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Chapter 3 - Containers of Change

Social and Material Innovation in Late Neolithic Upper Mesopotamia

from Part I - Upper Mesopotamia and Eastern Mediterranean

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 April 2022

Peter F. Biehl
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Cruz
Eva Rosenstock
Affiliation:
Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
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Summary

Recent archaeological work on the Late Neolithic period in upper Mesopotamia (7000–5300 cal BC) shows that this was a period of profound socio-economic and ideological changes. What caused these changes? Did major changes coincide with the turn from the 7th to the 6th millennium? This chapter reviews interpretative approaches, some recent and some not so recent, focusing on the temporal dimensions of the changes observed. A major period of change may be identified somewhat before the millennial turn, around 6250 cal BC. This chapter argues that the role of material innovation as a causal agent for further, unintended socio-economic changes has been overlooked. Specifically, the chapter touches upon innovative storage technologies, the introduction of cooking pottery as a means for processing dairy products and the development of elaborately fashioned serving vessels in the later parts of the 7th millennium.

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