Objects of Visual Representation and Local Cultural Idioms

ABSTRACT

In this paper, I reconsider the meaning of decorated objects like painted pottery and seal impressions with geometric and image-bearing motifs in prehistoric contexts. In northern Mesopotamia, the 6th millennium b.c., known more broadly as the Halaf Period, is a time when pottery with intricate painted motifs and stamp seals of a remarkably uniform style comprised a notable component of the cultural assemblage across a wide expanse. Following Alfred Gell, and using the site of Tell Kurdu, a peripheral Halaf Period 6th millennium b.c. site located in the Amuq Valley of Hatay, I highlight the ways in which such wares were used, and I strive to view them within their context-dependent settings. The region, on the fringes of this cultural entity provides a unique opportunity to identify a local Amuq identity and the nuances of hybridity that come with the appropriation of new elements of material culture, including Halaf Period painted pottery.

KEYWORDS:

• Halaf Period
• Alfred Gell
• cultural interaction
• cultural appropriation
• Tell Kurdu
• painted pottery decoration
• 6th millennium B.C

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Professor Halil Tekin for permission to use a photo of Pattern-Burnished Wares from Hakemi Use Tepe in Figure 7.

Disclosure Statement

The author reports there are no competing interests to declare.

Geolocation Information

36.330571, 36.444266 (source: Google maps, 22.02.2023). These co-ordinates refer to the center of the actual site of Tell Kurdu, from a region known locally as Kürttevekelli Tepesi.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for the excavation of the 6th-millennium b.c. levels at Tell Kurdu and subsequent research comes from the National Science Foundation (0118085), the Wenner-Gren Foundation (GR6788), the Fulbright-Hays Program, Northwestern University, the American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT), and the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA).

Notes on contributors

Rana Özbal

Rana Özbal (Ph.D. 2006, Northwestern University) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Archaeology and History of Art at Koç University in Istanbul and the co-director of the Tell Kurdu excavations in Hatay (Turkey). Her research interests include the prehistory of Anatolia and southwestern Asia and have primarily been on the 7th and 6th millennia b.c. She is interested in ceramic studies, as demonstrated by this article, as well as archaeometric analyses in archaeology to try to answer anthropologically informed questions. ORCID: 0000-0001-6765-2765.