Tate Paulette

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Bio

Tate Paulette studies urban food systems in the ancient world. A native of North Carolina, he holds an MA and PhD in Near Eastern Archaeology from the University of Chicago and an MA in Archaeology from the University of Edinburgh. His research explores agricultural practices, gastro-politics, and state making in the world’s first cities and states, with a focus on Mesopotamia and the Near East. He also studies ancient alcohol, and he has spearheaded a collaborative effort to recreate Sumerian beer using authentic ingredients, equipment, and brewing techniques. His first book, In the Land of Ninkasi: A History of Beer in Ancient Mesopotamia, was published by Oxford University Press in August, 2024. He is also editing A Cultural History of Wine in Antiquity for Bloomsbury Publishing. Paulette has conducted archaeological fieldwork in Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Turkey, Cyprus, Scotland, and the US, and he is currently co-directing an archaeological field project and field school at the site of Makounta-Voules-Mersinoudia in western Cyprus. His teaching focuses on agricultural history, food, urbanism, material culture, and the ancient world.

Website: https://ncsu.academia.edu/TatePaulette

Teaching and Research Interests

• Agriculture
• Food
• Alcohol
• State making
• Urbanization
• Ancient Near East
• Mesopotamia
• Cyprus

Courses

Ancient Mediterranean World (HI 207)
Civilization of the Ancient Near East (HI 400/500)
Material Culture (HI 593)
History of Agriculture (HI 340)
Ancient Middle Eastern Cities (HI 491, Seminar in History)
Alcohol in the Ancient World (HI 491, Seminar in History)

Projects

Makounta-Voules Archaeological Project, Cyprus, Co-director

Funded Research

National Science Foundation Grant #1951147: An Investigation into the Governance of Village Life

Publications

Paulette, T. 2024. In the land of Ninkasi: A history of beer in ancient Mesopotamia. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Paulette, T. 2024. The fermented crescent. Aeon, October 24, 2024.

Paulette, T. 2024. The land of Ninkasi: Beer in ancient Mesopotamia. Ancient History 51.

Paulette, T. 2021. Inebriation and the early state: Beer and the politics of affect in Mesopotamia. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 63: 1–19.

Grossman, K., and T. Paulette. 2020. Wealth-on-the-hoof and the low-power state: Caprines as capital in early Mesopotamia. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 60: 1–20.

Paulette, T. 2020. Archaeological perspectives on beer in Mesopotamia: Brewing ingredients. In After the harvest: Storage practices and food processing in Bronze Age Mesopotamia, eds. Noemi Borrelli and Giulia Scazzosi, 65–89. Subartu 43. Turnhout: Brepols.

Grossman, K., T. Paulette, A. McCarthy, and L. Graham. 2020. 2017 survey of two prehistoric sites in western Cyprus: Stroumpi-Pigi-Agios Andronikos and Makounta-Voules-Mersinoudia. In Proceedings of the 11th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Volume 2, eds. A. Otto et al., 105–114. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.

Price, M., K. Grossman, and T. Paulette. 2017. Pigs and the pastoral bias: The other animal economy in northern Mesopotamia (3000–2000 BCE). Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 48: 46–62.

Paulette, T. 2016. Grain, storage, and state making in Mesopotamia (3200–2000 BC). In Storage in ancient complex societies: Administration, organization, and control, eds. L. R. Manzanilla and M. Rothman, 85–109. New York: Routledge.

Paulette, T. 2013. Consumption and storage in the Bronze Age. In Models of Mesopotamian landscapes, eds. T. J. Wilkinson, McG. Gibson, and M. Widell, 102–111. BAR International Series 2552. Oxford: Archaeopress.

Paulette, T. 2013. Pastoral systems and economies of mobility. In Models of Mesopotamian landscapes, eds. T. J. Wilkinson, McG. Gibson, and M. Widell, 130–139. BAR International Series 2552. Oxford: Archaeopress.

Altaweel, M., and T. Paulette. 2013. Modeling nomad-sedentary interactions. In Models of Mesopotamian landscapes, eds. T. J. Wilkinson, McG. Gibson, and M. Widell, 204–218. BAR International Series 2552. Oxford: Archaeopress.

Widell, M., B. Studevent Hickman, J. Tenney, J. Lauinger, D. Mahoney, and T. Paulette. 2013. Staple production, cultivation and sedentary life: Model input data. In Models of Mesopotamian landscapes, eds. T. J. Wilkinson, McG. Gibson, and M. Widell, 81–101. BAR International Series 2552. Oxford: Archaeopress.

Paulette, T. 2012. Domination and resilience in Bronze Age Mesopotamia. In Surviving sudden environmental change: Answers from archaeology, eds. J. Cooper and P. Sheets, 167–195. Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado.

