Understanding Stylistic and Technical Variation in Middle Chalcolithic Painted Pottery Decoration—A Test from Tel Tsaf

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This research explores the social interaction between Tel Tsaf and northern Mesopotamia through pottery decoration similarities. This ongoing research questions another possible connection between northern Mesopotamia and Tel Tsaf in the central Jordan Valley, representing one of the most southern sites discovered. The Middle Chalcolithic (5600-4500 BC) site of Tel Tsaf is located in the central Jordan Valley near Beth Shean, Israel. The site is believed to have influences from the Ubaid in northern Mesopotamia during the Chalcolithic period. This assertion is fundamentally based on the recovery of distinctive pottery sherds, Tel Tsaf ware, after decades of excavations (Gophna 1970s; Garfinkel 2004-2007; Rosenberg 2013-Present). To reconstruct the context, analysis of the pottery decorations will be mainly used to broaden the interpretation of the site through a consideration of all relevant Tel Tsaf pottery. X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) studies will be conducted on the pottery colorant in order to provide a better understanding of provenance of colorant components. Through examining the stylistic and technical variations of the Tel Tsaf ware as well as XRF analysis of the Ubaid-like pottery decoration, this study compares to Tel Tsaf with the sites in northern Mesopotamia, Ubaid interaction zone.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 26125