Drinking on the periphery: the Tell Nebi Mend goblets in their regional and archaeometric context

Abstract

This paper explores the late 3rd millennium BC goblet corpus from Tell Nebi Mend in the upper Orontes Valley, Syria, by comparing the form, size, petrographic and chemical composition of these drinking vessels. The available evidence suggests that Tell Nebi Mend belongs to its own distinct ceramic-culture province, which shares a greater affinity with the Beqa‘ Valley and the Black Wheel-made Ware of the southern Levant than with the traditional heartland of the Syrian ‘Caliciform’ culture.