Late Chalcolithic Northern Mesopotamia in Context: Papers from the Workshop Held at the 11th ICAANE, Munich, April 5th 2018 (Subartu, 48)

"Many of the debates that have until recently driven research into Mesopotamia's proto-urban phase (5th- 4th millennia BCE) have now been reassessed thanks to new fieldwork in Iraqi Kurdistan and new data into the relationships between the north and south of the Alluvium from hitherto poorly-documented regions. These debates were re-examined in the light of this new material during a workshop held at the ICAANE in 2018 in Munich, leading to unprecedented perspectives on the patterns of early urbanization, social mobility, and the organization of Late Chalcolithic communities. Drawing on research first presented at ICAANE, and building on the most recent data from surveys and excavations, this volume engages with one key question from different angles: namely, how can we reconcile detailed analysis of the multifaceted local variations of proto-urbanism with the supra-regional, intricate, and more widespread nature of this same phenomenon across Mesopotamia?" --Provided by publisher Front Matter Johnny Samuele Baldi, Marco Iamoni, Luca Peyronel & Paola Sconzo. Introduction — The Late Chalcolithic of Northern Mesopotamia in Context: Building on a Long and Eventful Debate Tim Boaz Bruun Skuldbøl & Carlo Colantoni. 1. Unravelling Early Urbanism and Cultural Encounters in Late Chalcolithic North-Eastern Iraq Marco Iamoni & Paola Sconzo. 2. Beyond Subsistence? Settlement Strategies of the Late Chalcolithic Period in the Selevani Plain (Upper Iraqi Tigris) Maria Bianca D’Anna, Olivier Nieuwenhuyse & Simone Mühl. 3. Un air de famille: Preliminary Observations on the Ubaid and Late Chalcolithic Horizon of the Shahrizor Plain (Iraqi Kurdistan) Michael P. Lewis. 4. The ‘Uruk Conundrum’ in the Shahrizor, Iraqi-Kurdistan: Petrographic Developments, Ceramic Variation, and Cultural Connections at Gird-i Shamlu and Gurga Chiya Agnese Vacca & Luca Peyronel. 5. Towards a Definition of the Late Chalcolithic Period in the Erbil Plain: The Contribution of the Helawa Pottery Sequence Khaled Abu Jayyab. 6. North-Eastern Mesopotamian Ceramic Sub-Assemblages and Their Potential for Identifying Communication Networks: The Formation of Red/ Grey Ware Assemblages during Late Chalcolithic 1 and 2 Johnny Samuele Baldi. 7. Bits of Uruk Before and Outside the Uruk Colonial Sphere: The Qara Dagh Area and Some Early Thoughts on a Reassessment of the Uruk Expansion Francesca Balossi Restelli. 8. What Complexity? Late Chalcolithic Developments at the Site of Arslantepe in the Upper Euphrates Region İnan Aydoğan, Metin Batıhan & Haluk Sağlamtimur. 9. On the Edge of Mesopotamia: The Presence of Uruk and Uruk-related Material Culture in the Upper Tigris Region Francesca Manclossi. 10. The Late Chalcolithic Canaanean Blade System in Northern Mesopotamia: What were the Connections with the Uruk Phenomenon? Johnny Samuele Baldi, Marco Iamoni, Luca Peyronel & Paola Sconzo. Conclusions — Late Chalcolithic Northern Mesopotamia: Setting the Agenda in the Debate on the Rise of Urbanization in the Ancient Near East Back Matter Many of the debates that have until recently driven research into Mesopotamia’s proto-urban phase (5 th - 4 th millennia bce) have now been reassessed thanks to new fieldwork in Iraqi Kurdistan and new data into the relationships between the north and south of the Alluvium from hitherto poorly-documented regions. These debates were re-examined in the light of this new material during a workshop held at the ICAANE in 2018 in Munich, leading to unprecedented perspectives on the patterns of early urbanization, social mobility, and the organization of Late Chalcolithic communities. Drawing on research first presented at ICAANE, and building on the most recent data from surveys and excavations, this volume engages with one key question from different angles: namely, how can we reconcile detailed analysis of the multifaceted local variations of proto-urbanism with the supra-regional, intricate, and more widespread nature of this same phenomenon across Mesopotamia?