Urkesh Ceramic Analysis

Shapes by horizon: Mittani / Royal Sanctuary

Bowls

Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati – June 2013, August 2017, June 2023

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Brief Overview

The definition of what is a bowl is the same for all units and all time periods in the UGR. See here for further details. The excavated Mittani period ceramics are much more numerous than the corpus we have excavated for either the Khabur or the Middle Assyrian periods. Many of the contexts are associated with the Plaza situated in front of the temple terrace BT. Since the ceramic corpus for the Mittani period is larger we can see more variations in shapes and these are illustrated in the catalog of shapes dated to this period. See for instance the carinated bowl with sharp carination “bcrsa813” with five variations illustrated here.

Carinated bowls are again very common in this period. For the most part they are wide at the rim and shallow. However some can have relatively narrow rims and deeper body shapes. These bowls can be painted but often they have no decoration. In this period there are a greater number of deep bowl shape types; they can be painted but often they have no decoration. The painted designs on deep bowls usually consist in painted bands of various widths and solidly painted or patterned rims. Deep bowls with a more cylindrical shape can have one or more bands with birds painted on a dark band; a combination of geometric and naturalistic designs. Ribbing occurs on them which at times has an impressed decoration.

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Straight Sided Bowls

bs.-801
bs.-802

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Carinated Bowls

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Carinated bowls with round carination

bcrr801
bcrr802
bcrr803
bcrr804
bcrr805

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Carinated bowls with sharp carination

bcrsa801
bcrsa802
bcrsa803
bcrsa804
bcrsa805
bcrsa806
bcrsa807
bcrsa808
bcrsa809
bcrsa810
bcrsa811
bcrsa812
bcrsa813
bcrsa814
bcrsa815
bcrsa816
bcrsa817
bcrsa818
bcrsa819
bcrsa820
bcrsa821
bcrsa822

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Small Bowls

bm

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