Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T00:45:46.441Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An Updated Chronology for the Northern Ubaid and Late Chalcolithic Periods in Syria: New Evidence from Tell Hammam Et-Turkman

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Peter M. M. G. Akkermans
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The present article concerns the Northern Ubaid and Late Chalcolithic periods in Syria and northern Mesopotamia and presents an updated chronological framework for both periods, mainly based on recent excavations at the large site of Tell Hammam et-Turkman on the Balikh. Tell Hammam et-Turkman is a huge mound, measuring 500 × 450 × 45 m, and is located about 75 km north of the modern town of Raqqa, on the east bank of the river Balikh, northern Syria (Fig. 1). Since 1981 the University of Amsterdam has carried out excavations (Van Loon 1982, 1983, 1985; Van Loon and Meijer 1983) which have given ample evidence of the importance of the site during the 3rd and 2nd millennia B.C., but test trenches on the east slope of the tell indicate that already during prehistoric times Tell Hammam et-Turkman was an impressive mound. Northern Ubaid-related levels comprise an accumulation of almost 15 m of occupational debris, immediately followed by Late Chalcolithic layers, which reach a thickness of about 10 m. At present, the prehistoric mound is almost completely buried underneath an extensive overburden of later occupational remains.

Here I confine myself exclusively to the results of the trenches on the east slope of Tell Hammam et-Turkman. A series of trenches 2 m wide was laid out, to be excavated in a number of steps. These narrow trenches perfectly met our aim, which was to set up a stratigraphy and pottery sequence at the site. The chronological positioning of the ceramics is based on the delineation of continuity and change in vessel shape, techniques of pottery manufacture and pottery decoration. It is important to stress the continuous and uninterrupted local development of the prehistoric ceramic sequence at Tell Hammam et-Turkman.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 50 , 1988 , pp. 109 - 145
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Akkermans, P.M.M.G., in press, The period IV pottery, in: van Loon, M.N., Ed., Hammam et-Turkman I, Leiden.Google Scholar
Akkermans, P.M.M.G., in press, The period V pottery, in: van Loon, M.N., Ed., Hammam et-Turkman I, Leiden.Google Scholar
Algaze, G.et al., in press, The Chicago Euphrates archaeological project 1980–1984: an interim report.Google Scholar
Behm-Blancke, M.R.et al., 1981, Hassek Höyük: vorläufiger Bericht über die Ausgrabungen der Jahre 1978–1980, Istanbuler Mitteilungen 31: 5–93.Google Scholar
Braidwood, R.J. and Braidwood, L.S., 1960, Excavations in the plain of Antioch I, O.I.P. LXI, Chicago.Google Scholar
Brandt, R.W., 1978, The chalcolithic pottery, in: van Loon, M.N., Ed., Korucutepe vol. 2, Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Brown, G.H., 1967, Prehistoric pottery from the Antitaurus, Anatolian Studies 17: 123–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Courtois, J.-C., 1962, Contribution à l'étude des niveaux II et III, in: Schaeffer, C.F.A., Ed., Ugaritica IV: 329–414.Google Scholar
Driel, G. van, and van Driel-Murray, C., 1979, Jebel Aruda 1977–1978, Akkadica 12: 2–28.Google Scholar
Dunham, S., 1983, Notes on the relative chronology of early northern Mesopotamia, The Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society 15: 13–38.Google Scholar
Egami, N., 1959, Telul eth-Thalathat: the excavation of tell II, vol. I, Tokyo.Google Scholar
Fielden, K., 1981, A late Uruk pottery group from Tell Brak, 1978, Iraq 43: 157–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Franken, H.J., 1974, In search of the Jericho potters, Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Fugmann, E., 1958, Hama, Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Fukai, S.et al., 1970, Telul eth-Thalathat: the excavation of tell II (1964), vol. II, Tokyo.Google Scholar
Garstang, J., 1953, Prehistoric Mersin, Oxford.Google Scholar
Goldmann, H., 1956, Excavations at Gözlü Kule, Tarsus, vol. II, Princeton.Google Scholar
Hauptmann, H., 1972, Die Grabungen auf dem Norsün Tepe, 1970, Keban Project 1970 Activities, Ankara, 103–17.Google Scholar
Hood, S., 1951, Excavations at Tabara el-Akrad, 1948–49, Anatolian Studies 1: 113–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, J.et al., 1982, Calibration of radiocarbon dates: tables based on the consensus data of the workshop on calibrating the radiocarbon time scale, Radiocarbon 24: 103–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawn, B., 1973, University of Pennsylvania radiocarbon dates XV, Radiocarbon 15: 367–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lloyd, S., 1940, Iraq government soundings at Sinjar, Iraq 7: 13–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loon, M.N. van, 1982, Hammam et-Turkman on the Balikh: background and first results of the University of Amsterdam's 1981 excavation, Akkadica 27: 30–45.Google Scholar
Loon, M.N. van, 1983, Hammam et-Turkman on the Balikh: first results of the University of Amsterdam's 1982 excavation, Akkadica 35: 1–11.Google Scholar
Loon, M.N. van, 1985, Hammam et-Turkman on the Balikh: first results of the University of Amsterdam's 1984 excavation, Akkadica 44: 21–40.Google Scholar
Loon, M.N. van, and Meijer, D., 1983, Hammam et-Turkman on the Balikh, Annales Archéologiques Arabes Syriennes 33: 299–313.Google Scholar
Mallowan, M.E.L., 1970, The development of cities from Al-Ubaid to the end of Uruk 5, in: Edwards, I.E.S.et al., Eds., The Cambridge ancient history I: prologomena and prehistory, Cambridge, 327–462.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mallowan, M.E.L. and Rose, J.C., 1935, Excavations at Tall Arpachiyah, 1933, Iraq 2: 1–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oates, J., 1982, Ubaid Mesopotamia reconsidered, in: Young, T. Cuyler Jr., Smith, Philip E.L. and Mortensen, Peder, Eds., The hilly flanks and beyond, SAOC 36: 251–81. Chicago.Google Scholar
Oates, J., 1985, Tell Brak: Uruk pottery from the 1984 season, Iraq 47: 175–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
du Plat Taylor, J.et al., 1950, The excavations at Sakçe Gözü, Iraq 12: 53–138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porada, E., 1965, The relative chronology of Mesopotamia. Part 2: seals and trade (6000-1600 B.C.), in: Ehrich, R.W., Ed., Chronologies in old world archaeology, Chicago and London, 133–200.Google Scholar
Schwartz, G.M., 1982, From prehistory to history on the Habur plains: the operation 1 ceramic periodization from Tell Leilan, Ph.D., Yale University.Google Scholar
Speiser, E.A., 1935, Excavations at Tepe Gawra I, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Strommenger, E., 1973, Ausgrabungen in Habuba Kabira und Mumbaqat, Archiv für Orientforschung 24: 168–71.Google Scholar
Sürenhagen, D., 1978, Keramikproduktion in Habuba Kabira-Süd, Berlin.Google Scholar
Thissen, L.C., 1985, The Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age pottery from Hayaz Höyük, Anatolica 12: 75–130.Google Scholar
Thomas, D.H., 1976, Figuring anthropology, New York.Google Scholar
Tobler, A.J., 1950, Excavations at Tepe Gawra II, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Watson, P.J., 1965, The chronology of north Syria and north Mesopotamia from 10,000 B.C. to 2000 B.C., in: Ehrich, R.W., Ed., Chronologies in old world archaeology, Chicago and London, 61–100.Google Scholar