Archeometriai Műhely 2005/2. HU ISSN 1786-271X; urn:nbn:hu-4106 ' by the author(s) 48 SEDIMENTARY GEOCHEMICAL APPROACH TO THE PROVENANCE OF THE NON-CALCIFEROUS NORTH MESOPOTAMIAN METALLIC WARE MUSTAFA. KIBAROĞLU Institute for Geosciences, University of Tübingen, Wilhemlstr. 56, 72074 Tübingen, Germany E-mail: mkibaroglu@hotmail.com Abstract A korabronzkori Øszak-mezopotÆmiai fØmedØnyhatÆsœ kerÆmia jelentős területeken terjedt el Szria Øszakkeleti Øs Anatlia dØlkeleti rØszØn. Ez a fajta kerÆmia jelentős vÆltozatossÆgot mutat forma Øs szn tekintetØben. A cikk a jellegzetes kerÆmia petrogrÆfiai Øs geokØmiai vizsgÆlatÆval foglalkozik. A geokØmiai jellemzők szerint ehhez a kerÆmiÆhoz speciÆlis kalcitszegØny agyagot hasznÆltak a dØlkelet-anatliai Derik-Telbesim formÆcibl, amely prekambriumi korœ muszkovit-palÆbl, fillitből, agyagos üledØkekből Øs alÆrendelten homokkőből Æll. KEYWORDS: POTTERY, ANATOLIA, SYRIA, ANALYSES KULCSSZAVAK: KER`MIA, ANATLIA, SZ˝RIA, ANYAGVIZSG`LAT Introduction The Early Bronze Age North Mesopotamian Metallic Ware, which is dated as Early Dynasty II (Oates, 2002), shows up in the North Mesopotamian Bronze Age ceramic tradition by its fineness, high density, hardness and burning temperature. The ware exhibits an extensive variation of form and colour, ranging from black, blue-purple, light gray, brown to reddish gray, brown, orange red and olive-green. Different colours can also appear on the same vessel (Kühne, 1976; Oates, 2002). The main forms are bottles, bowls, and pots with different internal forms. According to the large amount of finds, north east Syria was considered as the centre of the production of the wares. However, other regions in Anatolia, such as Amuq valley, Malatya and Elazığ regions are also known as distribution areas of this ware (Fig. 1). In the archaeometric investigations of Kühne and Schneider (1988), it was asserted firstly that the North Mesopotamian Metallic ware was made of two completely different clays. One of them is characterised by high CaO, Sr, MgO, Ni, Cr and relatively low Al 2 O 3 content. Pottery made of this type of clay is called calciferous North Mesopotamian Metallic Ware, while pottery made of the other type of clay, containing small amounts of CaO, Sr, MgO, Ni, and Cr is called non- calciferous North Mesopotamian Metallic Ware. Fig. 1. Map of the distribution area of the North Mesopotamian Metallic Ware in north-east Syria and Anatolia.