Administrators' bread: an experiment-based re-assessment of the functional and cultural role of the Uruk bevel-rim bowl

Abstract

Well-designed experimental archaeology combined with ingenious social argument show that a type of coarse-ware pottery, the BRB, performed a key role in early Mesopotamian governance. Its thick walls and conical shape produce a fine loaf of risen bread, supplied perhaps as tasty recompense to those undertaking the newly-proliferating public administrative duties.