Material

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For more details, refer to the designated page for material sources.

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Sources and materials

There are two sources of clay close to the region of Urkesh, one of red clay and the other of white (Hauser 2007: 37). It is believed that the clay usedd in the production of the figurines and other clay artifacts is locally sourced, since Urkesh is situated close to water sources from the Khanzir and Jakhjakh rivers, both tributaries of the Khabur river.

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Preparation of the clay

The preparation of the clay can be done in numerous ways, the most common one is washing the clay after collecting it to get rid of any sizable inclusions (the inclusions depend largely on the source of the clay), then the clay would be mixed with Silica, Micas, sand and Calcite to decrease shrinking while drying or heating which reduces the risk of deformation (Badre 1980: 16). The next step would be to kneed the clay very well to push all the air bubbles out and end up with a soft homogenous clay dough.

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Color of the clay

The sample studied here is very small to make an assessment. However, It could be stated that the chroma range for anthropomorphic figurines coincides with the hue registered for the ceramics.