Abstract:

This volume establishes a coherent typological framework for the description and analysis of pottery products manufactured in the southern Levant from the sixth to the first half of the fourth millennia BCE, enabling the subdivision of the period into cultural phases and their classification into the Pottery Neolithic and Early, Middle and Late Chalcolithic periods. In the typological analysis the study concentrates on key sites and assemblages from clear archaeological contexts, presenting quantitative analyses wherever possible, though examples from a wide variety of sites are illustrated. Particular emphasis is placed on the regional character of the assemblages. Both relative and absolute chronologies are established, the latter based on the available radiometric datings. The volume is copiously illustrated with line drawings and photographs, presenting for the first time a complete picture of the pottery of the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods.