西アジアにおける最初期の土器について
普及過程と用途にかんする一試論
2004 年 47 巻 2 号 p. 46-63
詳細
2004 年 47 巻 2 号 p. 46-63
Although Pre-Pottery Neolithic culture developed for a long time without pottery, when pottery-making appeared in Western Asia it expanded rapidly and widely from the beginning. This suggests that social or economic demands for pottery suddenly appeared.
The earliest specimens of pottery in Western Asia are found in the northern Levant, Cilicia, the upper Euphrates and the upper Khabur region. They are identical in many aspects: tempering with minerals, burnishing on the surface, relatively thick walls, and simple vessel shapes, consisting only of bowls whose diameters measure around 20cm.
More sites in these regions yield the succeeding type of pottery. It can be divided into at least two regional groups; the border was probably west of the Euphrates. The western type consists mainly of the so-called Dark-Faced Burnished Ware, and the eastern type consists mainly of chaff-tempered ware.
The emergence of regional varieties makes it harder to discuss the inter-regional relative chronologies because of the difficulty of comparison. Moreover, on the assumption that the functions of pottery would suggest the reasons for its demands, if regional differences indicated different functions of pottery, the regional varieties might be a critical obstacle in the way of explaining why pottery making was expanded rapidly and widely.
But the general presence of moyen de préhension (means of gripping), i. e. various handles or applied horizontal bands, across regions could be a clue as to the function of the pottery. Their function seems to have been to allow them to be tied with a cord or gripped by hand. These actions are apparently related to the use of pottery for transportation rather than for cooking, storage or serving. Therefore, at least a part of the early pottery was probably made primarily for transportation, although most of it was multi-functions. It is concluded that pottery appeared as containers for transportation, stimulated by the increased production of commodities in established farming communities.
