Introduction to 3rd and 2nd Millenium wares

Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati, Laerke Recht – May 2016

General Description

NB: WORK IN PROGRESS

Ware Groups

Fine Buff Wares

This group consists of Simple Ware, Wet Smoothed, and Ninevite 5.

All the wares in this type are characterized by being made of a fine buff paste which fires to a green to yellow or creamy buff. All are high fired with little mineral or organic temper. The medium and large vessels in this category are highly but have more temper and are thicker walled. None have been burnished but most have a highly smoothed exterior surface and some have been polished. The less well made examples have wheel ribbing inside which has not been smoothed away by the potter.

Imitation and Imported Wares

This group consists of Imitation Metallic, Bi-Color, Early Transcaucasian and Dark Brick Red Ware.

This family includes both Metallic ware made further to the west of Urkesh/Mozan and a local imitation of it. Early Transcaucasian ware made in eastern Anatolia, Armenia and Georgia. Presumably the few examples from Urkesh/Mozan are imported from eastern Anatolia, especially the Diryarbakir region. Bi-color vessels are presumably imported from the Upper Tigris region although at Mozan there exist imitations of this ware which are locally made. Painted Scarlet ware stands in Mozan, as elsewhere in our region, are decorated only with geometric designs with stands as the only shapes produced, differing from the south where the same type of fugitive paint is used to decorate a range of shapes and decorative motifs including humans, animal and plant motifs.

Notes

During the course of the development of the ware typology several types were used then later discarded once more information became available. During the earlier years of the excavation some sherds with incised decoration (such as Ninevite 5) were coded as INC - Incised, however, it later was possible to determine the wares for these and this code was discontinued. When the Khabur levels were first excavated a generic “Khabur” code (H) was used to indicate these types. As the wares were better analayzed by type, this practice was later discountinued. Similarly, some sherds were initially coded as High-Fired (HF), which, after further analysis, was determined to be a type of Chaff Temper Ware. This code was also discontinued. Currently these codes are no longer in use but may exist in legacy data, or in places where it was not possible to determine a new ware.