II Workshop on late Neolithic cerámics in ancient Mesopotamia

Pottery in context

Gómez, Anna (ed.)
Becker, Jörg (ed.)
Molist, Miquel (ed.)

The present volume is the result of the workshop celebrated by researchers and specialists in prehistoric pottery from the Middle East in the MAC-Empúries venue in October 2015. Research in archaeological pottery, in the framework of the appearance and development of the first agricultural and pastoral communities, is of outmost importance to gain new knowledge about the technological, social and economic processes this first neolithic communities had. Said phenomenon took place around 7000 cal BC in the Middle East and its incidence in Europe and the rest of the world is well known for its inference to the associated productive processes, the transformation of mineral raw materials, and their morphometric and decorative diversity.
The articles presented in this publication have been written by 31 researchers from 13 nationalities and comprises themes involving from raw material collection to the manufacture, use and characterisation of diverse ceramic productions. Other themes are the use of new methodologies, techniques and biotic and abiotic analyses, relative and radiometric chronologies and production and distribution networks. In the geographic level, research covers studies from Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Israel and Palestine, regions where pottery appeared in the mediterranean area for the first place, reflecting a quick technological and morphotypological transformation process. More precisely, archaeological sites associated to the ceramic productions from the Hassuna, Samarra, Halaf and Ubaid cultures have been studied.