Halaf

A large tell site on the Khabur River in northeastern Syria near the Turkish border, which is the type site of an important stage of north Mesopotamian development, roughly 6th millennium BC to the beginning of the 5th (5050-4300 BC). The distinctive pottery, known as Halaf ware, was exceptionally fine, a thin hard ware in a wide range of competent and attractive shapes bearing brilliant carpet-like designs painted in black, red, and white on the buff surface. Simple steatite stamp seals were coming into use, which imply the development of personal property. In the villages, the typical dwelling was a round house with a vaulted dome (tholos), constructed of mud-brick, sometimes on stone foundations. The Halaf culture was succeeded in northern Mesopotamia by the Ubaid culture. It was the seat of an Aramaean kingdom and then a provincial capital of the Neoassyrian empire. In 808 BC, Adad-nirari III of Assyria sacked the city and reduced the surrounding district to a province of the Assyrian Empire. The Assyrian archives provide valuable details of the administrative affairs of the time. It was the Old Testament 'Gozan' to which the Israelites were deported in 722 after the capture of Samaria.

A tell site on the river Khabur in northeast Syria, close to the Turkish border, which has given its name to a widespread culture of north Mesopotamia and Syria, with radiocarbon dates in the range 5500-4500 be. It is characterized by a fine painted pottery with designs in black, red and white on a buff ground. The finest polychrome Halaf vessels come from the potter’s workshop at Arpachi-yah. This site and Tepe Gawra have produced typical Eastern Halaf ware, while a rather different Western Halaf version is known from such Syrian sites as Carchemish and Halaf itself. Although no Halaf settlement has been extensively excavated, some buildings have been excavated: the misleadingly named ‘tholoi’ of Arpachiyah, circular domed structures approached through long rectangular anterooms. These buildings, constructed of mud-brick, sometimes on stone foundations, may have been for ritual use (one contained a large number of female figurines), but other circular buildings on this and other sites were probably simply houses. The Halaf population practised dry farming (based on natural rainfall without the help of irrigation), growing emmer wheat, two-rowed barley and flax; they kept cattle, sheep and goats. As well as their fine painted pottery, the Halaf communities made baked clay female figurines and stamp seals of stone; these latter artefacts are often thought to mark the development of concepts of personal property (because at a later date seals are used to produce marks of ownership). Hie Halaf culture was succeeded in northern Mesopotamia by the Ubaid culture. See also Hassuna, Yarim Tepe.