A comparative look at Halaf and Ubaid period social complexity and the Tell Kurdu case

Abstract

While the Uruk Period is generally accepted as the earliest state society in the Near East, Assessing the social, political and economic organization of the antecedent Halaf and Ubaid phases has been a matter of long-standing debate. Over-schematized evolutionary categories like "tribes" or "chiefdoms" provide little resolve in characterizing the socio-political complexity of Near Eastern prehistoty because they fail to account for the variability these phases encompass. This paper invites us to move beyond typological categories, yet considers issues of political economy and explores conscious strategies towards social complexity between these two well-known phases of Near Eastern prehistory. Located in the Hatay province of southern Turkey, Tell Kurdu has relatively wide horizontal exposures dating both to the Halaf-related and to the Ubaid-related phases, providing a unique opportunity to explore at a single settlement the contrasting levels of social complexity in the sixth and fifth millennia BC.