Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T04:23:10.893Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Administrators' bread: an experiment-based re-assessment of the functional and cultural role of the Uruk bevel-rim bowl

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Jill Goulder
Jill Goulder*
Affiliation:
*Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31-34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY, UK (Email: [email protected])
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Well-designed experimental archaeology combined with ingenious social argument show that a type of coarse-ware pottery, the BRB, performed a key role in early Mesopotamian governance. Its thick walls and conical shape produce a fine loaf of risen bread, supplied perhaps as tasty recompense to those undertaking the newly-proliferating public administrative duties.

Keywords

Urukbevel-rim bowlBRBbread
Type
Research articles
Information
Antiquity , Volume 84 , Issue 324 , June 2010 , pp. 351 - 362
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2010

References

Adams, R.M. 1972. The Uruk countryside. Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Algaze, G. 2001. Initial social complexity in south-west Asia: the Mesopotamian advantage. Current Anthropology 42(2): 199–233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Badler, V. 1995. Winemaking, distribution and consumption at proto-historic Godin Tepe, Iran, in McGovern, P.E., Fleming, S.J. & Katz, S.H. (ed.) The origins and ancient history of wine: 45–56. Amsterdam: Gordon & Breach.Google Scholar
Balfet, H. 1980. A propos du métier d'argile: exemple de dialogue entre ethnologie et archéologie, in Barrelet, M.T. (ed.) L'archéologie de l'Iraq: du début de l'époque néolithique à 333 avant notre ère: perspectives et limites de l'interprétation anthropologique des documents, Paris 13-15 Juin, 1978: 71–84. Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.Google Scholar
Baumgärtel, E.J. 1947. The cultures of prehistoric Egypt, volume I. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Beale, T.W. 1978. Bevelled-rim bowls and their implications for change and economic organization in the later fourth millennium. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 37: 289–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buccellati, G. 1999. Urkesh and the question of early human urbanism, in Hudson, M. & Levine, B.A. (ed.) Urbanization and land ownership: 229–250. Cambridge (MA): Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Charvát, P. 2002. Mesopotamia before history. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Chazan, M. & Lehner, M.. 1990. An ancient analogy: pot baked bread in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Paléorient 16(2): 21–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, P. 2000. The Uruk phenomenon: the role of social ideology in the expansion of the Uruk culture during the fourth millennium BC (British Archaeological Reports International Series 900). Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Crawford, H. 2004. Sumer and the Sumerians. Second edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delougaz, P. 1952. Pottery from the Diyala region. Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Delougaz, P. & Kantor, H.J.. 1996. Chogha Mish. Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Forest, J.-D. 1987. Les bevelled rim bowls: nouvelle tentative d'interprétation. Akkadica 53: 1–24.Google Scholar
Frangipane, M. 2001. Centralization processes in Greater Mesopotamia: Uruk ‘expansion’ as the climax of systemic interactions among areas of the Greater Mesopotamian region, in Rothman, M.S. (ed.) Uruk Mesopotamia and its neighbors: cross-cultural interactions in the era of state formation: 307–348. Santa Fe (NM): School of American Research Press.Google Scholar
Frangipane, M. 2002. Non-Uruk developments and Uruk-linked features on the northern borders of Greater Mesopotamia, in Postgate, J.N. (ed.) Artefacts of complexity: tracking the Uruk in the Near East: 123–148. Warminster: British School of Archaeology in Iraq.Google Scholar
Gaimster, D. & Freestone, I.. 1997. Introduction, in Freestone, I. & Gaimster, D. (ed.) Pottery in the making: world ceramic traditions: 9–19. London: British Museum Press.Google Scholar
