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Neolithic Burnished Wares in the Near East

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

M. V. Seton Williams
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Extract

This paper is solely concerned with that group of burnished and incised Neolithic wares which occur in various sites in the Near East, chiefly in North Syria, Iraq and South Turkey. Sufficient excavation has now taken place to make some comparison between the wares found on these sites possible. There is still, however, much to be done and there remains an unfortunate lack of agreement among archæologists as to what shall be termed Neolithic. In Europe Burkitt1 defines what he calls ‘the most notable addition to human experience” in the Neolithic as

(1) The practice of agriculture;

(2) The domestication of animals;

(3) The manufacture of pottery;

(4) The grinding and polishing of stone tools instead of chipping only.

The first three do hold good to a large extent in Asia Minor and Northern Syria, but with regard to (4), the sickle blade and the point are more the type tools of the Neolithic than the ground and polished axes or hoes of Western Europe, although polished hoes have been found in increasing numbers on Near Eastern sites of the transitional Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Period.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , Spring 1948 , pp. 34 - 50
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1948

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References

page 34 note 1 Burkitt, M. C., Our Early Ancestors, 1926, p. 50 Google Scholar.

page 34 note 2 From Palestine the presence of pottery in association with Natufian implements has been reported by Dr.Stekelis, (B.A.S.O.R. No. 86, 04, 1942 Google Scholar, and Q.D.A.P., XI, Nos. 3-4, 1944)Google Scholar, in Mugharet Abu Usba, but as Albright points out in an article in the same issue of B.A.S.O.R., the pottery is of a definite Chalcolithic type, and probably belongs between Jericho IX and Ghassul or Jericho VIII and Megiddo XX, and is definitely not Meso-lithic or Natufian.

page 34 note 3 Childe, V. Gordon, Man Makes Himself, 1936, P. 74 Google Scholar.

page 35 note 1 Tell Hassuna, Excavations by the Iraq Government Directorate General of Antiquities in 1943 and 1945; Lloyd, Seton and Safar, Fuad, J.N.E.S., IV, no. 4 Google Scholar.

page 35 note 2 See accompanying map, fig. 5.

page 35 note 3 Exploration in Cilicia, Excavations at Mersin: Garstang, J., A.A.A., XXIV-VI, 1937–1938 Google Scholar.

page 36 note 1 Schaeffer, Claude F. A., Ugaritica, 1939, p. 5 Google Scholar.

page 36 note 2 The author has seen and handled material from all these sites except Tell Hassuna, Nineveh, Tabbat al-Hammam, and Tell Astvad.

page 36 note 3 A.A.A. XXVI, nos. 1 and 2, p. 66 Google Scholar.

page 36 note 4 Bittel, Kurt, Prähistorische Forschungen in Kleinasien, Istanbul, 1934 Google Scholar.

page 36 note 5 Dunand, Maurice, Fouilles de Byblos, 1926–1932, Paris, 1939, Tomes I and IIGoogle Scholar

page 36 note 6 Unfortunately the early levels from Tepe Gawra have not yet been published or further comparative material might be available.

page 36 note 7 A.A.A., XXVI, nos. 1 and 2, p. 57 Google Scholar.

page 37 note 1 Childe, V. Gordon, ‘The Orient and Europe,’ in A.J.A., XLIII, no. 1, 01-March, 1939 Google Scholar.

page 37 note 2 von der Osten, H. H., Tie Alishar Hüyük, Part I (Researches in Anatolia, vol. VII), p. 28 Google Scholar.

page 37 note 3 Mallowan, M. E. L. and Rose, J. C., ‘Prehistoric Assyria: the Excavations at Tall Arpachiyah, 1933,’ Iraq, II, Part IGoogle Scholar.

page 38 note 1 Mallowan, M. E. L., ‘Excavations in the Balikh Valley, 1958,’ Iraq VIII, 111 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 38 note 2 Loc. cit., p. 126 and footnote.

page 39 note 1 Woolley, C. L., ‘Early Pottery from Jebail,’ in A.A.A., X, nos. 1-2, plate IX, 2Google Scholar.

page 39 note 2 Woolley, C. L., ‘The Prehistoric Pottery of Carchemish,’ Iraq, I, 146 Google Scholar. This report was based on notes taken at the time, and without a re-examination of the material which was in Istanbul.

page 39 note 3 Ibid., p. 154.

page 39 note 4 Ibid., Fig. 4.

page 39 note 5 Mallowan, M. E. L., ‘The Excavations at Tell Chagar Bazar,:954-35,’ Iraq, III, part I, plate III, 8–13 Google Scholar.

page 40 note 1 Lloyd, Seton and Safar, Fuad, ‘Tell Hassuna,’ J.N.E.S., IV, no. 4, 10, 1945 Google Scholar.

page 40 note 2 Ibid., Fig. 33.

page 40 note 3 Ibid., p. 264.

page 40 note 4 Ibid., pp. 265, 278, and Plate XIV, 1. 9, 1: 11.

page 40 note 5 Braidwood, Robert J., Mounds in the Plain of Antioch (Chicago Oriental Institute Publications, Vol. XLVIII)Google Scholar, and A.J.A., XLI, 1937 Google Scholar.

page 40 note 6 The author is indebted to Professor Braidwood for permission to examine this material at the Oriental Institute during the winter of 1938.

page 40 note 7 Op. cit., p. 259.

page 41 note 1 A.A.A., XXVI, nos. 1-2, pp. 51–72 Google Scholar.

page 42 note 1 Compare the lance-heads from the Mersin Lower Neolithic illustrated in A.A.A. XXVI, nos. 1-2, plate XVIII, no. 13Google Scholar, with the one from Hassuna, 1A, J.N.E.S. IV, no. 4, Fig. 22, 9 Google Scholar, where the technique appears to be identical.

page 42 note 2 Thompson, R. Campbell and Mallowan, M. E. L., ‘The British Museum Excavations at Nineveh, 1931-1932, A.A.A. XX (1933), 143 Google Scholar.

page 43 note 1 Ugeritica, Première Série, pp. 3-7.

page 43 note 2 ‘Third Report on the Excavations at Sakje Geuzi, 1908-1911,’ A.A.A. XXIV, nos. 2-4Google Scholar.

page 43 note 3 Garstang, J., The Hittite Empire, p. 237 Google Scholar.

page 43 note 4 Marked as mound A in the plan, A.A.A. I, plate XXXIII, and described on pp. 101-105.

page 44 note 1 A.A.A. V, plate XIII.

page 44 note 2 A.A.A. XXIV, nos. 3-4, plate XXIII.

page 44 note 3 Ibid., plate XXIV, no. 9.

page 44 note 4 A.J.A. XLI.no. 1, p. 11.

page 44 note 5 A.A.A. XXIV, nos. 1-2, p. 52.

page 44 note 6 Braidwood, Robert J., ‘Report on Two Sondages on the Coast of Syria, South of Tartous,’ Syria, XXI, pp. 183–226 Google Scholar.

page 46 note 1 Ibid., fig. 13, no. 5.

page 46 note 2 I am indebted to the Turkish authorities for permission to examine and publish this material.