Ceramic Production at the Khaybar Walled Oasis During the Mid/Late Third–Early Second Millennium BCE: Evidence for a Burnished Ware Horizon in Northwest Arabia

Abstract

The knowledge of Early and Middle Bronze Age ceramics in Northwest Arabia remains limited, particularly in the Medina region, due to the scarcity of archaeological contexts dated to the fourth–first half of the second millennium BCE. Recent research in the Khaybar oasis has revealed significant Bronze Age occupation. Since 2021, the Khaybar Longue Durée Archaeological Project (Khaybar LDAP) has dedicated substantial efforts to analysing and characterising pre-Islamic ceramics. This article presents a comprehensive study of a corpus of Bronze Age pottery from securely dated contexts, with additional insights coming from an examination of the survey assemblage. It provides, for the first time, a complete set of chrono-typological and technological data from Early and Middle Bronze Age pottery assemblages in the region, which has enabled the identification of a ‘Burnished Ware Horizon’ in Northwest Arabia during a time of emergent rural urbanism in the mid/late third–early second millennium BCE.