The Late Chalcolithic Period in the Tell Leilan Region: A Report on the Ceramic Material of the 1995 Survey

The article presents the results of the analysis of the 1995-collected 4th millennium B.C. ceramic assemblages from the Tell Leilan Regional survey (Syria). The fine periodisation adopted –based on well stratified ceramic sequences and recent comparative studies–, allows to follow settlement dynamics in detail. The first part of the period (LC 1-2) shows an increase in the number of village-sized settlements homogeneously distributed on the territory, followed, during the LC 3, by a phase of incipient nucleation, and, between the LC 3 and the LC 4, by the development of the first regional site-size hierarchy. The LC 4 phase is also marked by the appearance of southern Uruk ceramics in the area, possibly accompanied by a limited physical presence of foreigners. Most settlements appear to have been abandoned by the LC 5 period; and occupation remains sparse until the first centuries of the 3rd millennium.