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The Bevelled-Rim Bowls: Their Purpose and Significance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

A. R. Millard
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Extract

For Barbara who introduced me to Iraq and Donald who introduced me to cuneiform

The Uruk period is one of the most fascinating in the archaeology of the Near East. Its great temples, fine sculpture and glyptic, metal-working skills, and, above all, introduction of writing, mark it as the summit and the turning point in the beginnings of urban civilization. By these characteristics its spread can be traced up the Tigris and Euphrates into central Syria and Anatolia, and eastwards across Iran. Beside the impressive products of its architects, artists and clerks, the Uruk culture proclaims its presence most loudly through its pottery. Among the pots and pans, the most common is one of the simplest and least attractive of all near eastern pots, the bevelled-rim bowl (Glockentopf, écuelle grossière à lèvre bisautée).

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 50 , 1988 , pp. 49 - 57
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1988

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References

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17 I am grateful to Mrs. Lyn Forbes for this information drawn from her knowledge of Greece where such bread is called paximadhi, Mrs. Forbes kindly offered other useful observations on methods of making and baking bread.

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29 Although ordinary beer was probably brewed daily, storing could improve some types, necessitating sealed jars, as shown in the Egyptian reliefs, see Oppenheim, A. L., Hartman, L. F., On Beer and Brewing Techniques in Ancient Mesopotamia (Baltimore, 1950), 16Google Scholar, and Hayes, W. C., “Inscriptions from the Palace of Amenhotep III”, JNES 10 (1951), 90Google Scholar.

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32 This paper was presented at the first meeting of the British Association for Near Eastern Archaeology, Manchester, December, 1987. I am grateful to several participants for their comments, and especially to Dr. Norbert Karg who drew my attention to an essay by Klaus Schmidt who had already proposed that the bevelled-rim bowls should be interpreted as bread moulds in the light of the Egyptian moulds, “Zur Verwendung der Mesopotamischen ‘Glockentöpfe’” Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 12 (1982), 317–9Google Scholar. Since that paper is little known, it seems worthwhile restating and elaborating the proposal here. My colleagues K. A. Kitchen and C. J. Eyre have generously advised me on the Egyptian sources.