The early second millennium ceramic assemblage from Kenan Tepe, Southeastern Turkey: a preliminary assessment

In the initial survey of the upper Tigris river valley the authors o f the survey report concluded that ‘either this portion o f the Tigris basin was bypassed entirely by Middle Bronze Age development attested to elsewhere or, more likely, it is characterised by a thus far unreported and unrecognised assemblage* (Algaze et al. 1991: 183). Recent research by members of the Upper Tigris Archaeological Research Project (UTARP) at the site o f Kenan Tepe confirms the latter hypothesis, that the early second millennium in this area is marked by a regionally distinct material culture assemblage that is influenced by ceramic traditions in upper Mesopotamia and other material culture traditions in Anatolia. This article outlines our initial assessment of these data including an analysis of the ceramic corpus, architecture, archaeobotany, small finds and carbon-14, and places these data in a regional context. We conclude by speculating that the inhabitants of Kenan Tepe may have participated in interaction spheres that linked the upper Tigris river region to greater Mesopotamia and Anatolia.