Coba bowl

Coba bowls (with a capacity of about 1.4 liters) were widely produced, primarily in northern Mesopotamia but also found in the surrounding region, between c. 4600 BC and c. 4200 BC, in the transition between the late Ubaid period and early Uruk period becoming a predominant form at that time. This time period is variously called Terminal Ubaid, Ubaid 5, and Late Chalcolithic 1. They were expediently made, unpainted and coarse, with vegetable temper, frequently flint-scraped on the lower exterior, and in quantities, reminiscent of beveled rim bowls. Their appearance reflected a marked change in pottery tradition at the time.[1][2] They have been proposed as the predecessor of beveled rim bowls. The type was first identified at Coba Höyük.[3][4] It has been suggested that they acted as ration bowls in the same manner as beveled rim bowls may have in the Uruk period.[5][6]

Type description

When Coba bowls (in the category of Mass Produced Bowls) were found at Coba Höyük two types were defined, one beige/grey coarse ware with mixed grit and organic temper and one more finished and with reddish hues. Since then the definition has expanded as more exemplars were found at other sites.[7] The similar "Wide Flower-Pots" are considered by some researchers to be a local variant of Coba bowls those this is debated.[8][9] [10]

Subsequently, the definition of Coba bowls expanded to cover a class of post-Ubaid pottery. This coarse, unpainted, and mass produced pottery class differed markedly from the painted fineware of the Ubaid period. In general Coba bowls are most rounded in western areas and more "v-shaped" in eastern areas.[11] Currently Coba bowls are group into four rough classes:[12]

  • Type I - mostly eastern, flat disc base separately produced, rounded sides, found in Tell Abu Husseini, Tell Leilan, Tepe Gawra, Kurban and Norşuntepe
  • Type II - low, convex walls, round base, hand smoothed and scraped, found at Tell Feres, Tell Afis, Oylum Höyük, Tabara el Akrad, Sakçe Gözü, Hammam et-Turkman, Horum Höyük, Tell esh-Sheikh, Tell al-‘Abr, Tell Leilan, Abu Husseini, Norşuntepe, Ziyada, and Chagar Bazar
  • Type III - similar to Type II with higher walls flint scraped lower exterior and a flat base, found throughout the region including Değirmentepe, Arslantepe, and Arpachiya
  • Type IV - "Wide Flower-Pots", mostly eastern, conical with unscraped flat bottom, made using coils, found at Grai Resh, Norşuntepe, Tell al-Hawa, Tell Brak, Nineveh, Nuzi, and Telul eth-Thalathat

Distribution

While primarily found in Northern Mesopotamia, Coba bowls have been found in quantity at sites in Anatolia and modern day Syria and Iran.

At Tell Hammam et-Turkman Phase VA scraped Coba bowls account for more than 50% of the assemblage.[13] At Tell Zeidan the LC1 ceramics Coba bowls were 29%, and in the LC2 wide flowerpots they were 28%.[14][15][16] Soundings at the medieval period Harim Castle (Castrum Harenc) in Syria found fragments of Coba bowls.[17] At Değirmentepe (Malatya) Coba bowls were found (Building BC-15, Building I-9, Building FC-2, Building DU-2).[18][19] Coba bowls were found at Tepe Gawra and sherds at Kenan Tepe.[20][21] A large number were found on the Late Chalcolithic Level XV at Yumuktepe (Mersin).[22] At Salat Tepe numerous Coba sherds were found at the phase 1B level.[23] Also at Tell al 'Abr, Tell Afis, Girdi Qala and Logardan, Tell Tawila, and Tell Leilan.[24][25][26][27]

