The prehistoric pottery, ca. 6600-6200 BC

Among the main research topics of the Sabi Abyad project since 2001 are the origin and subsequent development of the earliest pottery in northern Syria. Pottery making was introduced in this region at about 6900/6800 BC; nearly a world’s first. This early pottery lies at the root of all subsequent ceramic traditions, but we still do not know much about it. At Tell Sabi Abyad we are able to follow the gradual development step by step.  We can investigate the ceramic technology, the shapes the potters produced and the decorations they applied. We are not only interested in questions of a chronological order, but also in the uses this early pottery may have had.

The early potters relied on a relatively basic ceramic technology. The clay is coarse, and contains a high percentage of vegetable material. This is known as 'plant temper' and was purposely added to improve the 'workability' of the clay for making pots. As a result the pottery gained a rather rough surface. The imprints of straw are clearly to be seen. After the potter had shaped the pot, the surface was not smoothed out. As a result you can still clearly see the locations where the different components of the pot were attached to one another. We use the phrase “coarsely-made, plant-tempered” ware for this pottery, or simply CMPT ware. It is strikingly different from the technically advanced Halaf pottery retrieved from later occupation levels at Tell Sabi Abyad.

Simple shapes are the most common. Convex-sided bowls and a kind of ‘bucket’ with loop handles on both sides are characteristic. Sometimes a kind of exterior ridge (cordon) is found just below the rim. The function of this ridge remains unclear.

A remarkable discovery of the 2004 season was that the potters occasionally used reed mats as a base for shaping the vessels. They laid out the mat flat on the floor, and then pressed the soft, plastic clay onto it to form the base. Today, thousands of years later, you can still clearly see the concentric reed imprints at the exterior surface of the base. This technique has not been observed previously at Tell Sabi Abyad. We do know it from later periods: Syrian Bedouins in the 19th century AD also used reed mats as a base.

Occasionally we find such impressions at the interior surface as well; in these cases the potter took a reed basket as a support for shaping the wall. What is interesting is that at Tell Sabi Abyad the same technique appears to have been used to shape containers of lime or gypsum, what is known as white ware. These technological similarities show that people were flexible, and were able to apply existing technologies to new materials.

Probably the most curious thing about the early pottery is that it was hardly ever decorated. This is certainly not self-evident. As is well known to anyone who ever visited an archaeological museum, pottery is an inviting medium for artistic and symbolic expression. Contemporary, western artists often express themselves in ceramics as well; in the Netherlands, Museum Princessehof specialises in modern ceramic art. We know that several centuries later, at around 6200-6000 BC, pottery was abundantly and intricately decorated. The avoidance of pottery decoration by the early potters can hardly be attributed to unfamiliarity with the art of visual expression, as a number of magnificent wall paintings from this period in Syria, southeastern Turkey and northern Mesopotamia show. The earliest ceramics apparently had an entirely different social and symbolic function than it would have in later periods.

A nice selection of typical early vessels from Tell Sabi Abyad has been restored during the previous season; these are currently on display in the Archaeological Museum of Damascus.

Why did people start making pottery? Long-term bulk storage of grains or other foodstuffs may not have been the main function of the early pottery, as large storage jars did not yet exist. Possibly the pottery served for temporary storage of such products. The material is too porous to contain water, alcoholic beverages or other fluids efficiently - the contents would seep through the vessel wall. On the other hand, this property may have been valuable for temporary liquid storage, as the evaporation at the exterior cools the contents of the vessel. The vessels would have been unable to withstand thermal shock over an open fire during cooking, but it may very well have been used for the preparation of foodstuffs that did not involve heat. In short, we still do not know what the early pottery was used for. In the coming years we aim to investigate these issues further.

This study is supported by the Netherlands Foundation of Scientific Research (NWO) (dossier R28-507).

   Tell Sabi Abyad in the early 7th millennium (c. 6700-6200 BC)
   The prehistoric pottery, ca. 6600-6200 BC
   A burnt storage building from around 6100 BC
   A matter of administration: prehistoric clay sealings
   Tell Sabi Abyad in the Assyrian period of the late 13th and early 12th century BC
   Again dozens of Assyrian cuneiform tablets found!