@article{paulette_2021, title={Inebriation and the early state: Beer and the politics of affect in Mesopotamia}, volume={63}, ISSN={["1090-2686"]}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2021.101330}, DOI={10.1016/j.jaa.2021.101330}, abstractNote={Many early states were deeply invested in alcoholic beverages. In focusing on the political instrumentality of these beverages, however, archaeologists have often lost sight of what makes them such an effective tool of statecraft. People seek out alcoholic beverages because of their inebriating potential, their ability to transform people, places, atmospheres, and events. In this article, I consider the politics of affect and the enduring connection between alcohol and the state-making project. I argue that alcohol has long served as an affective technology, a means of intervening in the affective domain. As a case study, I explore the evidence for beer in early Mesopotamia. A fundamental element in the state-making arsenal, beer was recognized to produce distinctive effects on imbibers, but this affective dimension has often been sidestepped in the archaeological literature. I approach the topic from two angles: (1) Mesopotamian perspectives on the effects of beer consumption and (2) key parameters that need to be clarified if we are to assess the role of beer as affective technology. I hope that the roadmap laid out here will help to spark deeper archaeological engagement with the affective dimensions of alcohol consumption and the politics of affect in Mesopotamia and beyond.}, journal={JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL ARCHAEOLOGY}, publisher={Elsevier BV}, author={Paulette, Tate}, year={2021}, month={Sep} } @inbook{paulette_2020, title={Archaeological perspectives on beer in Mesopotamia: Brewing ingredients}, booktitle={After the harvest: Storage strategies and food processing in Bronze Age Mesopotamia}, publisher={Brepols}, author={Paulette, Tate}, year={2020}, pages={65–89} } @article{paulette_2020, title={Fermentation in Ancient Mesopotamia, Beer, Bread and More Beer}, DOI={10.52750/285595}, abstractNote={agriculture, food, and fermentation in the ancient world, with a particular focus on Bronze Age Mesopotamia}, journal={Fermentology}, publisher={North Carolina State University Libraries}, author={Paulette, Tate}, year={2020}, month={Jun} } @article{grossman_paulette_2020, title={Wealth-on-the-hoof and the low-power state: Caprines as capital in early Mesopotamia}, volume={60}, ISSN={["1090-2686"]}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2020.101207}, DOI={10.1016/j.jaa.2020.101207}, abstractNote={The new political communities that emerged in Mesopotamia during the fourth and third millennia BCE have long been held up as classic cases of early state formation. Over the past few decades, however, the veil has been lifted on these states – revealing their weakness, fragility, and instability. In this article, we build on the recently proposed “low-power model” to develop an alternative perspective on state finance that highlights the presumptive character of sovereignty in Mesopotamia. State makers managed to assemble a more-or-less effective vision of sovereign authority by exploiting the inherent ambiguity of certain forms of state capital. Sheep and goats offer a prime example. Drawing on a region-wide compilation of zooarchaeological data, as well as selected material from the cuneiform record, we redirect the archaeological discussion of caprines and the state in Mesopotamia. Caprines were not simply staple goods; they were complicated forms of social, political, economic, religious, and cultural capital, used to finance specific state projects and support specific state claims. In a world of aspirational states and incomplete authority, caprines offered a valuable means of strategic ambiguation, that is, a means of projecting a fuzzy image of broad-based sovereignty that did not yet exist in practice.}, journal={JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL ARCHAEOLOGY}, publisher={Elsevier BV}, author={Grossman, Kathryn and Paulette, Tate}, year={2020}, month={Dec} } @article{paulette, title={Domination and Resilience in Bronze Age Mesopotamia}, DOI={10.2307/j.ctt1wn0rbs.12}, abstractNote={Although Mesopotamia has long occupied a prominent position in the public imagination, recent events—in particular, the military occupation of Iraq and the large-scale looting of museums and archaeological sites—have drawn the Iraqi present and the Mesopotamian past vividly into the spotlight. Images of legendary ancient cities, now stranded in arid wastelands, and broken monuments to kings of vanished civilizations resonate powerfully with modern audiences, themselves increasingly uncertain about our collective future. For a world in which environmental disaster and economic collapse loom on the horizon, ancient Mesopotamia can provide both cautionary tales and success stories. Recurring hazards such as drought, flooding, and locust attacks were regularly planned for, counteracted, and endured in Mesopotamia; however, several much-debated episodes of political and economic collapse testify to the precarious nature of human-environment dynamics in the region. This chapter provides an introduction to the range of hazards—whether strictly environmental or human-induced—that confronted the inhabitants of Bronze Age (ca. 3000–1200 BC) Mesopotamia. Particular emphasis is placed on institutional organization and institutional management as key factors