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Beveled rim bowl

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Uruk-period beveled rim bowl, c. 3400–3200 BCE, from Habuba Kabira South in Syria

Beveled rim bowls (traditionally called Glockentöpfe) are small, undecorated, mass-produced clay bowls most common in the 4th millennium BC during the Late Chalcolithic period. They constitute roughly three quarters of all ceramics found in Uruk culture sites, are therefore a unique and reliable indicator of the presence of the Uruk culture in ancient Mesopotamia.[1]

Beveled rim bowls began to appear in the Early Uruk period (c. 3900-3600 BC), were common in the Middle Uruk period (c. 3600-3400 BC) and the Late Uruk period (c. 3400-3200 BC). In the subsequent Jemdat Nasr period (c. 3200-3100 BC) their use declined along with a rise (starting in the Late Uruk period) in numbers of the ceramics called "tall flowerpots" (Grobe Blumentopfe), which were of similar faric as Beveled Rim Bowls but were wheel made, whose use is also still unclear. Beveled rim bowls remained in use in a few sites during the Early Dynastic I period (c. 3100-2900 BC).[2][3] It has been suggested that one of the signs of Proto-cuneiform, and perhaps a corresponding sign in Cuneiform (GAR/NINDA/AKALU), was derived from the bevelled rim bowl.[4]

Physical characteristics

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Beveled rim bowls are generally uniform in size standing roughly 10 cm (4 in) tall with the mouth of the bowl being approximately 18 cm (7.1 in) in diameter. The sides of the bowls have a straight steep angle down to a very defined base usually 9 cm (3.5 in) in diameter. The porous vegetable tempered bowls are made of low fired clay and have relatively thick walls compared to other forms of pottery of the time, making them surprisingly robust. The most unusual aspects of bevelled rim bowls are that they are undecorated and found discarded in large quantities.

Production

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While the exact method for production of beveled rim bowls is unknown, the most widely accepted theory is the use of a mold. A lesser accepted theory is that the bowls were made by hand. Archeologists replicating beveled rim bowls have found it considerably difficult to achieve the straight sides and well defined base while only using their hands. The use of a mold has been found to be a significant advantage when replicating the bowls. The large numbers of beveled rim bowls found (often in a single site) seem to support the mold theory because mass production with a mold is far more feasible than making them by hand. A debate exists among advocates of the mold theory. Most impose the use of a mobile mold that could be made of a variety of materials including wood, metal, stone or even another beveled rim bowl. Others suggest that craftsmen would have used a ground mold wherein the bowls were formed in a conical depression created in the ground.

Use

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Bevelled rim bowls are widely thought to be used for measurement of grain rations (barley, spelt, or emmer wheat).[5][6] The rations would be given as payment to laborers for services rendered as part of a Corvée labor system.[7][8] It is also supported by the fact that the bowls are often found whole and in large piles as if they were disposable. The bowls would have been used for rationing once or twice and then discarded in a central location. An alternate theory is that the bowls were used for baking bread, which also could have been rationed in its container. Early on, after many BRBs were found upside down, in the manner of Aramaic incantation bowls, it was suggested that they had a votive functions.[9]

Distribution

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Uruk expansion and colonial outposts, c. 3600-3100 BC

Beveled rim bowls originated in the city state of Uruk in the mid-fourth millennium BC. As the Uruk culture expanded so did the production and use of these bowls. The first bevelled rim bowls were discovered during excavations at Susa in 1897.[10] Over time BRBs have been found throughout modern Iran: in the Zagros Mountains, Godin Tepe, and Choga Gavaneh, in northern Iran Tepe Özbeki, Tepe Sialk,[11] Tepe Sofalin, and Tepe Qabrestan, central Iran Tepe Yahiya, Chogha Mish, Abu Fanduweh, and Tepe Musiyan,[12] and southern Iran in Nurabad and Mahtoutabad.[13][9]

In Anatolia bevelled rim bowls were found at Arslantepe and Tepecik.[14]

In modern Syria they were found at Tell Humeida, Tell Ramadi, Tell Sheikh Hassan, Hacınebi Tepe, Jebel Aruda, Habuba Kabira, Tell er-Ramadi,[15] and Tell Qraya near Terqa.[16][17]

