Mesopotamian Pottery : A Guide to the Babylonian Tradition in the Second Millennium B.C.

This volume presents the results of the long-term co-operation of archaeologists from the University of Ghent and the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago to establish the ceramic chronology for Mesopotamia in the second millennium B.C. Drawing only upon pottery found in good context in well-conducted excavations, going back to the 1930s, but relying especially on the collaboration of other excavators who were working in southern Iraq from the 1960s onward, James Armstrong and Hermann Gasche, with the participation of cuneiformist Steven Cole and ceramic specialists Abraham Van As and Loe Jacobs, have created a typology of all major forms, showing the subtle changes that occurred in individual shapes through time at one site and at related sites. It also shows regional variations in shapes. Their graphic presention of the forms makes visible a centuries-long break in occupation of numerous sites in southern Iraq beginning in the time of Samsuiluna, the successor to Hammurabi of Babylon, and another break at the end of the millennium. There are detailed discussions of the forms and their geograhical distribution, as well as a treatment of the historical implications of the evidence.