Jacquet-Gordon, H. 1981. A tentative typology of Egyptian bread-moulds, in Arnold, D. (ed.) Studien zur Altägyptischen Keramik: 11–24. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern.Google Scholar
Joffe, A.H. 1998. Alcohol and social complexity in ancient Western Asia. Current Anthropology 39(3): 297–322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, G.A. 1973. Local exchange and early state development in south-western Iran. Ann Arbor (MI): Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Johnson, G.A. 1976. Early state organization in south-western Iran: preliminary field report, in Bagherzadeh, F. (ed.) IVth symposium on Iran: 190–223. Tehran: Iranian Centre for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Kalsbeek, J. 1980. La céramique de série du Djebel ‘Aruda (à l'époque d'Uruk). Akkadica 20: 1–11.Google Scholar
Kemp, B.J. 2006. Ancient Egypt: anatomy of a civilisation. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Le Brun, A. 1980. Les écuelles grossières: état de la question, in Barrelet, M.-T. (ed.) L'archéologie de l'Iraq: du début de l'époque néolithique à 333 avant notre ère: perspectives et limites de l'interprétation anthropologique des documents, Paris 13-15 Juin, 1978: 59–70. Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.Google Scholar
Lehner, M. 1995. The Giza Plateau mapping project: 1993-4 annual report. Available at: http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/pubs/ar/93-94/giza.html, accessed 25 November 2008.Google Scholar
Mahias, M.-C. 1993. Pottery techniques in India: technical variants and social choice, in Lemonnier, P. (ed.) Technological choices: transformation in material cultures since the Neolithic: 157–180. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Mallowan, M.E.L. 1933. The prehistoric sondage of Nineveh 1931-2, in Campbell-Thompson, R. & Mallowan, M.E.L. (ed.) The British Museum excavations at Nineveh 1931-2 (University of Liverpool Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology 20, 2): 127–186. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.Google Scholar
McAdam, E. & MYNORS, H.S.. 1988. Tell Rubeidheh: pottery from the Uruk mound, in Killick, R.G. (ed.) Tell Rubeidheh: an Uruk village in the Jebel Hamrin: 39–76. Warminster: Aris & Phillips/British School of Archaeology in Iraq and the Directorate of Antiquities.Google Scholar
Millard, A.R. 1988. The bevelled-rim bowls: their purpose and significance. Iraq 50: 49–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, A. 1981. Straw tempered ware, in Wright, H.T. (ed.) An early town on the Deh Luran Plain: excavations at Tepe Farukhabad: 126–129. Ann Arbor (MI): Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Nicholas, I.M. 1987. The function of bevelled-rim bowls: a case study at the TUV mound, Tal-e Malyan, Iran. Paléorient 13(2): 61–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nissen, H.J. 1988. The early history of the ancient Near East, 9000-2000 BC. Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oates, D. & Oates, J.. 1976. Early irrigation agriculture in Mesopotamia, in de Sieveking, G., Longworth, I.H. & Wilson, K.E. (ed.) Problems in economic and social Archaeology: 109–135. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Oates, D. 1993. Excavations at Tell Brak 1992-3. Iraq 55: 155–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peltenburg, E., Bolger, D., Campbell, S., Murray, M.A. & Tipping, R.. 1996. Jerablus-Tahtani, Syria, 1995: preliminary report. Levant 28: 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollock, S., Pope, M. & cCOURSEY, C.. 1996. Household production at the Uruk mound, Abu Salabikh, Iraq. American Journal of Archaeology 100(4): 683–698.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollock, S. & Coursey, C.. 1996. Hacinebi Uruk pottery: preliminary report. American Journal of Archaeology 100(2): 233–239.Google Scholar
Potts, D.T. 1984. On salt and salt gathering in ancient Mesopotamia. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 27(3): 225–271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Potts, D.T. 1997. Mesopotamian civilization: the material foundations. London: Athlone Press.Google Scholar