In modern Iraq BRBs have been found at Uruk, Jemdet Nasr,[18] Eridu,[19] Gasur, Abu Salabikh,[20] Tell al-Hawa, Tell Rubeidheh, Tell Uqair, and Nineveh.[21] Quantities were also found at Kish and Khafajah.[22]

On the modern coast of Pakistan near the Gulf of Oman (Miri Qalat) which belonged to Kechi-Makran culture.[23][24]

References

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  1. ^ Mallowan, M. E. L., "Early Mesopotamia and Iran", New York: McGraw-Hill, 1965
  2. ^ Goulder, Jill, "Administrators' bread: an experiment-based re-assessment of the functional and cultural role of the Uruk bevel-rim bowl", Antiquity 84.324, pp. 351-362, 2010
  3. ^ [1]Jones, Jennifer E., "Standardized volumes? Mass-produced bowls of the Jemdet Nasr period from Abu Salabikh, Iraq", Paléorient, pp. 153-160, 1996
  4. ^ Englund, R. K., "Texts from the late Uruk period", in P. Attinger & M. Wäfler (eds.), Mesopotamien. Späturuk-Zeit und Früh-dynastische Zeit. OBO 160/1. Fribourg/Göttingen, pp. 14–23, 1998
  5. ^ Bernbeck, R., "Lasting Alliances and Emerging Competition: Economic Developments in Early Mesopotamia", Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 14, pp. 1–25, 1995
  6. ^ Pollock, S., "Feasts, Funerals, and Fast Food in Early Mesopotamian Status", in The Archaeology and Politics of Food and Feasting in Early States and Empires. Edited by T. L. Bray. New York: Kluwer; Plenum, pp. 17–38, 2003
  7. ^ Johnson, G. A., "Local Exchange and Early State Development in Southwestern Iran", Volume 51 of Anthropological Papers Series, University of Michigan Press, 1973 ISBN 9781949098075
  8. ^ Nissen, Hans J., "The early history of the ancient Near East, 9000-2000 BC", University of Chicago Press, 1988 ISBN 9780226586588
  9. ^ a b [2]Potts, Daniel, "Bevel-Rim Bowls and Bakeries: Evidence and Explanations from Iran and the Indo-Iranian Borderlands", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 61, pp. 1–23, 2009
  10. ^ Morgan, J. de, "Recherches archeologiques, Ier serie. Fouilles a Suse en 1897-1898 et 1898-1899", Paris: Leroux, 1900
  11. ^ Roman Ghirshman, Fouilles de Sialk près de Kashan, 1933, 1934, 1937, vol. 1, Paul Geuthner, 1938
  12. ^ Burton-Brown, T., "Studies in Third Millennium History", London: Luzac, 1946
  13. ^ [3]Vidale, Massimo, "A Vessel for Building Another Vessel. A Technical Template of the Late 4th Millennium BCE in the Central-Eastern of the Iranian Plateau?", Iranian Journal of Archaeological Studies 1.2, pp. 9-16, 2011
  14. ^ Frangipane, M. and Palmieri, A., "Perspectives on proto-urbanisation in eastern Anatolia: Arslantepe (Malatya)", Origini 1212, pp. 287-668, 1988
  15. ^ [4]Abu Jayyab, Khaled, et al., "Late Chalcolithic occupation at Tell er-Ramadi (Syria): Results of the 2004-2006 salvage excavations", Paléorient. Revue pluridisciplinaire de préhistoire et de protohistoire de l’Asie du Sud-Ouest et de l’Asie centrale 46 1-2, pp. 133-160, 2020
  16. ^ Daniel Shimabuku, "Terqa Final Reports No. 2: Tell Qraya on the Middle Euphrates", BM 32, Undena, 2020 ISBN 978-0-9798937-7-3
  17. ^ Sánchez, Jorge Sanjurjo, and Juan Luis Montero Fenollós, "Restudying the Beveled Rim Bowls: new preliminary data from two Uruk sites in the Syrian Middle Euphrates", Journal of Ancient History, pp. 263-280, 2012
  18. ^ [5] Ernest Mackay, Report on the Excavations at Jemdet Nasr, Iraq, Field Museum of Natural History. Anthropology, Memoirs, vol. I, no. 3, Chicago, 1931
  19. ^ Campbell Thompson, "The British Museum Excavations at Abu Shahrain in Mesopotamia in 1918", Archaeologia 70, pp. 101-44, 1920
  20. ^ Pollock, Susan, "Abu Salabikh, the Uruk Mound 1985-86", Iraq, vol. 49, pp. 121–41, 1987
  21. ^ R. Campbell Thompson and R. W. Hamilton, "The British Museum excavations on the temple of Ishtar at Nineveh 1930–31", Liverpool Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology, vol. 19, pp. 55–116, 1932
  22. ^ [6] Pinhas Delougaz, "Pottery from the Diyala Region", Oriental Institute Publications 63, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1952, ISBN 0-226-14233-7
  23. ^ Van De Mieroop, M., "A history of the ancient Near East", Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2008
  24. ^ Sherratt, A., "Troy, Maikop, Altyn Depe: Early Bronze Age Urbanism and its Periphery (1991)", Economy and Society in Prehistoric Europe: Changing Perspectives, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 457-470, 1997

