🏺 At Qurayyah oasis in northwestern Saudi Arabia, two-colored painted pottery began ~3,600 years ago and evolved over four centuries into elaborate painted designs. Led by Marta Luciani (PLOS ONE), the team identified it as an ancient 'brand' exported hundreds of kilometers — even reaching the Timna Hathor sanctuary in the north.
Kuraya oasis pottery in Arabian desert functioned as a Bronze Age brand
Saudi ArabiaArtifactNew Research
Key facts
- Oasis of Kuraya in northwestern Saudi Arabia
- Two-colored painted pottery tradition began around 3,600 years ago (~1,600 BCE)
- Evolved over four centuries into a repertoire of painted animals and ritual scenes by ~3,200 years ago
- Published in PLOS ONE
- Team led by Marta Luciani of the University of Vienna, with collaborators from MIT, Harvard, University of Sydney, and TU Wien
- Supported by the Saudi Ministry of Culture
- Brand identified using criteria: visual identity, material consistency, technological continuity, centralized production, export circulation, local imitation, cultural reputation
- Pottery exported hundreds of kilometers north to Tel al-Kof and the Timna sanctuary of the Egyptian goddess Hathor, and south deep into Arabia
- Production continued for another thousand years into the Iron Age
- Methods used: stratified layers, vessel-shape studies, polarizing microscopes, and chemical trace-element fingerprinting of clay
Site mentioned
Sources
globaltimes.cn
Linked in video description
info.zcu.cz
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