that can be securely dated.

All of these paths are interlinked through an embedded interplanar interaction among all the paths. This interplanar interaction is characteristic of the UGR and encompasses all the data from the excavation, not only the ceramics data. But the ceramics data is especially important as the ceramics are by far the most numerous and the most diversified data they we have thus far.

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