Interactions during the Iron Agein the Lower Khabur Basin of northeastern Syria: Insights from ceramic petrography

Summary

The semi-arid steppe of the Lower Khabur Basin of northeastern Syria is a climatically marginal zone for agriculture, yet there have been episodes of settlement over the past 9000 years. Archaeological surveys have recorded more than 300 sites whose age, type and distribution on the landscape are reflections of changing socio-natural systems. The region is particularly suitable for detecting changes in both environmental and socio-political spheres because of its environmental marginality, yet centrality to the political needs of states and empires. Focusing on the Iron Age, evidence for internal and external sources of changes in the settlement and abandonment of the landscape will be examined through stylistic and technical materials analyses (mainly ceramic petrography) of ceramics, as well as the nature of the sites and their distribution on the landscape. In view of historical sources that describe changes from town-based local polities to state and imperial installations through the ages, as well as the importation of populations to implement these plans, this will be the first step in assessing how known historical events are reflected in the ceramics.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

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