There are two other later styles, prevalent from 2,000 to 1,500 BC, one called Nuzu ware had finely drawn intricate white decoration on a dark (matt black or red) background or directly on to the buff body, and featured wheel-made tall, slender, small-footed goblets and bottles.

Nuzi ware, sherd and pedestal goblet
- sources Danish university dig in Syria at
Tell Aushariye and University of Pennsylvania

At Nuzu, 4,000 cuneiform tablets were found written in Akkadian but with Hurrian names. The other style is Khabur ware, named after the river in Northern Iraq. It was first found in Syria, but spread throughout Northern Mesopotamia. It was wheel made, painted in single colours (red, brown or black) and decorated with horizontal bands and geometric patterns of crosshatched triangles and horizontal lines.

Khabur ware pottery
- source Polish
university

Also at this time potters were able to make small bowls using centrifugal force on improved potter’s wheels.

At the time of Ur Nammu the Hurrians were trickling south and by mid 18^th century BC, 30% of the population of North Syria was Hurrian. On the decline of Babylonia, around mid 17^th century BC, they absorbed this northern part of the Babylonian Empire. Their literature was to have a profound impact on the Hittites and later on the Greeks. The Hurrians were transformed by an influx of Indo-European Aryans around 1,600 to 1,550 BC. These were another offshoot of the main Aryan migration south from the Russian Steppes in the 16^th and 15^th centuries BC. It was probably earlier Hurrians who brought with them war chariots, which were now fitted with spoked wheels and were lighter and faster. These Aryans developed into a chariot warrior caste of leaders and became the elite or upper class. They adopted the Hurrian language but kept their earlier Aryan names. Around 1,550 BC the “new” Hurrians set up the Mitanni State, again changing the balance of power. Their Empire absorbed Assyria for a time, and grew to cover Kurdistan, Syria and Palestine.

Map of Mitanni Empire - source Wikipedia
Javierfv1212

Pre Urartu beautifully decorated vase
2^nd millennium BC - courtesy
Collector-Antiquities

During this period they seemed to have imported Cretan pottery skills and even experimented with glazing technology. However, when the Mitanni collapsed glazing ceased in Northern Mesopotamia. For decades the Mitanni, Hittites and Egyptians vied with each other for territory in Canaan. Eventually the Mitanni became a pawn between the stronger Hittites and Assyrians and were absorbed around 1,350 BC. The Urartu, a powerful Armenian kingdom in the 9^th and 8^th centuries BC, were possibly descendants of the Hurrians, and produced some very decorative pottery.

9.33 Egypt after the First Intermediate Period

Egypt had a huge influence on the Middle East right through to Islamic times. During parts of the Middle and New Kingdom Periods it controlled significant areas of West Asia and had a major impact on trade over an even greater area.

Although there was a wealth of subsequent artistic development in Egypt, it was predominantly focussed on their vast knowledge of working with stone for buildings and decorative objects. They were able to carve beautiful artefacts including vases out of a variety of different stone types. Pottery was predominantly designed to meet specific purposes and its use expanded, as did body shapes and decoration.