Thesiss

Lusterware, tin-glazed pottery decorated with striking iridescent designs, was first made in Basra, Iraq, in the ninth century. These luxury ceramics and the specialized technique involved in their creation spread rapidly throughout the Islamic world, with the Iberian Peninsula …

The essential purpose of this study was to formulate a Middle Bronze Age ceramic chronology that could be used to determine the relative dates of archaeological sites located in the Euphrates Valley of Syria. Through a study of the pottery from the Middle Bronze sequence at the …

The Late Bronze-Iron Age horizon in southern Syria-Palestine is marked by profound changes in the cultural and socio-political fabric of the region. Because of its association with biblical Israel, the highlands have been the focus of considerable investigative effort into the h…

The mid 2nd millennium BC in Mesopotamia is defined by the ebb and flow of power politics, with the Old Babylonian state, the Kassite state, and the kings of the Sealand, vying for power over the southern alluvial plains. Although widespread sociopolitical instability is acknowl…

The present study examines the pictorial style of pottery made in Thera and Crete in the LCI/LMIA period. The work is in two volumes. Volume I is divided into three parts. Part I comprises the introductory chapter in which there is a summary of previous research on the subject a…

The 1960's witnessed a great deal of activity in the excavation of classical period sites in the Levant, as well as some of the best work ever done in the area of ceramic chronology in these periods, with the publication of Paul W. Lapp's Palestinian Ceramic Chronology (1960). W…

This dissertation is the first detailed description and in-depth analysis of the Middle Kingdom (2055–1650 B.C.) ceramic assemblage from the archaeological site of North Abydos, Egypt. It focuses on the pottery from an area just outside the main temple of the god Osiris, which w…

Inhabitants of Northern Mesopotamia during the sixth millennium BCE commonly produced finely-made pottery that they decorated with elaborate designs. The geometric and representational designs they used to adorn their vessels have drawn attention because of their intricate style…

Tel Yin'am and nearby Khirbet Beit Gan are the only excavated sites in the Yavne'el Valley, which constituted part of an ancient international highway that connected the hinterland of the Hauran (modern-day Syria) with the Mediterranean coast. As one of the few multi-occupationa…

Trade, exchange and other forms of social interaction have long been recognized as important mechanisms for the development of communities and the maintenance of social bonds. How and under what circumstances these networks of communication develop into communities with a shared…

The study of foodstuff and pottery exchanges in the Iron Age II has been neglected thus far. This research provides new information on the market exchanges and centric transfers of those goods between the Israelites, Phoenicians, and Philistines during the Iron Age II, the time …

This dissertation presents a technological and stylistic assessment of Early Bronze Age pottery production at Tarsus-Gözlükule, a multi-period mound settlement located in the Cilician Plain in southern Turkey. Pottery production, like all other man-made objects, is firstly a tec…

The present study represents the first major effort toward establishing a ceramic sequence of the Iron Age II strata at Tel Ashkelon, Israel. A morphometric methodology is developed and used for the classification of the representative rim-forms of the assemblages from Phases 16…

Our current understanding of Egypt's relations with the Sinai and Asia (1550-525 B.C.) relies heavily upon the extant textual-pictorial record, and has mostly neglected the full potential of the archaeological record, even during periods of relatively few or no contemporary hist…

Did an invasion of the Sea Peoples cause the collapse of the Late Bronze Age palace-based economies of the Levant, as well as of the Hittite Empire? Renewed excavations at Tell Tayinat in southeast Turkey promise to shed new light on the critical transitional phase of the Late B…

Fifty-nine ceramic sherds from eleven archaeological sites within the Sinop promontory of the Turkish Black Sea coast were dated by luminescence to establish a regional ceramic chronology. This absolute chronology was used to evaluate existing assumptions about the occupational …

This dissertation examines the 2nd Millennium BC pottery from Çadır Höyük, a multi-period archaeological site in Yozgat, Turkey. The research shows that a painted ceramic tradition existed contemporaneously with the expected North Central Anatolian ceramic tradition (Hittite War…

This thesis investigates three technological attributes of prehistoric pottery production in the Sequatchie Valley of southeastern Tennessee at Sites 40SQ115/40BS101, 40BS103, and 40BS107 as a means to understand the sociopolitical influences on residential populations during th…

Ceramics is one of the most ancient industries throughout civilised human culture. A new level of civilization was born once human beings discovered the advantage of firing clay to produce functional cookware. The invention of cookware led to forms of vessels for specific and mu…

Coptic painted finewares made up a small but significant part of the tablewares used by residents of Early Islamic Egypt. The ceramics descend from a Hellenistic pottery tradition. Roman soldiers, who were stationed at and in the vicinity of Aswan where a very fine clay is mined…