Drinking on the periphery: the Tell Nebi Mend goblets in their regional and archaeometric context

Abstract

This paper explores the late 3rd millennium BC goblet corpus from Tell Nebi Mend in the upper Orontes Valley, Syria, by comparing the form, size, petrographic and chemical composition of these drinking vessels. The available evidence suggests that Tell Nebi Mend belongs to its own distinct ceramic-culture province, which shares a greater affinity with the Beqa‘ Valley and the Black Wheel-made Ware of the southern Levant than with the traditional heartland of the Syrian ‘Caliciform’ culture.

Keywords:

• Early Bronze Age IV
• goblets
• caliciform
• archaeometry
• Orontes

Acknowledgements

Both Peter Parr’s excavations at Nebi Mend (1976–94) and the Syrian-British survey project Settlement and Landscape Development in the Homs, Region, Syria (1999–2010), were undertaken with the permission and assistance of the Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums. We would particularly like to thank Dr Maamoun Abdelkarim and Dr Michel al-Maqdissi (DGAM, Damascus) and Farid Jabbour and Maryam Bacheich (DGAM, Homs) for their support and encouragement throughout, and for granting permission to sample ceramic material stored in Homs for laboratory analysis. Material from Parr’s excavations at Nebi Mend and Arjoune, and reference material from Qatna was sampled with the kind permission of Institute of Archaeology, University College, London. Fieldwork in Syria 1999–2010 was supported by grants from the Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL), Durham University and the British Academy (LRG: 33542). The latter also provided a grant (British Academy SG 46112) specifically to support a visit to Homs in 2007 to sample our ceramic collection for subsequent laboratory investigation. Post-fieldwork analysis and preparation of material for publication has been generously supported by the Leverhulme Trust, Grant F00128/AR (2007–2010). Laboratory analysis was undertaken in Durham by Dr Badreshany, as part of the project Computational Research on the Ancient Near East (CRANE), which is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Notes

1 One of the other complete sequences to be published is Tell Arqa on the Akkar Plain, although ‘Grey Ware’ Caliciform vessels appear to be rare at this site (Thalmann 2006).

2 For a more in depth discussion of the stratigraphy of Trench I see Kennedy (2015a: 38–67). It should be noted that the Tell Nebi Mend excavations used Kenyon’s locus/level system for stratigraphic recording see Parr (2015: 25–26) for a more detailed explanation of this recording system.

3 This periodization is based on the stratigraphic and ceramic analysis presented in Bourke (1991; 1993) and Kennedy (2015a). This phasing differs somewhat from that presented by Parr (2015), this is due to the fact that this phasing can be considered the ‘local’ phasing of the Trench I sequence. It should also be noted that the upper deposits of Trench VIII were heavily disturbed, making precise stratigraphic correlations between the two trenches complex.

4 This examination is based upon the Tell Nebi Mend type-series (Kennedy 2015a: 68–191), which was developed in isolation, without reference to other typologies and sequences in order to avoid the circularity of what might be termed ‘truism typology’, in which all new corpora are required to ‘fit’ pre-existing typologies. It is not designed to be a wider regional typology, as it is based solely upon the TNM material.

5 In this instance, ‘Simple Ware’ is defined on the basis of fabric type and colour: instances are generally marked by a yellow-buff to light orangey-buff hue, fabrics range from fine to medium-coarse, with mineral and vegetal inclusions.

6 MNV based on the total number of rim sherds/vessels per phase. This figure does not include body sherds or bases, of which a significant amount could be classified as Caliciform.

7 Sampling was limited to vessels available in the UK and those allowed to be sampled by UCL.