Further reading

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  • Beale T., "Bevelled Rim Bowls and their Implications for Change and Economic Organization in the Later Fourth Millennium B.C.", Journal of Near Eastern Studies 37, pp. 289-313, 1978
  • Berman, Judith C., "Neutron activation analysis of beveled rim bowls and other Uruk ceramics from the Susiana Plain, Southwestern Iran", Paléorient 15.1, pp. 289-290, 1989
  • Buccellati, G, "Salt at the Dawn of History: the Case of Bevelled-Rim Bowls", in J. Gero/M. Conkey (Hrsg.), Ressurecting the past: a Joint tribute to Adnan Bounni, Oxdford pp. 17-37, 1990
  • [7]Hopkinson, Beatrice, and Giorgio Buccellati, "The Qraya Salt Experiment Reenacting Salt Production Processes of Protohistoric Mesopotamia", Mirrors of Salt, pp. 17-37, 2023
  • [8]Azizi Kharanaghi, Mohammad Hossein, et al., "New Evidence of Beveled Rim Bowls from Kale Kub, South Khorasan Province", Parseh Journal of Archaeological Studies 4.12, pp. 29-48, 2020
  • [9]Mayyas, A., et al., "Beeswax preserved in a Late Chalcolithic bevelled-rim bowl from the tehran plain, Iran", Iran 50.1, pp. 13-25, 2012
  • Millard, A.R., "The Bevelled-Rim Bowls: Their Purpose and Significance", British Institute for the Study of Iraq, vol. 50, pp. 49-57, 1988
  • [10] Perruchini, Elsa, et al. "Revealing invisible stews: new results of organic residue analyses of Beveled Rim Bowls from the Late Chalcolithic site of Shakhi Kora, Kurdistan Region of Iraq." Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 48, 2023
  • Sanjurjo-Sánchez, Jorge, et al., "Geochemical study of beveled rim bowls from the Middle Syrian Euphrates sites", Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 7, pp. 808-818, 2016
  • Sanjurjo-Sánchez, Jorge, Joeri Kaal, and Juan Luis Montero Fenollós, "Organic matter from bevelled rim bowls of the Middle Euphrates: Results from molecular characterization using pyrolysis-GC–MS", Microchemical Journal 141, 1-6, 2018
  • [11]Sanjurjo-Sanchez, Jorge, et al., "Assessing the firing temperature of Uruk pottery in the Middle Euphrates Valley (Syria): Bevelled rim bowls", Microchemical Journal 142, pp. 43-53, 2018
  • Abbasnejad Seresti, Rahmat, and Roghayyeh Sattari Galoogahi, "Beveled rim bowls of the eastern half of the iranian plateau: examination and analysis", Journal of Sistan and Baluchistan Studies 2.2, pp. 25-34, 2022
  • [12]Stimpfl, Arianna M., "Pottery is King: Bevel Rim Bowls and Power in Early Urban Societies of the Ancient Near East", MS thesis, State University of New York at Binghamton, 2017
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