See also

References

  1. ^ Balossi Restelli Ë, "Post-Ubaid Occupation on the Upper Euphrates: Late Chalcolithic 1-2 at Arslantepe (Malaÿa, Turkey)", H. Kuhne, R. M. Czichon et al (eds.) Proceedings of the 4th International Congress of the Archaeology of the Near East, 29 March 3 April 2004, Freie Universitât Berlin. Vol. II: Social and Cultural Transformations: The Archaeoiogy of Transitional Periods and Dark Ages, Excavations Reports, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, p. 2l-31, 2008
  2. ^ Baldi, J. S., "For an Epistemological Innovation in the Approach to Paste Technical Traditions: Proto-Historic North-Mesopotamian Coba Bowls as a Case Study", colloque international Traditions and Innovations in the Study of Earliest Pottery. Materials of the International Conference, Musée de l’Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russie, 26 mai, pp 227-230, 2016
  3. ^ [1]Kennedy, J. R., "Commensality and Labor in Terminal Ubaid Northern Mesopotamia", in S. Pollock (ed.), Between Feasts and Daily Meals. Towards an Archaeology of Commensal Spaces, Berlin: Edition Topoi, pp. 143–180, 2015
  4. ^ Dietler, M./Herbich, I., "Feasts and Labor Mobilization: Dissecting a Fundamental Economic Practice", in M. Dietler/B. Hayden (eds.), Feasts: Archaeological and Ethnographic Perspectives on Food, Politics, and Power, Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 240–264, 2001
  5. ^ M. Frangipane, "Centralization Processes in Greater Mesopotamia: Uruk ”Expansion“ as the Climax of Systemic Interactions among Areas of the Greater Mesopotamian Region", in Uruk Mesopotamia & Its Neighbors: Cross-Cultural Interactions in the Era of State Formation. Ed. by M. Rothman. Santa Fe: SAR Press, pp. 307–348, 2001
  6. ^ H.T. Wright, "Cultural Action in the Uruk World", in Uruk Mesopotamia & Its Neighbors: Cross-Cultural Interactions in the Era of State Formations. Ed. by M. Rothman. Santa Fe: SAR Press, pp. 123–148, 2011
  7. ^ [2]Balossi Restelli, Francesca, and Barbara Helwing, "Traditions west of the Euphrates at the beginning of the Late Chalcolithic. Characteristics, definitions, and supra-regional correlations", Publications de l'Institut Français d'Études Anatoliennes 27.1, pp. 291-302, 2012
  8. ^ [3]Abu Jayyab, Khaled, "A ceramic chronology from Tell Hamoukar's southern extension", Publications de l'Institut Français d'Études Anatoliennes 27.1, pp. 87-127, 2012
  9. ^ [4]Oates, Joan, "The Terminal Ubaid (LC 1) Level at Tell Brak", Publications de l'Institut Français d'Études Anatoliennes 27.1, pp. 65-86, 2012
  10. ^ [5]Marro, Catherine, "Is there a Post-Ubaid culture? Reflections on the transition from the Ubaid to the Uruk periods along the Fertile Crescent and beyond", Publications de l'Institut Français d'Études Anatoliennes 27.1, pp. 13-38, 2012
  11. ^ Truffelli F., "Ceramic correlations and cultural relations in IVth millennium eastern Anatolia and Syro-Mesopotamia", Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici 9/1, pp. 5-33, 1997
  12. ^ [6]Baldi J. S., "Coba bowls, mass-production and social change in Post-Ubaid times", Varia Anatolica 27, pp. 393-416, 2012
  13. ^ Peter M.M.G. Akkermans, "The Period V Pottery", in Hammam et-Turkman I: Report on the University of Amsterdam’s 1981–1984 Excavations in Syria, ed. by Maurits van Loon, Istanbul: Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologisch Instituut te Istanbul, pp. 287–350, 1988
  14. ^ Stein, Gil J., "The development of indigenous social complexity in Late Chalcolithic Upper Mesopotamia in the 5th–4th millennia BC—an initial assessment", Origini 34.2012, pp. 125-151, 2012
  15. ^ Kennedy, J. R., "I Have the Power: Reflections on the Role of Individual Capability and Modalities of Power in the Archaeology of Greater Mesopotamia", in Understanding Power in Ancient Egypt and the Near East. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2024
  16. ^ [7]Fisher, M. T., "Intrasite Variability and Changing Social Practices during the Ubaid-Late Chalcolithic Transition at Tell Zeidan, Syria", Paléorient. Revue pluridisciplinaire de préhistoire et de protohistoire de l’Asie du Sud-Ouest et de l’Asie centrale 48-1, pp. 73-97, 2022
  17. ^ Mazzoni, S., "Upstream from Alalakh: The Lower Orontes Area in Syria". In Overturning Certainties in Near Eastern Archaeology. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2017
  18. ^ Yener, K. A., "The Archaeological Background". In The Domestication of Metals. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2000
  19. ^ B. Gurdil, "Architecture and Social Complexity in the Late Ubaid Period: A Study of the Built Environment of Değirmentepe in East Anatolia", PhD dissertation, Ann Arbor: University of California, Los Angeles, 2005
  20. ^ M. Rothman, "Tepe Gawra: The Evolution of a Small Prehistoric Center in Northern Iraq", Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002
  21. ^ Parker, Bradley J., and Jason R. Kennedy, "A Quantitative Attribute Analysis of the Ubaid-Period Ceramic Corpus from Kenan Tepe", Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 358, pp. 1–26, 2010
  22. ^ [8]Caneva, Isabella, Giulio Palumbi, and Antonia Pasquino, "The Ubaid impact on the periphery: Mersin-Yumuktepe during the fifth millennium BC", Publications de l'Institut Français d'Études Anatoliennes 27.1, pp. 353-389, 2012
  23. ^ [9]Kennedy, Jason R., "The End of the Ubaid Period in the Upper Tigris River Valley", Paléorient. Revue pluridisciplinaire de préhistoire et de protohistoire de l’Asie du Sud-Ouest et de l’Asie centrale 48-1, pp. 99-110, 2022
  24. ^ Schwartz G.M. "A Ceramic Chronology from Tell Leilan: Operation 1", New Haven, 1988
  25. ^ Hammade, Hamido, and Yayoi Yamazaki, "Tell Al-ʻAbr (Syria): Ubaid and Uruk Periods", No. 4. Peeters Publishers, 2006
  26. ^ Vallet, Régis, "Report on the third season of excavations at Girdi Qala and Logardan", Directorate of Antiquities of Souleymanieh, General Directorate of Antiquities of Kurdistan Regional Government, 2017
  27. ^ Excavations at Tell Tawila, Northeastern Syria 2006 - Jörg Becker

