Marta Zingale University of Manchester Thesis: The social, organizational and technological context of pottery production in mid-3rd millennium Southern Mesopotamia

The NWCDTP funded seven-week activity at the ISAC in Chicago and the Penn Museum in Philadelphia is part of a PhD project whose objective is to reconstruct the process of pottery production in the mid-third millennium in central and southern Mesopotamia and to highlight differences and similarities in production across sites.
This research period helped to understand what processing techniques were employed in the production of pottery from the Diyala region and Ur. In particular, it aimed to identify the traces left by shaping techniques and to observe how widespread the use of the wheel was, what handmade techniques were used, and how different techniques were combined.
The activity involved the analysis of 156 vessels of different categories (e.g., bowls, cups, jars) that were observed, measured, recorded, drawn, and photographed.
It was possible to identify the recurring gestures that characterize the production of specific standard vessel forms and to confirm that the manufacturing process in mid-third millennium central and southern Mesopotamia involved wheel-made, handmade, and hybrid techniques.
The study of this group of vessels has provided a better understanding of Kish pottery and offered prospects for further study. These vessels will be compared with those from other sites in central and southern Mesopotamia to see if there are similarities or differences in the manufacturing process.
The value of this fieldwork is not only in the study of the material and the collection of data but also in the opportunity to discuss and exchange opinions with museum staff and other researchers. This provided contacts for future collaborations and analysis of the material, such as X-rays.
https://isac.uchicago.edu/
https://www.penn.museum/

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