Prehistoric Investigations of West Asia

沙马里是位于叙利亚幼发拉底河上游的一个史前小土堆。它占地面积约70 × 60米，从周围表面上升约9 ~ 10米。东京大学考古队在1994年至1996年间进行的考古调查揭示了一个从新石器时代晚期到后巴比伦时期（大约公元前6000年至公元前3000年）的漫长史前序列。结果表明，在乌拜德和后乌拜德时期，这个土丘的职业特别密集，当时它显然是一个专门从事陶器生产的定居点。从这些时期的各个层次获得的考古证据包括保存完好的陶器作坊和窑炉，以及一系列陶器生产工具。其中最令人印象深刻的发现是一座乌拜底人烧毁的建筑，里面有一间陶器储藏室。这个4.2米乘2.4米的长方形房间，实际上装满了彩绘的罐子和罐子，数量超过一百，显然超出了早期农业社会日常生活的需求。初步的类型学分析表明，这些陶器是由数量有限的陶工制造的，他们可能属于同一个车间。这种分层陶器生产综合体的长时间不间断的序列提供了一个重要的机会，不仅可以记录工艺技术的发展，还可以记录晚期铜器时代复杂社会的发展，这一时期紧接在乌鲁克城市向幼发拉底河上游扩张之前或同期。

Tell Kosak Shamali is a small prehistoric mound situated on the Upper Euphrates, Syria. It covers an area of approximately 70 by 60m, rising about 9 to 10m from the surrounding surface. The archaeological investigations conducted by the University of Tokyo team between 1994 and 1996 revealed a long prehistoric sequence dating from the late Neolithic to the Post-Ubaid periods, or approximately from 6000 to 3000 BC.The results showed that the mound recieved particularly dense occupations during the Ubaid and Post-Ubaid periods, when it was apparently a settlement specialized in pottery production. The archaeological evidence obtained from levels of these periods included well-preserved pottery workshops and kilns as well as a range of pottery production tools. The most impressive discovery was among others an Ubaidian burnt building containing a storage room of pottery. The room, with a rectangular plan of about 4.2 m by 2.4 m, was in fact full of painted pots and jars, the number being over a hundred, obviously beyond the demand for the daily life of the early farming society. A preliminary typological analysis indicated that those pottery were manufactured by a limited number of potters, who probably belonged to the same workshop.The long uninterrupted sequence of such stratified pottery production complexes provided an important opportunity to document not only the development of craft technology but also that of the complex society in the late Chalcolithic period, a period immediately before or contemporaneous to the Uruk urban expansion to the Upper Euphrates.