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A bevelled-rim bowl from the Uruk period (3500-3100BCE).
It may not look like much, but this messy, mass-produced bowl shows that rations were distributed to the population, evidence for the division of labour and the early transition to urbanism #SuperBowl
It may not look like much, but this messy, mass-produced bowl shows that rations were distributed to the population, evidence for the division of labour and the early transition to urbanism #SuperBowl
To summarise the complex, long-term process of early urbanisation in southern Iraq, the development of irrigation techniques led to surplus agriculture.
This freed up people to do stuff other than farm, and leads to the division of labour and reorganisation of the economy
This freed up people to do stuff other than farm, and leads to the division of labour and reorganisation of the economy
The rise of urbanism in southern Iraq at the end of the fourth millennium BCE saw the emergence of a redistributive economy. Agricultural yields were funnelled through a central administration for distribution to the population.
This was aided by mass-produced bevelled-rim bowls
This was aided by mass-produced bevelled-rim bowls
Photo credit: Slemani Museum and @UCLarchaeology with many thanks to @davidwengrow for pointing out that these bowls are from excavations by him and his team at Gurga Chiya near Halabja! The power of crowdsourcing archaeology and ancient history #TwitterstoriansFTW
