THE YARMOUKIAN POTTERY ASSEMBLAGE OF TELL ABU SUWWAN, JORDAN

Abstract

The archaeological excavations conducted at the site Tell Abu Suwwan indicated that it was continuously occupied during two main periods from the Middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B through the Pottery Neolithic (Yarmoukian). The main focus of this paper is to study the pottery assemblage encountered in the Yarmoukian strata at Abu Tell Suwwan. Excavations at Tell Abu Suwwan in 2005 - 2008 yielded a total of 488 pieces of Yarmoukian pottery. The sample under study includes 86 Yarmoukian pottery sherds that came from in situ contexts ascribable to the Yarmoukian period/culture. This research studied the Tell Abu Suwwan pottery assemblage in detail and presents a parallel study with contemporaneous pottery developments in the southern Levant. The comparative study of indicates that the Wadi az-Zarqa basin was settled during the second half of the seventh millennium BCE (calibrated) with farming communities. The inhabitants of the Yarmoukian sites around Tell Abu Suwwan manufactured similar pottery forms and wares. The results of this study indicate that pots were probably produced at individual sites. However, the notion that there might have been a center of Yarmoukian pottery production in the Wadi az-Zarqa during the Late Neolithic is still under consideration.