Further reading

  • Baldi, J. S., "Coba bowls production, use and discard: A view from Tell Feres al-Sharqi", R. Matthews and J. Curtis (ed.), Proceedings of the 7th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East 12 April – 16 April 2010, the British Museum and UCL, London. Volume 1, Mega- Cities and Mega-Sites, The Archaeology of Consumption and Disposal, Landscape, Transport and Communication, Wiesbaden, 355–368, 2012
  • Baldi J. S., "Tell Feres al-Sharqi in the LC 1-2 period. Serial production and regionalisation of ceramic traditions: a perspective from a small rural site", Varia Anatolica 27, pp. 129-161, 2012
  • Jayyab, Ahmed Khaled Abu, "Nomads in Late Chalcolithic Northern Mesopotamia: Mobility and Social Change in the 5th and 4th Millennium BC", University of Toronto (Canada), 2019
  • [10]Mazzoni, Stefania, "From the Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze I in north-west Syria: Anatolian contact and regional perspective", Publications de l'Institut Français d'Études Anatoliennes 11.1, pp. 97-114, 2000
  • [11]Giulia Russo, "Pottery-Making Practices between the Ubaid and the Late Chalcolithic 1 and 2 Some Observations on Ceramics from the Balikh Valley, Syria", Paleorient, 48-1, pp. 155-174, 2022
  • Van As, A., and L. Jacobs, "The manufacturing technique of the Coba bowls and other Late Chalcolithic pottery from Oylum Hoyiik, Turkey", Leiden Journal of Pottery Studies 20, pp. 111-20, 2004
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