ABSTRACT
Over the past decade, the plain pottery of Late Bronze Age (c. 1600–1200/1180 BC) Anatolia – often affectionately referred to as ‘Drab Ware’ – has developed from Hittite studies’ ugly duckling, whose presence in archaeological assemblages was merely acknowledged in passing in publications, to become something of a hot topic. Rightly or wrongly, plain pottery has grown to be the pars pro toto on whose basis the nature of the Hittite state, and its economic organisation and imperialism are debated. The focus of this discourse has been on typology and chronological questions and, to a lesser degree, the organisation and scale of ceramic production. Lacking as yet is an engagement with the social dimensions of this pottery and the role it may have played in practices of consumption associated with the representation and reproduction of Hittite state authority and cultural identity, as well as in less official settings. In this chapter, I explore the role of plain pottery in public consumption events at central Anatolian sites and in regions affected by Hittite imperialism (fig. 8.1). Map showing major sites mentioned in the text https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315422572/cbba94d2-8a9b-4da7-902f-a1d2435c8ded/content/fig8_1_B.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