Reichel, C., T. Paulette, and K. Grossman. 2012. Early Bronze Age Hamoukar: “Akkadian”– and beyond? In Seven generations since the fall of Akkad, ed. H. Weiss, 279–299. Studia Chaburensia, vol. 3. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

Wilkinson, T. J., McG. Gibson, J. H. Christiansen, M. Widell, D. Schloen, N. Kouchoukos, C. Woods, J. Sanders, K.-L. Simunich, M. Altaweel, J. A. Ur, C. Hritz, J. Lauinger, T. Paulette, and J. Tenney. 2007. Modeling settlement systems in a dynamic environment: Case studies from Mesopotamia. In The model-based archaeology of socionatural systems, eds. T. A. Kohler and S. van der Leeuw, 175–208. Santa Fe: School for Advanced Research Press.

Blog Posts, Interviews, and News Articles

Interview with Tate Paulette, Weam Namou, Chaldean Cultural Center, October 4, 2024

In the Land of Ninkasi, Chaldean News, October 2024

How ancient Mesopotamians made beer, Good Food, KCRW, September 13, 2024

Origins of Beer, The Ancients, August 21, 2024

Beer in Ancient Mesopotamia, Digital Hammurabi, August 13, 2024

Bringing the beers of ancient Mesopotamia back to life, Peopling the Past, Blog Post #49, February 18, 2022

Mesopotamia: Civilization Begins (with Beer), Bacchus Uncorked, Getty, Los Angeles, CA, 2021

Brewing Up Ancient Beer, Accolades, North Carolina State University, 2020

Fermentation in ancient Mesopotamia, Fermentology, Department of Applied Ecology, North Carolina State University, 2020

Brewing Mesopotamian beer brings a sip of this vibrant ancient drinking culture back to life, The Conversation, August 24, 2020.

Potent potables of the past: Beer and brewing in Mesopotamia (with M. Fisher), The Ancient Near East Today, April 2017, vol. 5, no. 4.

Conference Sessions Organized

“Beer Cultures in Bronze Age Mesopotamia: Practices, Traditions, and Trajectories” (with M. Zingarello), 13th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2023

“Archaeologies of Memory” (with J. Fu), American Society of Overseas Research, Annual Meeting, 2022–2024

Presentations

“Beer and the making of a new food system in early Mesopotamia,” Microbial Foods, Copenhagen Bioscience Conferences, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2022 (presentation canceled)

“History of irrigation,” North Carolina Irrigation Society, Annual Meeting, Rocky Mount, NC, 2021

“Society against the state in prehistoric Cyprus? The politics of village life at Makounta-Voules-Mersinoudia” (with K. Grossman, L. Graham, and A. McCarthy), 12th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Bologna, Italy, 2021

“In defense of underwater basket weaving: Experiential archaeology in the classroom,” American Society of Overseas Research, Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, 2019

“Village politics in prehistoric Cyprus: Makounta-Voules-Mersinoudia, 2017–2019″ (with K. Grossman, L. Graham, and A. McCarthy), American Society of Overseas Research, Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, 2019

“Fermented beverages of the ancient world,” Science and Culture of Fermentation Symposium, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, 2019

“Inebriation and the early state: The transformative power of beer in Bronze Age Mesopotamia,” Alcohol, rituals, and the spiritual world in ancient China and beyond: An interdisciplinary perspective, Stanford Archaeology Center, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 2019

“Pre-urban Trajectories on the Northwest Coast of Cyprus: The First Two Seasons of the Makounta-Voules Archaeological Project” (with Kathryn Grossman, Andrew McCarthy, and Lisa Graham), American Society of Overseas Research, Annual Meeting, Denver, CO, 2018

“It’s all about the ingredients: Archaeological perspectives on beer and brewing in Mesopotamia,” 11th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Munich, Germany, 2018

“Prehistoric Archaeology in the Polis Region: The First Season of Survey and Geophysics at Makounta-Voules and Stroumpi-Pigi-Agios Andronikos, Cyprus” (with Kathryn Grossman, Lisa Graham, and Andrew McCarthy), 11th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Munich, Germany, 2018

“Storing like a state in Mesopotamia (4000–2000 BC) or: How great were the great organizations?,” American Society of Overseas Research, Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, 2017

“Grain, storage, and state making in Mesopotamia (3200–2000 BC),” Society for American Archaeology, Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 2017

“Where the beer flowed like wine: Brewing and intoxication in Bronze Age Mesopotamia” (with M. Fisher), American Society of Overseas Research, Annual Meeting, San Antonio, TX, 2016

“Grain storage and gastro-politics in Mesopotamia (3000–2000 BC),” 10th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Vienna, Austria, 2016

