Social archaeology of the potters of North Mesopotamia in the 5th - 4th millennium BC

本研究旨在利用叙利亚Tell Kosak Shamali定居点的考古数据，重建美索不达米亚铜石器时代的社会经济发展。该遗址位于幼发拉底河上游的东岸，自1994年以来一直是东京大学团队进行深入考古调查的重点。1994年至1997年的发掘工作产生了丰富的乌拜德至乌鲁克时期的史前材料，包括一系列分层的陶器作坊，其中包括陶工的陶罐和窑。该地区可能在几个世纪以来一直是一个专门的工作场所，从而为铜器时代的社会经济结构和陶器生产技术的发展提供了宝贵的数据。详细的分析定义了铜器时代Tell Kosak Shamali陶器生产“专业化”的变化性质。这表明，公元前4千年早期以前的陶器生产主要是在独立的专业化体系下进行的，而后期的陶器生产显然是由独立的、附属于专业化的混合体系支配的。这种转变似乎相当迅速，可能是受到日益复杂的社会中的政治和象征性要求等各种社会因素的引导。

The present study aimed to reconstruct the socio-economic development of the Chalcolithic period of Mesopotamia, using the archaeological data from the settlement of Tell Kosak Shamali, Syria. The site, situated on the east bank of the Upper Euphrates, has been a focus for intensive archaeological investigations by the University of Tokyo team since 1994. The excavations in 1994 to 1997 produced rich prehistoric materials of the Ubaid to Uruk period, including a series of stratified pottery workshops completed with potter's too]s and kilns. The excavated area may have been a specialized workplace for several centuries, thus providing valuable data on the development of socio-economic structure as well as pottery production technology in the Chalcolithic period. The detailed analysis a defined the changing nature of "specialization" for pottery production at Tell Kosak Shamali in the Chalcolithic period. It suggests that the pottery production prior to the early 4th millennium BC was mostly conducted under the independent specialization system, while that of the later period was apparently governed by the mixing system of the independent ,,and attached specialization. The shift seems a rather rapid one, probably guided by a variety of such social factors as political and symbolic demands among the increasingly more complex society.