North-Western Uruk period pottery assemblages

The topic was suggested by the discovery of the classical Uruk sites in the Meskene area, which seemed to reflect the unexpected phenomenon of the transfer of a fully fledged material culture in an area widely separated from those where the same culture formed and developed. Nothing of what was previously known made one suspect the possibility of such a phenomenon, although a classical Uruk phase or horizon was recognized in northern Mesopotamia, western Syria and the upper Euphrates basin both before and after the aforementioned discoveries. However, while the Meskene sites are new foundations, the ones in the last areas are mostly old mounds, which were inhabited before the appearance of the Uruk settlements. This paper is devoted to the study of a particular class of finds, namely pottery. The pottery yielded by the Meskene sites is presented first, that from the last mounds is described subsequently and includes all the IVth millennium B. C. material retrieved at the site itself. The pottery derived from the IVth millennium B. C. neighbouring sites is examined next. The Late Uruk horizon pottery assemblages of the northwestern regions consist of two main components, local ones dating to the formative Terminal Ubaid horizon, and new ones, which include what is called Uruk material in the literature. There are no obvious local antecedents for the Habuba Kabira South assemblage. In fact, in the north-western regions, new ceramic elements for which southern Mesopotamian affinities have been recognized appear in selected numbers at selected locations in the context of continuing older traditions of shaping, finishing and making pottery.