Recent Trends in the Study of Late Bronze Age Ceramics in Syro-Mesopotamia and Neighbouring Regions: Book Review (Book Review for Levant) By Mara T Horowitz

https://www.academia.edu/77231480/Recent_Trends_in_the_Study_of_Late_Bronze_Age_Ceramics_in_Syro_Mesopotamia_and_Neighbouring_Regions_Book_Review_Book_Review_for_Levant_?nav_from=e4ef168e-3f25-455d-b82a-8ad6abeab1da In the grand scheme of archaeology, pottery is an indelible fixture that is at once crucial and mundane. Ubiquitous in the Ancient Near East from the early days of agriculture, pottery has provided archaeologists with chronology, culture horizons, trade routes, and more, since the seminal work of Flinders Petrie, Kathleen Kenyon, and C. Leonard Woolley. In a historical period such as the Late Bronze Age, however, pottery (especially of the plain and featureless variety) is sometimes treated as superfluous and ultimately incapable of providing any nuanced insight into ancient lives. While archaeology as a discipline has moved towards more high-concept theory and archaeometric studies, old-fashioned pottery typology and seriation have stagnated. This volume is part of a larger movement to revitalize ceramics studies of the Late Bronze Age (LBA) Near East and contributes handsomely to this aim and to the scholarly milieu.