Begining and development of pottery use in Upper Mesopotamia in the light of Sumaki Höyük data

From the beginning of settled life to the end of the Neolithic period, there have been radical changes in subsistence strategies, settlement patterns, architecture, burial practices, and many other cultural elements in Southwest Asia. The emergence of pottery has been regarded as the hallmark of cultural changes, related specifically to the late 8th millennium BC and the first quarter of the 7th millennium BC. Thus, the Neolithic period in this area was divided into two, i.e. Pottery and Pre-Pottery Neolithic. Taking this into account, why and how the Neolithic societies started using pottery is a popular question that has long sought an answer. In particular, the excavations and the research carried out in the last 20 years indicated that the use of pottery was just one of the ongoing cultural changes in the Neolithic period. Accordingly, the first pottery assemblages consist of mineral-tempered, hole-mouth-shaped, burnished, dark-surfaced vessels with lugs close to the mouth on both sides, which appeared almost simultaneously in a series of settlements in Upper Mesopotamia and the Northern Levant in the first quarter of the 7th millennium BC. Starting from the second quarter of the 7th millennium BC, pottery production increased and was followed by the appearance of plant-tempered pottery after ca. 6.500 BC. The plant tempered wares, spreading throughout Southwest Asia, symbolize the diversification of pottery as much as we can speak of regional traditions. This thesis aims to define the emergence and development of pottery technology in Upper Mesopotamia, by using the data of Sumaki Höyük, located in the lower valley of the Garzan Stream, one of the major tributaries of the Tigris River. Keywords: Upper Mesopotamia, Neolithic period, Sumaki Höyük, pottery, mineral and plant temper.