Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (19.2007(2010))

TELL ARBID

SYRIA

TECHNOLOGICAL MARKS ON POTTERY VESSELS.
EVIDENCE FROM TELL ARBID, TELL RAD
SHAQRAH AND TELL JASSA EL-GHARBI
(NORTHEASTERN SYRIA)

Anna Smogorzewska

Pottery vessels occasionally bear marks that
can be traced to various stages in the process
of the forming of a pot. Considered together
with results of laboratory research, these
marks can contribute to a reconstruction of
the technological processes involved in the
shaping of a vessel and its surface treatment,
as well as firing conditions. Since successive
stages of pot-making tend to obliterate traces
of the earlier steps, practically the only way to
determine some of the technological marks is
to study vessels that have not been finished
too carefully. The well made ones bear hardly
any technological marks other than what was
a final or intended effect in keeping with the
vessel’s projected use.
The present investigation is based on
a technological study of pottery from three

sites in northeastern Syria excavated for
the PCM A UW by a Polish archaeological
mission under the supervision of Piotr
Bielihski. These sites are: Tell Arbid in
the basin of the Upper Khabur, and Tell
Rad Shaqrah and Tell Jassa el-Gharbi in
the basin of the Middle Khabur. The
Tell Arbid material includes a variety of
pottery categories dated mainly to the third
millennium BC (Ninevite 5, EDIII, Akkadian
and post-Akkadian), as well as to the Khabur
Ware, Mitanni and Hellenistic periods. Tell
Rad Shaqrah and Tell Jassa el-Gharbi have
yielded mostly EDIII ceramics. An analysis of
the pottery has identified and interpreted
evidence of technological marks related to
different stages in the forming of vessels, from
shape building to firing.

FORMING TECHNIQUES

There are many forming techniques in
evidence: by hand (pinching, drawing,
coiling, slab building, and others) and using
tools like a potter’s wheel or a tournette.
Vessels were made from a single lump of clay
or from separate parts that were joined

together. Different techniques were
frequently used in conjunction with one
another. Some aspects of the forming
processes cannot be analyzed without
laboratory examination (e.g. X-ray) and
others leave marks on the vessels themselves.

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Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean 19, Reports 2007