Tell el-'Abd II. Pottery and Potmarks at an Early Urban Settlement of the Middle Euphrates River Valley, Syria. Final Reports of the Syrian-German excavations at Tel el-’Abd

Abstract

The monograph investigates the breakdown of the Uruk world-system towards the end of the 4th millennium BCE, and the roots of secondary state formation in the Middle Euphrates region through the analysis of continuity and change in the Early Bronze ceramic material from the site of Tell el-‘Abd (Tabqa Dam, Syria). This analysis fills a chronological gap for the early third millennium, a period poorly known in the district downstream from Carchemish. It further includes the study of over 1300 potter’s marks, thus offering new insight into the intra- and inter-site organization of pottery production and into a complex and variegated system of visual communication active at a regional level before the use and diffusion of writing in Syria.