Potts, D.T. 2009. Bevel-rim bowls and bakeries: evidence and explanations from Iran and the Indo-Iranian borderlands. Journal of Cuneiform Studies 61: 1–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rice, P.M. 1987. Pottery analysis: a sourcebook. Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Rothman, M.S. 2002. Tepe Gawra: chronology and socio-economic change, in Postgate, J.N. (ed.) Artefacts of complexity: tracking the Uruk in the Near East: 49–69. Warminster: British School of Archaeology in Iraq.Google Scholar
Rye, O.S. 1981. Pottery technology: principles and reconstruction. Washington (DC): Taraxacum.Google Scholar
Samuel, D. 2000. Brewing and baking, in Nicholson, P.T. & Shaw, I. (ed.) Ancient Egyptian materials and technology: 537–576. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schmandt-Besserat, D. 1992. Before writing. Austin (TX): University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Schmidt, K. 1982. Zur Verwendung der mesopotamischen ‘Glockentopfe’. Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 12: 317–319.Google Scholar
Schwartz, G.M. 2001. Syria and the Uruk expansion, in Rothman, M.S. (ed.) Uruk Mesopotamia and its neighbors: cross-cultural interactions in the era of state formation: 233–264. Santa Fe (NM): School of American Research Press.Google Scholar
Sherratt, A. 2006. Bread, butter and beer: dietary change and urbanisation in early Mesopotamia and surrounding areas (6000-3000 BC). Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Simpson, St. J. 1997. Early urban ceramic industries in Mesopotamia, in Freestone, I. & Gaimster, D. (ed.) Pottery in the making: world ceramic traditions: 50–55. London: British Museum Press.Google Scholar
Stein, G.J.& Misir, A.. 1996. The fourth-millennium occupation of Hacinebi. American Journal of Archaeology 100(2): 206–222.Google Scholar
Stephen, F.M.K. & Peltenburg, E.. 2002. Scientific analyses of Uruk ceramics from Jerablus Tahtani and other Middle-Upper Euphrates sites, in Postgate, J.N. (ed.) Artefacts of complexity: tracking the Uruk in the Near East: 173–181. Warminster: British School of Archaeology in Iraq.Google Scholar
Strommenger, E. 1980. Habuba Kabira: eine Stadt vor 5000 Jahren. Ausgrabungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft am Euphrat in Habuba Kabira, Syrien. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern.Google Scholar
Sürenhagen, D. 1974/5. Untersuchungen zur Keramikproduktion innerhalb der spät-Urukzeitlichen Siedlung Habuba Kabira-Süud in Nord-Syrien. Acta Praehistorica et Archaeologica 5/6: 43–164.Google Scholar
Tomita, T. 1998. Late Chalcolithic chronology in Syria and Northern Mesopotamia, in Tsuneki, A. & Miyake, Y. (ed.) Excavations at Tell Umm Qseir in middle Khabur Valley, north Syria: report of the 1996 season: 197–201. Tsukuba, Japan: Department of Archaeology, Institute of History and Anthropology, University of Tsukuba.Google Scholar
Van Der Leeuw, S. 1993. Giving the potter a choice: conceptual aspects of pottery techniques, in Lemonnier, P. (ed.) Technological choices: transformation in material cultures since the Neolithic: 238–288. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Wright, H.T. 1981. An early town on the Deh Luran Plain: excavations at Tepe Farukhabad. Ann Arbor (MI): Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Wright, H.T. 1998. Uruk states in south-western Iran, in Feinman, G.M. & Marcus, J. (ed.) Archaic states: 172–197. Santa Fe (NM): School of American Research Press.Google Scholar
Wright, H.T. 2001. Cultural action in the Uruk world, in Rothman, M.S. (ed.) Uruk Mesopotamia and its neighbors: cross-cultural interactions in the era of state formation: 123–148. Santa Fe (NM): School of American Research Press.Google Scholar
Wright, H.T. & Rupley, E.S.A.. 2001. Calibrated radiocarbon age determinations of Uruk-related assemblages, in Rothman, M.S. (ed.) Uruk Mesopotamia and its neighbors: cross-cultural interactions in the era of state formation: 85–122. Santa Fe (NM): School of American Research Press.Google Scholar
Wright, H.T., Miller, N.F. & Redding, R.. 1980. Time and process in an Uruk rural centre, in Barrelet, M.-T. (ed.) L'Archéologie de l'Iraq: du début de l’époque néolithique à 333 avant notre ère: perspectives et limites de l'interprétation anthropologique des documents, Paris 13-15 Juin, 1978: 265–284. Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.Google Scholar