Beer-making and drinking between life and death. A fresh look at the "four-part" sets

In the archaeological literature, the term “four-part set” has been introduced for the first time in the preliminary reports of the excavations at Abu Salabikh in Central Iraq to refer to groups of vessels, apparently connected in terms of function, found among the grave goods of some intramural graves of the Main Mound buildings. The set is composed by a large bowl or vat, a perforated cylindrical stand, a strainer and a small beaker, each vessel usually placed one in the other, and it is thought to be used in the production of beverages between the end of the Early Dynastic and the Akkadian period. This paper presents a thorough examination of these sets, retrieved among grave goods at different sites in Central Southern Mesopotamia up to Tell Hariri, ancient Mari, where they appear in the pottery assemblage of the “maquettes architecturales”, in apparently non-funerary contexts. The analysis of the sets and their archaeological context will be conducted from a functional perspective in order to reconstruct the possible use of these sets and their implication in the preparation of beer.