• Source: Beveled rim bowl

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" (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). 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 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


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 Choga 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 Nurabad and Mahtoutabad.
In Anatolia bevelled rim bowls were found at Arslantepe and Tepecik.
In modern Syria they were found at Tell Humeida, Tell Ramadi, Tell Sheikh Hassan, Hacınebi Tepe, Jebel Aruda, Habuba Kabira, Tell er-Ramadi, and Tell Qraya near Terqa.
In modern Iraq BRBs have been found at Uruk, Jemdet Nasr, Eridu,, Gasur, Abu Salabikh, Tell al-Hawa, Tell Rubeidheh, Tell Uqair, 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.




References






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
[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

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Beveled rim bowl
• BRB
• Art of Uruk
• Tepe Sofalin
• Bowl
• Jebel Aruda
• Tell al-Hawa
• Ubaid period
• Tell Uqair
• Uruk period