Book Description

The purpose of this thesis is to present a pottery typology of the ceramic evidence gathered from excavations at Nustell in North-East Syria. Nustell, an ancient village site in the yabur basin was rescue excavated by a team from the Department of History and Archaeology at AUB led by Prof. Helga Seeden. The excavation was a direct response to an international appeal launched in 1985 by the Syrian Directorate General of Antiquities to explore and save ancient sites threatened by the waters of the upper and lower Habur dam projects. In accordance with this appeal, a joint team composed of the AUB and the Institut Frangais d'Etudes Arabes a Damas (IFEAD), put forth a detailed project for the investigation of the history, settlement patterns and material culture of the ancient sites of Nustell, Tell Zagan and Tell Hwes in the iHabur basin. The present thesis constitutes but one phase of this larger project, specifically the one concerned with forming a ceramic sequence from Nustell. The site was excavated during two seasons, 1988 and 89. The archaeological data provided by the stratigraphical record identifies occupation periods covering parts of the fourth and third millennia. The pottery studied here will attempt to substantiate this proposal as well as trace the major characteristics of the region's ceramic culture along Nustell's various periods of occupation. The establishment of Nustell's pottery typology is an essential step towards paving the way for a wide range of studies that involve: the chronological assessment of the site's architectural remains, the identification of its settlement history, and the creation of a wider understanding of major cultural periods present at the site and characterizing the area, such as the Uruk and the Ninevite 5 periods.