The Emergence of Pottery in West Asia by Akiri Tsuneki Olivier Nieuwenhuyse Stuart Campbell

Author:Akiri Tsuneki,Olivier Nieuwenhuyse,Stuart Campbell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Casemate Publishers & Book Distributors, LLC
Published: 2017-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Fig.10.7 Operational chain of pottery production and the steps present at Ganj Dareh.

Fig.10.8 "Earlier Manifestation" pottery from Jarmo, Iraq. After Adams 1983: Figure 105.

Fig.10.9 "Later Manifestation" pottery assemblage from Jarmo, Iraq. After Adams, 1983: Fig. 109.

A second observation is equally important. Even the sherds of the Later Manifestation were very unevenly spread across the site. Adams (Fig.10.11; Adams 1983: 214, Chart 3; see also Braidwood 1983: Fig. 24) notes for the largest trench, Operation II, that pottery was only present in the western parts. Even though this may be the effect of discard practices, as the excavators claim, I would argue that such a striking distribution could be the result of differential receptivity, that is, an unwillingness by some people in the community to include products of both the Earlier and Later Manifestations in their daily lives.20

Third, stone vessels were partly replaced by pottery. This can be shown by comparing the development of rim diameters over time for both types of containers. While the stone bowls decrease in overall size, the ceramic vessels increase. Adams points out that stone bowls were not in their entirety replaced by pottery, but for the range of large containers only. We can conclude that hardness of containers was not of primary importance for large vessels, nor was a shiny exterior, complete impermeability or the possibility of cleaning their insides meticulously. All of these characteristics, however, could have influenced the choice to continue the use and making of small stone bowls. There was apparently a preference for large ceramic containers to be suspended on an unknown kind of device. This is indicated by the many lug handles. It may thus be that dry items, possibly food, were stored and processed in the vessels of the Later Manifestation, but that people preferred stone bowls for small amounts, and likely for liquids.

Fig.10.10 Baked clay bins from aceramic Jarmo. After Braidwood 1983: Fig. 29.

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