The Development of 'Cultural Regions' in the Neolithic of the Near East: The 'Dark Faced Burnished Ware Horizon'

This work defines Neolithic Near East 'Dark Faced Burnished Ware (DFBW)', on the basis of new data, taking into account areas of production, analyses of architectural, economic and environmental information, and the verification of the existence of a specific DFBW region and its characteristics. The distribution of DFBW to external areas is also investigated, with the goal of explaining relations between these regions during this Neolithic phase. This research was prompted by the renewed excavations at Yumuktepe-Mersin, one of the central sites of the so-called 'Syro-Cilician' culture, and by the possibility of analyzing two of the main contexts of DFBW - Judaidah, in the Amuq and Ain el-Kerkh, in the Rouj Basin. The study is presented in three main phases: the technical and typological definition of the DFBW; its distribution and characteristics within the horizon of DFBW producers; and its 'external' distribution. A chapter is devoted to a chronological summary of the analyzed developments, as reconstructed from comparisons in the ceramic assemblages from all the sites, and in correlation with available radiocarbon dates.