Ceramics are one of the most important sources of information for archaeologists. Yet how these objects are produced, especially in the firing stage, has received little attention to date. The excavation of a well-preserved pottery workshop at one of the most significant archaeological sites in Iraq’s Kurdistan region now offers the opportunity for an integrated analysis of an entire local production chain. Researchers from the University of Tübingen and the LMU Munich working at the Dinka Settlement Complex (DSC) have gained new insights into Iron Age ceramics production, from clay to kiln to finished ceramics. Their study has been published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

Work at the Dinka Settlement Complex has been under way since 2015; it is now one of the most extensively excavated Iron Age urban settlements in the region. Within this landscape of ruins, in an area called Gird-i Bazar, the research team discovered the remains of a pottery workshop dating to between 1200 and 800 BCE. Two kilns were excavated there, as well as the debris of pottery making and intact layers of sediment.

Shared tradition and identity expressed through pottery production

“Because the workshop was so well preserved, we were able to combine various techniques and thus obtain a comprehensive picture of how potters actually worked in this region during the Iron Age,” says leading author Dr. Silvia Amicone from the Archaeometry Research Group at the University of Tübingen.

The researchers examined the materials, including raw clay, finished pottery, and kiln linings, as well as the kiln fill and the remains of the fuel used during firing. By analyzing the mineralogy and microstructure of the clay and pottery samples and by establishing the presence of specific minerals, the team identified the raw materials and manufacturing techniques used to produce the pottery.

The analyses show that, although vessels from the settlement were shaped and finished in slightly different ways, likely depending on their intended function, these variations were embedded within a modular and well-organized production system that probably served not only the Dinka Settlement Complex but also the surrounding region, in which the Gird-i Bazar workshop likely played a central role. This interpretation is reinforced by the widespread evidence of pottery production across the settlement complex, including more possible kilns identified using geophysical analysis. This suggests that pottery manufacture was integral to the urban layout and that Gird-i Bazar formed part of a network of workshops operating according to common procedures.

“Potters may have employed different routines during the early stages of manufacture, yet they ultimately relied on the same simple and efficient low-firing methods: temperatures below 900 degrees Celsius, oxidizing conditions, slow heating rates, and short firing times in simple updraught kilns,” Silvia Amicone says. “This uniformity in manufacturing not only suggests a shared tradition and a strong collective production identity but also indicates a degree of coordination that may reflect highly organized workflows and institutional oversight in the management of resources, labor, and technological knowledge, demonstrating a level of complexity that was unexpected for the region at that time,” says Silvia Amicone.

Crafting urban life: specialized production at the heart of Iron Age society

The Dinka Settlement Complex was first investigated between 2015 and 2020 by the Peshdar Plain Project under the direction of Professor Karen Radner (LMU Munich), who has highlighted the significance of the discovery for the archaeology of the Zagros region: “The Dinka Settlement Complex gives us a rare opportunity to explore how an Iron Age center in the Zagros region functioned. The workshop at Gird-i Bazar shows that specialized craft production was not peripheral but embedded in the urban fabric, and this provides new insight into the organization and complexity of life in the Zagros during the first millennium BCE.” Ongoing excavations are now being conducted by the University of Münster under Professor Florian Janoscha Kreppner and will continue to shed light on the complexity of Iron Age life in the Zagros.

Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. (Dōshisha) Karla Pollmann, President of the University of Tübingen says: “The study of pottery production at the Dinka Settlement Complex offers a unique glimpse into the organization and innovative strength of early urban societies. These findings reveal how technological knowledge and communal structures laid the foundation for cultural development more than 2,500 years ago. Research of this kind reminds us that progress has always been a collective achievement—then as now.”