There is a similar correlation between the Egyptian hieroglyph for bread, /, and the form of the Old Kingdom Bread mold. Mil- lard further supports his identification by showing the similarity between the Cuneiform for bread, ninda, and the shape of a Bevel Rim Bowl. The function of the Egyptian bread mold, termed bd3 or bedja, is vividly illustrated in tomb scenes, figurines and models. Recently, Schmidt and Miliard (7) suggested that the Bevel Rim Bowl was a bread mold, largely on the basis of similarities between the Bevel Rim Bowl and the Egyptian Old Kingdom (ca. 5) As indicated by Beale (6), there is a certain absurdity to the scenario of thousands of workmen carrying off a supply of grain each day in eminently spillable Bevel Rim Bowls. 4) The argument that Bevel Rim Bowls were ration vessels because they developed into Conical Cups is flawed in that nobody has clearly demonstrated why Conical Cups should be considered as ration vessels except in that they replace Bevel Rim Bowls (5). However, as will be discussed more fully below, it is not clear that producing Bevel Rim Bowls would have been any more economical than throwing finer wares on a wheel.

3) Nissen and Johnson have argued that the coarse ware and slab construction which characterize the Bevel Rim Bowls made it a disposable vessel which could be rapidly mass pro. 2) Although there are a few ration texts from the Late Uruk and Jamdet Nasr periods, the proposition that Bevel Rim Bowls were ration vessels is inspired by the later Third Millennium ration systems (4), a period when the Bevel Rim Bowl was no longer produced.

The most thorough refutation came from Beale who reanalyzed Johnson's own figures and consistently came up with normal distributions, which, although indicating a defined range, revealed no standardized sizes. 1) The tri-modal standardization of Bevel Rim Bowl volumes found by Johnson has not been found by other workers (3). Several problems have been recognized with Bevel Rim Bowls as ration vessels. Johnson (2) which identifies the Bevel Rim Bowls as ration vessels specifically for the distribution of raw grain has found widespread acceptance and plays an important role in the reconstruction of Uruk social organization. The debate over what that function was has produced a vast, although rather diffuse, body of literature (1). The large quantities of Bevel Rim Bowls found in Uruk contexts indicate that the Bevel Rim Bowl is an index to a basic and pervasive economic function.

The Bevel Rim Bowl has been called the type fossil of the Uruk Period (ca.

Ancient conquest pl