An aesthetic of resistance: Beauty and power in northern Mesopotamia

Abstract

This article analyzes the role of the popular production and use of decorated ceramics in apparent episodes of resistance to and the ultimate collapse of central authority over the course of the seventh to fourth millennium BCE in northern Mesopotamia. In order to accomplish this goal, criteria for identifying and evaluating episodes of large-scale resistance in the archaeological record are presented. This presentation is followed by a description of three possible episodes of this nature, sensitive to the production, use, and discard of decorated ceramics within these episodes. These episodes are set within the context of broader regional trends concerning aesthetic elaboration in multiple media and contemporaneous techniques of production, administration, and control. The evidence presented supports the conclusion that independent small-scale production and consumption of decorated ceramics enabled the creation of coalitions of commoners that ultimately had the power to destabilize centralized coercive administrative regimes.