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" Households, daily practice, and cultural appropriation at sixth millennium Tell Kurdu "
Rana D. Ozbal
G. J. R. Stein, Cynthia
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Latin Dissertation
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English
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| Record Number
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53628
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| Doc. No
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TL23582
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3230121
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| Main Entry
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Rana D. Ozbal
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| Title & Author
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Households, daily practice, and cultural appropriation at sixth millennium Tell Kurdu\ Rana D. Ozbal
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| College
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Northwestern University
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| Date
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2006
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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2006
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| Page No
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389
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| Abstract
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In the sixth millennium BC, inhabitants from settlements across the north Mesopotamian plains and foothills appropriated distinctive painted pottery and other elements considered characteristic of Halaf culture. Residents of the site of Tell Kurdu in the Amuq Valley, now in southern Turkey, participated in this Halaf "sphere of influence." This dissertation contributes to the field of household archaeology through the examination of daily practices of households at Tell Kurdu. The social uses of imported artifacts and non-local styles, including those considered Halafian, are also investigated, with the aim of gaining insights into the dynamics of cultural appropriation at this settlement. Excavations at Tell Kurdu yielded large-scale, single-phase exposures with agglutinative single and multi-room mudbrick structures separated by alleys. Importantly, this study views the architecture as an integral ingredient in the way inhabitants organized and ordered their world. The results obtained from microartifact analyses and the chemical characterization of floor sediments are combined with the contextual analyses of the ceramics, lithics, and faunal remains for a holistic study on how the households lived, labored and interacted with each other in everyday situations. Together, these data offer insights into local practices and lifestyles some of which, I propose, contributed to the construction of differentiated household identities. Obsidian, a raw material that is not locally available and Halafian-type painted pottery, an artifact style that is more typical of regions to the east of the Amuq Valley, are incorporated in the emerging picture. Results show that while some items of import and imitation were integrally connected with practices of household differentiation, others were not. In addition to considering the social significance of non-local items within Tell Kurdu society, the dissertation explores the social mechanisms through which they arrived at the settlement. Even though household differentiation and variability was clearly evident, Tell Kurdu society was not organized along established hierarchical relationships and elite groups were not the main instigators in acquiring imported goods. Notably, instead of imposing top-down models, the bottom-up perspective of the dissertation uses the local data to provide insights into the forms of complexity and cultural appropriation practiced by Tell Kurdu society.
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| Subject
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Social sciences; Cultural appropriation; Daily practice; Halaf Period; Households; Sixth millennium B.C.; Tell Kurdu; Turkey; Archaeology; 0324:Archaeology
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G. J. R. Stein, Cynthia
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Northwestern University
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