Settling the land: settlements pattern and ceramics in the land behind Ninevehfrom the Middle Bronze Age to the establishment of the Middle Assyrian State

This paper deals with the second millennium BC ceramics, and a short excursus regarding the settlement pattern, in the region east of the Tigris and north of the Upper Zab, delimited to the north by the Dohuk plain and the Zagros foothills, to the west by the Mosul Lake and the Tigris river, and to the east and south by the Navkur Plain and the Bardarash region, the so-called Land behind Nineveh. This is the survey area of the Land of Nineveh Archaeological Project, led by Daniele Morandi Bonacossi and active since 2012. The focus of this paper is the Middle and Late Bronze Age, which surface ceramic assemblages will be illustrated and discussed along with problematics that arise from their analysis, especially concerning the definition of Mittanian and Middle Assyrian ceramic assemblages. The picture emerging from the assemblages combined with results from the analysis of the settlements pattern allow to assert the strategic importance of the Land behind Nineveh in the landscape of settlements from the Middle Bronze Age to the formation of the Middle Assyrian state.This paper deals with the second millennium BC ceramics, and a short excursus regarding the settlement pattern, in the region east of the Tigris and north of the Upper Zab, delimited to the north by the Dohuk plain and the Zagros foothills, to the west by the Mosul Lake and the Tigris river, and to the east and south by the Navkur Plain and the Bardarash region, the so-called Land behind Nineveh. This is the survey area of the Land of Nineveh Archaeological Project, led by Daniele Morandi Bonacossi and active since 2012. The focus of this paper is the Middle and Late Bronze Age, which surface ceramic assemblages will be illustrated and discussed along with problematics that arise from their analysis, especially concerning the definition of Mittanian and Middle Assyrian ceramic assemblages. The picture emerging from the assemblages combined with results from the analysis of the settlements pattern allow to assert the strategic importance of the Land behind Nineveh in the landscape of settlements from the Middle Bronze Age to the formation of the Middle Assyrian state.