La ceramica dei livelli Uruk di Tell Hassan, Hamrin

Tell Hassan is one of the few sites in the Hamrin basin region in Iraq that hasshown remains of an Uruk period settlement along with Tell Rubeidheh and Tell al-Ahmad Hattu. The site was excavated by the archaeological mission of the Centro Ricerche Archeologiche e Scavi di Torino per il Medio Oriente e l’Asia in the late ‘70s. The investigations have unearthed at least three different Uruk levels but only the two most recent ones have been investigated on a limited surface. The ceramic assemblage provided by the excavation is made by a series of distinctive features that are attributed to the middle Uruk period. Numerous types considered as characteristic of the ceramic production of this period are reported including conical bowls, jars with thickened, rounded everted rim, jars with sharp-angled rim, jars with short, out-turned neck and flat rim and jars with out-turned neck and thickened, flattened rim, in addition to strap handles and tapering spouts. Moreover other types of characteristic middle Uruk decoration on jars are reported including incised parallel horizontal lines, curving cross-hatched comb decoration, bands of incised cross-hatching, rocker pattern, applied pellets and finger-impressed ribs. Comparisons with middle Uruk ceramic assemblage from sites of southern Mesopotamia as Uruk/Warka ‘Eanna-Tiefschnitt’ VIII-VI, Nippur ‘Inanna’ XX-XVII and Abu Salabikh ‘Uruk Mound’ confirm this dating. Other comparisons have been found with sites of northern Mesopotamia and the iranian Zagros as Sheikh Hassan 6-13, Nineveh ‘Uruk B’, Hacınebi B2 and Godin VI. The settlement may have been created as an outpost in a fertile region where no preexisting occupation existed at that time because no settlement dating after the end of the Ubaid period has been recorded in the area. Moreover the site, strategically located along the Great Khorasan Road, could have had a role in the control and exploitation of this major east-west trade route connecting the Mesopotamian lowlands with the Iranian plateau.