Tell Aqab is an ancient

Mesopotamian Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary o ...

settlement located in northeastern

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

, occupied from the early

Halaf Tell Halaf () is an archaeological site in Al-Hasakah in northeastern Syria, a few kilometers from the city of Ras al-Ayn near the Syria–Turkey border. The site, which dates to the sixth millennium BCE, was the first to be excavated from a N ...

period ( 6000 BCE) to c. 3800 BCE. It is situated at the northern edge of the Khabur Plain near the headwaters of the Khabur tributary of the

Euphrates The Euphrates ( ; see #Etymology, below) is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of West Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia (). Originati ...

, 6 km south-southeast of the town of

Amuda Amuda (, ) is a town in Al Hasakah Governorate in northeastern Syria close to the Syria–Turkey border. As a result of the ongoing civil war, Amuda is currently under the civil control of the AANES and military control of the SDF. History ...

Jazira Canton The Jazira Region, formerly Jazira Canton (; ; ), is the largest of the three original regions of the de facto Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). As part of the ongoing Rojava conflict, its democratic autonomy was offi ...

. It is one of the few sites that contain material relating to the Halaf-Ubaid Transitional period, c. 5500–5000 BCE.

Archaeological research

Characteristics and analysis of the pottery at Tell Aqab indicate that a large proportion of it is non-local and that there was a high level of trading activity with the nearby production centre of

Chagar Bazar Chagar Bazar (Akk. Ašnakkum; Šagir Bazar, Arabic: تل شاغربازار) is a tell, or settlement mound, in northern Al-Hasakah Governorate, Syria. It is a short distance from the major ancient city of Nagar ( Tell Brak). The site was occupi ...

, some 15 km southwest of Tell Aqab. Microscopic examination of the

Ubaid Ubaid, Ebeid, Obeid, Obaid, Ubayd, Ubayyid, Ubaidi, the Americanized Obade, etc., used with or without the article Al- or El-, are all romanizations of أبيض or عبید, an Arabic_language, Arabic word or name meaning 'white' (the former) or the ...

pottery of Tell Aqab show that temper had been added to the clay of all analysed vessels. Temper is not present in any of the painted

pots of Tell Aqab. Marine shells have been found at Tell Aqab, linking it to further areas near the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

Seas. Two specimens of '' Nassarius circumcinctus'' and one of '' Calliostoma zizyphinum'', two

sea snail Sea snails are slow-moving marine (ocean), marine gastropod Mollusca, molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone. They share the Taxonomic classification, taxonomic class Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguishe ...

species, were found in mid-to-late Halaf contexts at Tell Aqab. A 2003 survey of the distribution of shellfish in the "Seas of Turkey" found no ''C. zizyphinum'' nor ''N. circumcuntus'' in the Black Sea or

Sea of Marmara The Sea of Marmara, also known as the Sea of Marmora or the Marmara Sea, is a small inland sea entirely within the borders of Turkey. It links the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea via the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits, separating Turkey's E ...

, however both were found on the shores of the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. A gradual Halaf-Ubaid Transitional phase has been identified at Tell Aqab. Such a gradual transition has also been identified at other sites in Syria.SIMONE MÜHL and OLIVIER P. NIEUWENHUYSE (2016)
Halaf and Ubaid period settlement: a view from the Central Zagros Piedmont.
in: M. Iamoni (ed.), ''Trajectories of Complexity. Socio-economic Dynamics in Upper Mesopotamia in the Neolithic and Chalcolithic Periods'', Studia Chaburensia 6, Wiesbaden: 27-56; 2016

References

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Bibliography

*Davidson, T.E. & T. Watkins, 1981. ''Two seasons of excavations at Tell Aqab in the Jezirah, N.E. Syria.'' Iraq 43. 1-18 Former populated places in Syria Archaeological sites in al-Hasakah Governorate Halaf culture Ubaid period