Khabur Ware and Nuzi Ware are two types of painted pottery in northern
Mesopotamia during the second millennium B.C. which have hitherto been
treated independently of their respective archaeological contexts on the
basis of their painted decoration. Both categories of painted wares were
regarded as intrusive and were accordingly attributed to intrusive
peoples - namel, the Hurrians. The present study reviews the evidence
for Khabur Ware and Nuzi Ware and examines the stratigraphic sequence at
a number of key sites in north Mesopotamia and north Syria from the
viewpoint of a wider Syro-Mesopotamian frame in order to determine the
extent to which these two pottery categories were intrusive and that to
which they were indigenous. The resulting modifica tions of the
conventional Khabur Ware and Nuzi Ware classifications show that while
these two wares are quite distinct from each other in terms of origin,
function, date, and distribution, neither category of painted pottery is
entirely unprecedented in Mesopotamia and, neither, therefore, can be
representative of intrusive peoples. Although the distinction in date
and distribution between Khabur Ware and Nuzi Ware may reflect changing
spheres of political and commercial contacts, the discrepancy between
the function of these two wares precludes the same explanation for their
origin. Only Nuzi Ware may be con ceived as a product of political and
economic conditions.
