Beveled Rim Bowls

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.

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" (Grosse Blumentopfe), which were of similar fabric 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). 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.

Physical characteristics

Beveled rim bowls are generally uniform in size standing roughly tall with the mouth of the bowl being approximately in diameter. The sides of the bowls have a straight steep angle down to a very defined base usually 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

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

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. 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.

Distribution

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. Over time BRBs have been
found throughout modern Iran: in the Zagros Mountains, Godin Tepe, and Chogha Gavaneh, in northern Iran Tepe Özbeki, Tepe Sialk, Tepe Sofalin, and Tepe Qabrestan, central Iran Tepe Yahiya, Chogha Mish, Abu Fanduweh, and Tepe Musiyan, and southern Iran in Tol-e Nurabad and Mahtoutabad.
otts, 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

In Anatolia bevelled rim bowls were found at Arslantepe, Başur Höyük, Hassek Höyük, Samsat, and Tepecik.

In modern Syria they were found at Tell Humeida, Tell Sheikh Hassan, Hacınebi Tepe, Jebel Aruda, Habuba Kabira, Hamoukar, Tell Brak, Tell er-Ramadi, and Tell Qraya near Terqa.

In modern Iraq BRBs have been found at Uruk, Jemdet Nasr, Eridu, Gasur, Abu Salabikh, Shakhi Kora, Tell al-Hawa, Tulul al-Baqarat, Tell Rubeidheh, Tell Uqair, Grai Resh, Kani Shaie, Girdi Qala and Logardan, and Nineveh. Quantities were also found at Kish and Khafajah.

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

See also

*Coba bowl

References

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Further reading

*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

opkinson, Beatrice, and Giorgio Buccellati, "The Qraya Salt Experiment Reenacting Salt Production Processes of Protohistoric Mesopotamia", Mirrors of Salt, pp. 17-37, 2023

zizi 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

ayyas, 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

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

anjurjo-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

timpfl, 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

External links

5,000-year-old artifacts in Iraq hint at mysterious collapse of one of the world's 1st governments - LiveScience - 4 December 2024

4th-millennium BC works
Ancient pottery
Ancient Mesopotamia
Archaeological artifacts
Uruk period