GEÇ NEOLİTİK 3-4 (MÖ. 6300-5900) VE KÜLTÜREL TEMAS: KUZEY MEZOPOTAMYA VE KUZEY LEVANT’TA BOYALI KERAMİK DEVRİMİ

A critical phase of the Ancient Near Eastern history, Late Neolithic covers the period 7000-5500/5100 BCE. Approximately a half century ago, the scholars proposed that Northern Mesopotamia was inhabited by distinct cultural entities known by their pottery styles as first attested at certain key sites, many of which have given their name on chronological episodes, such as Hassuna, Samarra and Halaf. But the most recent Late/Pottery Neolithic chronology for Upper Mesopotamia proposed by Reinhard Bernbeck and Olivier P. Nieuwenhuyse state that the Hassuna and Samarra “influences” form part of a continuous development, the transitional stage between pre-Halaf (6200 BCE) and the Early Halaf (5900 BCE). According to new chronology, Mid-Late Neolithic represented some turning points in human history. The 8.2 kiloyear event took place during the Late Neolithic 3 period (6300-6000 BCE): An abrupt decrease in temperature occurred with prolonged drought, decreased settlement sizes, population dispersal, spread of mobile pastoralism, secondary product revolution (milk and wool) ans exploitation of wildlife resources. Finally, painted pottery revolution (rapid increase of the proportion of painted vessels in the ceramic assemblage) took place during the Late Neolithic 4, also known as Proto-Halaf or “Transition” (to the Halaf ceramic tradition). Halaf pottery (fine wares) emerged gradually from a transitional stage in which Hassuna and Samarra decorative modes and stylistic traits dominated. It’s a new kind of technically advanced pottery, usually showing alternating oxidizing-reducing-reoxidizing firing conditions with a complex style of decoration. Cross-cultural encounters (contacts and interactions of various types: trade, emulation, migration or colonization, displacement of pastoralists) make the Late Neolithic 3-4 community of Northern Levant and Northern Mesopotamia an oecumene concerning the subsistence economy and the material culture.