The Pots and Potters of Assyria: Technology and Organisation of Production, Ceramic Sequence and Vessel Function at Late Bronze Age Tell Sabi Abyad, Syria.

• Author: Pace, Leann
• Position: Book review

The Pots and Potters of Assyria: Technology and Organisation of Production, Ceramic Sequence and Vessel Function at Late Bronze Age Tell Sabi Abyad, Syria. By KIM DUISTERMAAT. PALMA, vol. 4. Turnhout: BREPOLS, 2008. Pp. 605, illus. [euro] 125.

In the secondary title for her dissertation-turned-book, Kim Duistermaat sets expansive goals for herself and the text: describing the technology employed and the organization of production at Late Bronze Age Tell Sabi Abyad, providing further thoughts on the ceramic sequence at the site, and offering discussion on the function of the vessels represented in the Late Bronze assemblage. Happily, Duistermaat's work lives up to these goals via a text that presents a great deal of raw data and explanatory material while remaining accessible.

The more theoretical and interpretive goals of the study are founded upon a thorough physical study of the LB ceramic material from the site. The excavation and evaluation methodologies for the recovered ceramic material are provided in good detail in chapter II, while chapter III ("The Ceramic Sequence") provides a wonderful balance of organized raw data with thoughtful descriptive analysis. In chapter III the ceramics are grouped by level and, for each level, descriptions of the fabrics, rim and base shapes, forms, firing temperatures and conditions, and surface treatments are provided. In addition to the narrative descriptions, over two hundred pages of ceramic illustrations and detailed descriptions of each item represented are included. The drawings are scaled accurately (as compared with the physical measurements given), a condition not always the case in the publication of ceramics.

Chapters V, VI, and VII provide the interpretive meat of the study. In chapter V Duistermaat addresses the techniques employed in and the organization of pottery production at Tell Sahi Abyad. Here and in her concluding chapter she asserts that while there is a documentable change in ceramic production between Level 7 ("Mitanni" period) and Levels 6-3 (Middle Assyrian occupation), strong points of continuity also exist. She cites as an example the presence of Middle Assyrian shapes in Level 7 and the continuation of "shapes and decorations generally seen as typical of the Mitanni period" in Levels 6-3. She asserts that the continuation of Level 7 potting traditions implies that local potting customs continued alongside the production of ceramics associated with the Assyrian dunnu...