in determining the impact of these hazards. The chapter begins with an introduction to Bronze Age Mesopotamia and to the most pertinent archaeological and written sources; it then focuses more narrowly on the eviS e v e n}, journal={Surviving Sudden Environmental Change}, publisher={University Press of Colorado}, author={Paulette, Tate}, pages={167–196} } @article{price_grossman_paulette_2017, title={Pigs and the pastoral bias: The other animal economy in northern Mesopotamia (3000–2000 BCE)}, volume={48}, ISSN={0278-4165}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/J.JAA.2017.06.001}, DOI={10.1016/J.JAA.2017.06.001}, abstractNote={Discussion of the animal economy in Mesopotamia has been subject to a persistent, pastoral bias. Most general treatments assume that the Early Bronze Age (ca. 3000–2000 BCE) animal economy was dominated by the herding of sheep and goats. An examination of the abundant written evidence would support such a contention. Zooarchaeological evidence from northern Mesopotamia, however, clearly demonstrates that pigs played a major role in the diet, despite their virtual absence in the written record. In this paper, we attempt to lay bare and correct for the pastoral bias by reviewing the relatively meager written evidence for pig husbandry and by examining the zooarchaeological evidence for pigs from two angles. First, we use relative abundance data from sites across northern Mesopotamia to demonstrate the ubiquity of pigs and to identify regional- and site-level patterning in pig consumption. Second, we use a series of proxy techniques to reconstruct pig husbandry practices at three sites: Tell 'Atij, Tell al-Raqa'i, and Tell Leilan. Ultimately, we argue that this "other" animal economy emerged to fill a niche opened up by the twin processes of urbanization and institutional expansion. For households struggling to deal with the impacts of these wide-ranging transformations, pigs offered an alternative means of subsistence and perhaps a way of maintaining some degree of autonomy.}, journal={Journal of Anthropological Archaeology}, publisher={Elsevier BV}, author={Price, Max and Grossman, Kathryn and Paulette, Tate}, year={2017}, month={Dec}, pages={46–62} } @inbook{paulette_2016, title={Grain, storage, and state making in Mesopotamia (3200--2000 BC)}, booktitle={Storage in Ancient Complex Societies}, publisher={Routledge}, author={Paulette, Tate}, year={2016}, pages={85–110} } @phdthesis{paulette_2015, title={Grain Storage and the Moral Economy in Mesopotamia (3000-2000 BC).}, url={https://oi.uchicago.edu/research/research-archives-library/dissertations/grain-storage-and-moral-economy-mesopotamia-3000}, school={University of Chicago, Division of the Humanities, Department of Near …}, author={Paulette, Tate Sewell}, year={2015} } @article{danti_branting_paulette_cuneo_2015, title={Report on the Destruction of the Northwest Palace at Nimrud}, volume={5}, journal={ASOR Cultural Heritage Initiatives [Internet]}, author={Danti, Michael and Branting, Scott and Paulette, Tate and Cuneo, Alison}, year={2015} } @article{danti_paulette_gordon_moaz_ali_franklin_elitzer_2015, title={Special Report on the Importance of Palmyra}, volume={2}, journal={ASOR Cultural Heritage Initiatives (Hrsg.)}, author={Danti, Michael and Paulette, Tate and Gordon, LeeAnn Barnes and Moaz, Abdalrazzaq and Ali, Cheikhmous and Franklin, Kathryn and Elitzer, David}, year={2015} } @article{cuneo_penacho_gordon_kaercher_franklin_paulette_elitzer_gessel_2015, title={Update on the Situation in Palmyra}, journal={ASOR Cultural Heritage Initiatives}, author={Cuneo, Allison and Penacho, Susan and Gordon, LeeAnn Barnes and Kaercher, Kyra and Franklin, Kathryn and Paulette, Tate and Elitzer, David and Gessel, Erin}, year={2015} } @inbook{paulette_2013, title={Consumption and storage in the Bronze Age}, booktitle={Models of Mesopotamian landscapes: how small-scale processes contributed to the growth of early civilizations. Archaeopress, Oxford}, author={Paulette, Tate}, year={2013}, pages={102–108} } @inbook{altaweel_paulette_2013, title={Modeling nomad-sedentary interactions}, booktitle={Models of Mesopotamian landscapes: how small-scale processes contributed to the growth of early civilizations. Archaeopress, Oxford}, publisher={Archaeopress}, author={Altaweel, Mark and Paulette, Tate}, year={2013} } @inbook{paulette_2013, title={Pastoral systems and economies of mobility}, booktitle={Models of Mesopotamian Landscapes: How Small-Scale Processes Contributed to the Growth of Early Civilizations, Archaeopress, Oxford}, author={Paulette, Tate}, year={2013}, pages={130–139} } @inbook{widell_studevent-hickman_tenney_lauinger_mahoney_paulette_2013, title={Staple production, cultivation and sedentary life: Model input data}, booktitle={Models of Mesopotamian landscapes: how small-scale processes contributed to the growth of early civilizations. Archaeopress, Oxford}, publisher={Archaeopress}, author={Widell, Magnus and Studevent-Hickman, Benjamin and Tenney, Jonathan and Lauinger, Jacob and Mahoney, Daniel and Paulette, Tate}, year={2013}, pages={81–101} } @inbook{wilkinson_gibson_christenson_widell_woods_kouchoukos_simunich_altaweel_hritz_ur_et al._2007, title={Modeling settlement systems in a dynamic environment: Case studies from Mesopotamia.}, publisher={SAR Press}, author={Wilkinson, Tony J and Gibson, M and Christenson, J and Widell, Magnus and Woods, C and Kouchoukos, Nicholas and Simunich, K and Altaweel, M and Hritz, C and Ur, J and et al.}, year={2007} }