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Abstract :
[en] The characterization of pottery production in the mid-sixt millennium cal BC in
Neolithic communities: the Euphrates valley and Khabur basin in Late Halaf.
SUMMARY
The characterization of pottery production in the mid-sixth millennium cal BC contexts in
the Middle East arises from the need to understand how consolidated agricultural and
pastoral communities of the Fertile Crescent were structured and organized. This chrono
cultural period is embodied in an archaeological record of great interest in order to identify
the different economic, social and symbolic responses at the final moment of the so-called
Halaf culture.
The opportunity to study the pottery assemblages from two sites and two regions, such as
the Euphrates valley and the valley of Khabur, with new material from Tell Halula (16,668
sherds) and Chagar Bazar (21,194 sherds), allowed us to study and apply the same
methodology to both sets from the very beginning of fieldwork.
The analysis of 37,882 fragments from a comprehensive perspective and by using
archaeometric techniques (chemical, petrographic and PIXE analysis) as well as
morphometric and basic techno functional characterization analysis set new guidelines on
the archaeological potential of these sets.
Drawn up from Archaeology and Materials Science, this contribution has its
methodological framework focused on rebuilding the chaîne operatoire. This reconstruction
has allowed us to study and isolate two assemblages and to outline the existence of
different socio economic practices, some of which had clear regional links and a strong
substrate, but above all with basic subsistence practices which can be addressed from the
ceramic product itself.
Likewise, the specific chronological framework provided by new radiocarbon dates of both
sites, which are between 5600-5300 cal BC, enables not only to characterise these
productions but also to arise new questions to understand the interaction mechanisms
between communities; mechanisms that cover from basic subsistence practices, i.e. the
handling and processing of food and products, to mechanisms which regulate and structure
the group.
