mud with a slightly concave wet-smoothed side were recovered. Similar objects
(modern term tabag) are used for cooking and baking when placed on separate mud
legs over a hot fire (Ochsenschlager 2004 : 47 , 71 ). Also from Al-Hiba come fragments
of a mud form identical to a shallow mud dish, sometimes with three attached legs but
sometimes legless, that can be used as a portable hearth called a mangala. A fire fuelled
with dried dung patties is started outside the home and allowed to burn down until the
hot coals remain. The dish containing the coals is then brought inside where it
produces a great deal of heat but little smoke. During the winter, the mangalasupports
a cooking pot, and also functions as a portable brazier (Ochsenschlager 2004 : 46 – 47 ).
Similar devices may have helped to heat houses in Early Dynastic I Khafajeh.
Varieties of food and drink and the way that they are prepared and served have great
cultural significance. In the preparation of food in the third millennium BC, there was
a huge domestic consumption of pottery. Although simple vessels were probably made
in the household by women, pottery appears to have been manufactured by a specialist
group, although small-scale pottery production may have occurred in neighbourhood
kilns such as the one discovered at Abu Salabikh in a residential area (Postgate and
Moon 1982 : 120 ). Typical Early Dynastic vessels include conical bowls which may have
had a variety of uses from containers to serving dishes (Ellison 1984 : 64 ), solid-footed
goblets (Moon 1987 : 17 – 19 ), stemmed dish ‘fruit stands’ (ibid.: 46 – 57 ), and jars with
upright handles decorated with incisions and occasional pellets imitating eyes (ibid.:
151 – 165 ). Small saucers may have been used for dining (Ellison 1986 : 157 – 158 ). Also
common among the small finds from domestic contexts were stone bowls made of
locally available calcites. These were apparently widely available, reaching their greatest
use during the second half of the third millennium BC(Moorey 1994 : 44 ).
Beer and wine were widespread beverages (Postgate 1977 : 293 ; Reade 1995 ) but
because of sediment they required the use of spouted pouring jars (or straws); canal
water may have been risky to drink, especially in summer when the water levels were
low. These drinks may have been produced in local workshops rather than in the home
but water, even if not widely used for drinking, would have been necessary for
ablutions; it may have been distributed by water carriers or it would have been
necessary to fetch it – perhaps a task assigned to women – from the nearest canal or
river. In addition to the staples of bread and beer, other grain products, vegetables and
dates, meat was available, at least in affluent households. Pig and sheep bones were
found in houses at Tell Asmar and the young age of these animals when slaughtered
shows that the inhabitants were sufficiently affluent to be able to eat prime cuts
(Hilzheimer 1941 ). A similar range of meats is represented in the archaeological record
at Abu Salabikh where there is evidence for the consumption of pig, cattle, gazelle,
goat, antelope, fish and birds (Clutton-Brock and Burleigh 1978 : 89 ).
WORKING FROM HOME
The home was not just a place for food preparation, eating, sleeping and raising
children. It could also be a place for storage, small-scale production, such as pottery
and textiles, or administrative tasks. There were probably never specific spaces in
homes assigned for these activities and the place of each task probably varied according
to the seasons and the number of inhabitants. Activities which in winter would take
place indoors might be performed in the courtyard or on the roof in the summer.–– Everyday life in Sumer ––