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

Abstract

Beveled Rim Bowls (BRBs) are the most iconic and well-known vessel type of ancient Southwest Asia. Roughly and carelessly produced, these conical bowls are attested in their thousands at 4th millennium BCE sites from southern Iraq and the Persian Gulf to the highlands of eastern Turkey and Iran. Questions regarding their function and relationship with emergent state institutions have stood at the centre of nearly a century of debates about the nature of early Mesopotamian urbanism and the so-called Uruk Expansion. In this paper we present the results of organic residue analyses of 10 BRBs from the site of Shakhi Kora in the Sirwan/Upper Diyala River Valley in the Kurdistan Region of north-east Iraq. Our analytical results challenge traditional interpretations that see BRBs as containers of cereal-based rations and bread moulds. The presence of meat- and potentially also dairy-based foods in the Shakhi Kora vessels lends support to multi-purpose explanations and points to local processes of appropriation of vessel meaning and function.