SETTLEMENT PATTERNS AND LAND USE DURING NINEVITE 5 PERIOD “3000-2500 BC” IN THE KHABOUR BASIN

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The period extended between the end of the fourth millennium BC, i.e. Chalcolithic Age, and the beginning of the third millennium BC, i.e. Early Bronze Age, was characterized by the existence of a transition phase that did not exceed five hundred years. That period called Ninevite 5 and it lasted from 3000 to 2500 BC. Radical changes had happened during that period before the shifting to build the big cities and the establishment of the Akkadian Empire around 2500 BC. After the settlement expansion across the last stage of the fourth millennium that named LC 5 “Late Chalcolithic 5” territories that extended from the south of Iraq to the north of the Syrian Jazireh, we notice that, at the end of the fourth millennium and the beginning of the third one, a recess had occurred to that expansion and the number of inhabited sites, which were dwelled in high population density, had drastically decreased to only reach 30%. Except of some small rural sites in north of Iraq and Khabour Basin in the north-east of Syrian Jazireh, this period was marked _ although it lasted for a short time _ by several features, at top of it all, is its unique and distinguished pottery that it had not been found anywhere before Ninevite 5 and which characterized by its shape, color and decoration. Distinctive pottery is not the only feature that characterized this period but also work specialization in Khabour Basin sites where the Upper Khabour Basin specialized in rain-fed agriculture to grow grains and then transfer them to the Middle Khabour Basin where they used to be cleaned processed and stored in specific facilities. These stored grains used to be either shipped to other sites along the Khabour river, like Mari, or be consumed locally by residents of the sites in Khabour Basin or served as fodder for animals.