Nuzi ware



Nuzi ware is the type of a ceramic ware which is especially associated with the Mitanni empire (15th to early 13th century BC). It was first identified at Nuzi, modern Iraq. This is a painted prestige pottery that is mostly found in a socially upscale context.

Distribution
Nuzi ware is typically found from the Orontes River valley in the west, to as far as Babylon in the east. In the south, specimens were also found in Qatna, a city that lies outside the sphere of influence of the Mitanni empire, which indicates that the Nuzi ceramics was also used as trade goods.

Bronze Age pottery in the Middle East is mostly undecorated. The elegantly decorated Nuzi ware, with its delicate vessel shapes thus quickly aroused particular interest among researchers.

Development
Much older Khabur ware, which is mostly undecorated, or has simple geometrical decorations, precedes Nuzi ware in this general area, and it influenced Nuzi to some extent. The fourth and last phase of Khabur ware (around 1500 BC) is generally contemporaneous with Nuzi ware.

Nuzi ware retains some shapes of Khabur ware, also the distinctive bird decorations of Nuzi have some precedence in the Khabur ware. At Tell Brak, Khabur ware occurs in parallel with white-on-dark painted Nuzi ware, which continues after the disappearance of Khabur ware at this site.

Description


White, painted patterns on a dark background are typical. The background can be dark brown to black. Various ceramic shapes are attested, but tall, slender vessels and goblets are particularly popular. These vessel shapes have a long tradition in Syria and Mesopotamia, so this seems to indicate that Nuzi ware represents a local development in northern Mesopotamia. The surface decorations can also be traced back to Mesopotamian models.

Especially in Alalakh (modern Tell Atchana) numerous examples of this ceramic came to light, which are decorated with floral motifs. At Nuzi, itself, on the other hand, more geometric patterns are attested. Nevertheless, floral patterns are also documented in the east of the Mitanni area, although not to the same degree. The floral motifs were perhaps influenced by Minoan ceramics.

The name Nuzi ware was suggested by Max Mallowan in 1948. Before that, this ceramic style was known as Hurrian ceramics. In order not to identify the ceramics with any one ethnic group, a more neutral term is now preferred.

Origins
According to a 2016 review by Duraid S. Polis, the origin of Nuzi ware was in upper Mesopotamia, and this pottery belongs to the ceramic assemblage of Khabur ware Period 4, as proposed by H. Oguchi. Similar conclusions were also reached by Paul Zimansky (1995), based on his examination at the Tell Hamida site.

Also according to D. Polis, the end of Nuzi ware can be identified by the destruction of the second layer of Nuzi, which also marked the end of the Mitannian kingdom in the fourteenth century B.C.