Peter M. M. G. Akkermans

Not So Coarse, Nor Always Plain : The Earliest Pottery of Syria

The site of Tell Sabi Abyad in Syria offers a superb stratified sequence passing from the aceramic (pre-pottery) to pottery-using Neolithic around 7000 BC. Surprisingly the first pottery arrives fully developed with mineral tempering, burnishing and stripey decoration in painted slip. The expected, more experimental-looking, plant-tempered coarse wares shaped by baskets arrive about 300 years later. Did the first ceramic impetus come from elsewhere?

A landscape of preservation: late prehistoric settlement and sequence in the Jebel Qurma region, north-eastern Jordan

Abstract Recent fieldwork in the Jebel Qurma region, in the basalt wasteland east of Azraq, revealed a large number of prehistoric sites, dating from the 7th to the late 4th millennia cal bc. While some sites were little more than lithic scatters over a few dozen square metres, others were of impressive size, up to 8 hectares in extent and characterized by hundreds of stone-built structures. The new data demonstrate considerable diversity in site layout as well as clear shifts in habitation patterns and locational preferences through time. These new insights require a re-evaluation of current thoughts on settlement and community organization in the basaltic uplands of north-eastern Jordan in the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods.

More Seals and Sealings from Neolithic Tell Sabi Abyad, Syria

Abstract Recent excavations at Tell Sabi Abyad in northern Syria yielded a number of stone stamp seals and clay sealings from well-stratified Neolithic contexts, dating c. 6300–6000 BC. This report presents the new finds and relates them to the prehistoric seals and many hundreds of sealings previously found at the site.

Nothing But Cold Ashes? The Burial Cairns of Jebel Qurma, North-Eastern Jordan

Throughout the basaltic uplands of northeastern Jordan, there are countless large and small mounds of stone (cairns), which are the burial places of people who roamed the desert many hundreds or thousands of years ago. These numerous graves have never been systematically investigated, and little is known about their construction, date, and variability, let alone about their deceased occupants. This picture is now changing owing to an ongoing program of survey and excavation in the Jebel Qurma region, close to the border of Jordan and Saudi Arabia. These investigations point towards complex and entangled arrangements of cairn use and mortuary practices over time, when Early Bronze Age cemeteries are replaced by singular, impressive tower tombs and conical ring cairns in the Hellenistic to Byzantine period. The reuse of these tombs is a recurrent feature, emphasizing the focal and enduring role of these monuments to both the dead and the living.

Skeletons in the fortress: the Late Bronze Age burials of Tell Sabi Abyad, Syria

Abstract The assemblage of Late Bronze Age burials from Tell Sabi Abyad provides us with a unique window into the burial customs of the burgeoning Middle Assyrian Empire in the former lands of Hanigalbat. Our understanding of the settlement is aided by the fact that the site has been more or less completely excavated, and because we have rich in situ contexts that include nearly 400 cuneiform tablets. The burial assemblage is remarkable because of the diverse nature of the burial customs attested at the site. This diversity can be seen in the different types of interment and in treatment of the body, as well as in the nature of the grave goods. In this paper, we will provide an overview of this diversity, and we will discuss what it can tell us about Middle Assyrian society at the site of Tell Sabi Abyad and beyond.