Coba bowl

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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]

Contents

Type description

Archaeological Museum of the University of Munster - Coba Bowl Archaeological Museum of the University of Munster - Objects from Anatolia 18 26 43 357000.jpeg
Archaeological Museum of the University of Münster - Coba Bowl

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]

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, Tilbeş Höyük, 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. ↑ 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. ↑ 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. ↑ 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. ↑ 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. ↑ 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. ↑ 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. ↑ 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. ↑ 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. ↑ 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

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