Syria, but there were plenty of readily available materials in
this region to use for the fashioning of those everyday items
used by most households. Clay, reeds, bitumen, wood, horn,
hides, bone, and some types of stone (limestone, basalt, ob-
sidian, and fl int) provided the raw materials necessary to
make most things.
Th e houses and campsites of the region’s earliest hunter-
gatherers have yielded stone mortars and pestles for the grind-
ing of wild grains, necessary for seeds to be turned into fl our
and eventually bread. In addition, stone tools for cutting and
bone tools (oft en from the long bones of wild sheep and goats
or slender, hollow bird bones) for sewing cloth and leather
were oft en abundant. Wooden bowls and basketry were used
as containers; even in cases where these materials have com-
pletely deteriorated owing to humidity and poor conditions
unsuited to preservation, basket impressions frequently ex-
ist. Furthermore, textiles of both wool and linen have been
found in some of the drier environments, like caves in Israel
and Palestine. Horn, too, was used to fashion basic tools used
around the house.
From about 8000 b.c.e. onward these sorts of materials
began to be accompanied by another, more durable material,
namely, fi red clay. Many early houses had simple pits in the
ground, lined with plaster or mud to keep out the damp and
the ever-present rodents, and these were sometimes burned,
accidentally or intentionally. Th e added heat made the inte-
rior of these pits stronger, and for this reason pits served as
places of storage. But it was probably not a very great concep-
tual leap from a fi red clay or plaster pit, set in the ground, to
the idea of creating a fi red clay container above the ground
in which to hold seed, fl our, or water; in this way the earliest
pottery may have been “discovered.” Th e earliest examples
of pottery were found at Mureybet, on the Euphrates River
in Syria, and at Ganj Dareh, in western Iran, in about 8000
b.c.e. Archaeological evidence indicates that the potter’s
wheel, which made it quicker and easier to produce pottery
vessels, probably fi rst became commonly used in Mesopota-
mia around 3500 b.c.e.
Houses oft en had built-in features, like benches along
the walls; steps up to the roof, where most people would have
slept in the hotter months; and bins to hold things. Niches in
walls served as shelves. In Mesopotamia most houses were
built of mud bricks, both sun-dried and baked, with wooden
raft ers, oft en of poplar or ash, and reed matting between the
bricks above the ceiling and the raft ers themselves.
Archaeologists have the clearest view of what life was
like in a typical urban household from excavations and texts
found in Mesopotamia. Th e durable objects—pottery, grind-
ing stones, stone and metal knives, and the like—survive well
in the soils of Mesopotamia. Even wood is sometimes pre-
served. But for many types of objects, cuneiform texts give us
additional details that archaeology cannot provide. Dowries,
marriage contracts, and inheritance documents, for example,
from the early second millennium b.c.e., itemize all sorts of
goods that were deemed necessary to a well-furnished home.
Th ese goods include items made of wood, including looms,
spindles, beds, chairs, footstools, tables, trays, combs, pot
racks, bowls, spoons, and chests. Some types of wood, such
as poplar and ash, was available from the gallery forest—the
trees growing along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and their
associated irrigation canals. More exotic woods came from
the Persian highlands, Lebanon, and even India. Under the
Assyrians, in the fi rst millennium b.c.e., ivory imported from
Africa and India was used for inlays in elite furniture made
for royal and high-status families. Other goods included pot-
tery and metal vessels, sets of stone weights, basalt grinding
stones for herbs and spices and others for fl our, leather bags,
and bronze scrapers. Blankets and other textiles were in-
cluded too. Th e kitchen was outfi tted not just with equipment
but also with specifi c ingredients, like linseed oil, scented oil,
barley mash (for making beer), fl our, peas, and groats.
Domestic crockery came in many sizes and shapes, and
until the late fi rst millennium b.c.e. the pottery used in Mes-
opotamia was almost always unglazed. Because it was fi red at
a high temperature, however, Mesopotamian pottery was not
too porous to hold liquids. Th e kitchen contained large jars
that were used for storage, jars for water, bitumen-lined jars
and vessels for storing oils and clarifi ed butter (ghee) or beer
and sometimes wine. Th e ancient Mesopotamians used a
wide variety of cups and bowls, sieves, and basins. Archaeolo-
gists have documented hundreds of diff erent pottery shapes,
but few can be associated with a particular activity. Occasion-
ally, though, we see pottery being used in scenes illustrating
daily life, for example, on limestone plaques mounted on the
walls of temples.
Th ese scenes show, for example, a typical large jar with
a pointed bottom (therefore unable to stand by itself) being
carried in a sling supported by a long wooden pole by two
men, who each balance the pole on one shoulder. Such a jar
probably held large quantities of beer or oil being brought
to a banquet. In early partly pictographic texts from the late
fourth^ millennium b.c.e., small drawings of pottery with
straight spouts sticking up from the shoulder of the vessel are
associated with diff erent types of oils, beer, and wine. Simi-
lar, spouted vessels have been found in excavations. Finally,
Assyrian reliefs portray the king and his entourage drinking
from a very carefully depicted bowl with lobes emanating
from a disk in the center of the base. Exactly this type of bowl
has been found, in pottery, silver, and bronze, at sites dat-
ing to the fi rst millennium b.c.e. Th e study of ancient Meso-
potamian households is therefore an area in which written
sources, images, and archaeological fi nds complement each
other.ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
BY JUSTIN CORFIELD
Although few household goods from Asia and the Pacifi c have
survived from ancient times, evidence about them survives
from goods found in graves, including small-scale models of564 household goods: Asia and the Pacific