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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 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.

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, who's 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).[1][2]

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). The rations would be given as payment to laborers for services rendered as part of a Corvée labor system.[3][4] 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.

Distribution

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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 in places like Abu Salabikh.[5] According to Marc Van De Mieroop, “Examples have been excavated in the Zagros Mountains (e.g., Godin Tepe, Choga Gavaneh), in northern (e.g., Tepe, Ozbeki, Tepe Sialk), central (e.g., Tepe Yahiya), and southern Iran (e.g., Nurabad). They were even found on the modern coast of Pakistan near the Gulf of Oman (Miri Qalat)",[6] which belonged to Kechi-Makran culture.

In Syria they were found at Tell Humeida and Tell Ramadi.[7] They have also been found at Mahtoutabad in southwest Iran.[8][9]

Other sites where significan numbers of beveled rim bowls were found areTell Sheikh Hassan, Tell al-Hawa, Hacınebi Tepe, Jebel Aruda, and Habuba Kabira.

Historical significance

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Roughly 75% of all ceramics found with Uruk culture sites are bevel-rimmed bowls, so two major aspects make them historically significant to archeologists. First, they are one of the earliest signs of mass production of a single product in history. Second, their suspected use as a form of payment to workers is a milestone in history because there is no evidence of rationed payments before bevelled rim bowls.

References

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  1. ^ Goulder, Jill (2010). "Administrators' bread: an experiment-based re-assessment of the functional and cultural role of the Uruk bevel-rim bowl". Antiquity. 84 (324): 351–362. doi:10.1017/S0003598X0006662X.
  2. ^ [1]Jones, Jennifer E., "Standardized volumes? Mass-produced bowls of the Jemdet Nasr period from Abu Salabikh, Iraq", Paléorient, pp. 153-160, 1996
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ Nissen, Hans J., "The early history of the ancient Near East, 9000-2000 BC", University of Chicago Press, 1988 ISBN 9780226586588
  5. ^ Pollock, Susan, "Abu Salabikh, the Uruk Mound 1985-86", Iraq, vol. 49, pp. 121–41, 1987
  6. ^ Van De Mieroop, M. (2008). A history of the ancient Near East. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ [2]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
  9. ^ [3]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

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
  • [4]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
  • [5]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
  • [6] 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
  • [7]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
  • [8]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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