Decoration on pottery included walking horned animals, schematic human figures, rosettes and leaves as well as Maltese crosses and swastikas. They also used incised, impressed and appliqué decoration, and some vessels themselves were in the shape of animals (zoomorphic or theriomorphic).

Halaf zoomorphic porcupine vase 5,000 BC -
source National Museum of Iraq, Baghdad

A fragment of pottery vase from Northern Iraq from this period had a yellow clay body slipped in lustrous brown and decorated with a snake with forked tongue. Halaf fine ware was quite delicate and was probably considered at the time to be luxury goods. It was used for feasting and social events around 5,500 BC - feasting and dancing were depicted on the painted ceramic vessels, plates etc.. Painted female figures were also found, such as an example from Chagar Bazar that had typically exaggerated features.

Towards the end of the Halaf period they used an improved slow potter’s wheel, but probably still not having a central bearing. Halaf pottery became a standard over a wide area, as did other styles from their culture e.g. house designs. Pots can be identified to have travelled 300 miles from their source, so there was clearly long distance trade in pottery, as well as local potters copying the designs. It appears that the finest pottery was made by specialists in the larger settlements and travelled the greatest distance, while utilitarian pottery was made more locally. This implies that the elite in the larger settlements supported the specialists and also bought from specialists in other large settlements. Again a more complex social order was developing.

Each of the successive pottery cultures, Samarra and then Halaf, covered significantly larger areas than their predecessor. The three styles of pottery were produced in parallel, but Halaf remained longer, to around 4,500 BC. All three Cultures had some examples of pottery decoration that appeared to be based on woven fabrics. Other common characteristics in decoration could indicate a relationship with Anatolia, and there also may have been an influence from Persian ceramics of the time. Generally for all three Cultures the design of the decoration adapted well to the shapes of the bodies.

Innovations from these three cultures were many, including irrigation, centralized storage, stamp seals to keep track of goods, larger shared buildings possibly for ritual, shared defence, fancy decorated pottery, slow potter’s wheel and division of labour (specialists), an increasingly complex social organization, probably an Elite and long-distance trade.

9.8 The Ubaids and Sumerians in South Mesopotamia

Around 6,000 BC a new group of people settled in the southernmost part of Mesopotamia, in the river deltas, alongside rivers and streams, while the above three Cultures were living further north. There was a parallel development across the Persian frontier in Susiana and it is possible that these new settlers had a common origin. They brought with them a very different language from their neighbours, (probably the precursor of Sumerian), but do also show some cultural continuity with the Cultures to their north. So it is not certain from where they originally came, but they were a “white” race probably from a more mountainous area to the north-east, and they started with a village culture. They appreciated the benefit of the more fertile Alluvium and were much more successful than the nomad incumbents as they brought irrigation technology with them, making a possible technological link with the northern farmers.