PreHistoric Halaf Culture in Syria

After people had been making the fancier Hassuna style pottery for about 500 years, a new style called Halaf developed in roughly the same area, and spread further east, west, and south, along the southern slopes of the Zagros mountains For several centuries, both the Hassuna and Halaf styles were used, maybe by different ethnic groups But the Hassuna style faded from use as the Halaf style continued on The lives of people who used Halaf style pottery were basically similar to that of those who used Hassuna pottery, concerning subsistence, town size, etc. All within area of possible dry farming (i.e. no irrigation needed) wheat (emmer and einkorn) and barley sheep, goats, cattle Together with Samarran pottery to the south, the Halafian style was the first really widespread cultural "horizon" Not just isolated fancy pieces, but 80-90% of the pottery assemblage at any site is virtually identical to that from any other site house styles, other artifacts also very uniform Ceramic paste studies (neutron activation) show pots from a single clay source are found as much as 600 miles (about 1000 kilometers) apart that is, some pots moved at least 300 miles... indicates long-distance trade in ceramics not just the spread of a style that influenced local potters although presumably most of the pottery was made locally, by local potters who learned to work in the regional style Looks like a complex pattern of exchange people in larger towns conducted long-distance exchange between themselves mostly or only for fancier, high-status goods probably elites or trade specialists trading with each other while simpler, "cheaper" versions were produced in the large towns and exchanged over shorter distances with smaller towns nearby this flow of goods suggests that centers may have controlled production of some craft goods one possibility: elites in larger towns may have supported specialist potters ("attached specialists") who produced the fancy items that the elites used in their long-distance exchanges with other elites implies some sort of increased communication probably mostly between elites in the larger towns