“Where the beer flowed like wine: Brewing and intoxication in Bronze Age Mesopotamia,” Dartmouth College, Department of Anthropology, Hanover, NH, 2016

“Recasting the “magic circle”: The politics of food in an incomplete state” (with S. Richardson), American Society of Overseas Research, Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA, 2015

“Pork futures past: The pig complex in Early Bronze Age northern Mesopotamia” (with M. Price and K. Grossman), American Society of Overseas Research, Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA, 2015

“’Not to know beer is not normal’: The archaeological invisibility of beer and brewing in Bronze Age Mesopotamia,” Brown Bag Series in Archaeology, Brown University, Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Providence, RI, 2015

“Grain storage and gastro-politics in Mesopotamia (3000–2000 BC),” Old World Archaeology seminar series, University of Connecticut, Anthropology Department, Storrs, CT, 2015

“Brewing beer in Mesopotamia: Technology, technique, and tradition” (with M. Fisher), American Anthropological Association, Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, 2014

“What happens in Sumer stays in Sumer: the archaeological invisibility of beer in Mesopotamia” (with M. Fisher), Theoretical Archaeology Group USA, Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, 2013

“New perspectives on an early administrative practice in the ancient Near East: The study of Proto-literate clay envelopes from Chogha Mish, Iran, using state-of-the-art computed tomography (CT) technology” (with C. Woods), American Society of Overseas Research, Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, 2012

“Early Bronze Age Hamoukar: “Akkadian”–and beyond?” (with K. Grossman and C. Reichel), 8th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Warsaw, Poland, 2012

“Fire in the brewhouse: Toward an archaeology of beer and brewing in Mesopotamia” (with M. Fisher), 8th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Warsaw, Poland, 2012

“Where’s the beer? Alcohol and urban space in Bronze Age Mesopotamia” (with M. Fisher), American Society of Overseas Research, Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, 2011

“Grain storage in third millennium Mesopotamia: Regional perspectives,” American Society of Overseas Research, Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA, 2010

“Grain storage in Mesopotamia: Agricultural techniques and political economy during the third millennium BC,” 7th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, London, England, 2010

“Coping strategies and socio-political scale in Bronze Age Mesopotamia,” Global Long Term Human Ecodynamics Conference, Eagle Hill, Maine, 2009

“Hamoukar during the third millennium BC: Recent work” (with K. Grossman), Second Meeting of the Tigridian Regional Group, Associated Regional Chronologies of the Ancient Near East and the Eastern Mediterranean, Venice, Italy, 2009

“Urban trajectories in the third millennium BC: Recent excavations in the Lower Town at Hamoukar” (with K. Grossman), American Society of Overseas Research, Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, 2008

“Modeling Bronze Age northern Mesopotamia: New layers of complexity,” Society for American Archaeology, Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC, 2008

“Relocating identity and alterity in Anatolian cities: Archaeological perspectives on the Old Assyrian period” (with G. B. Yazıcıoglu), Ancient Societies Workshop, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 2008

“Heuristic models and abstract agents: Finding a place for computer simulation in Mesopotamian archaeology,” Interdisciplinary Archaeology Workshop, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 2007

“Shifting perspectives from Assur to Kaneš: Identifying diversity between text and artifact” (with G. B. Yazıcıoglu), Text Envy and Artifact Allure: Evidence, Methods, and Epistemologies across the History/Prehistory Divide, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 2007

“Modeling dynamic human ecologies: Examples from Northern Mesopotamia” (with M. Altaweel and J. Christiansen), British Association for Near Eastern Archaeology, Annual Meeting, Edinburgh, Scotland, 2005

Public Presentations

“Mesopotamia, the world’s first great beer culture,” North Carolina Craft Brewers Conference, Winston-Salem, NC, 2024

“In the land of Ninkasi: A history of beer in ancient Mesopotamia, Book discussion” (with Matthew Booker, North Carolina State University), DH Hill Library, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 2024

“In the land of Ninkasi: A history of beer in ancient Mesopotamia, Book discussion” (with Kathryn Morgan, Duke University), Triangle Society of the Archaeological Institute of America, Fullsteam Brewery, Durham, NC, 2024

“Beer in Ancient Mesopotamia: Book discussion” (with Les Stewart, Trophy Brewing Co.), So & So Books, Raleigh, NC, 2024.

“Where the beer flowed like wine: Beer and brewing in Bronze Age Mesopotamia,” Kershaw Lecture in Near Eastern Archaeology, Jacksonville Society of the Archaeological Institute of America, Jacksonville, FL, 2024

“Where the beer flowed like wine: Beer and brewing in Bronze Age Mesopotamia,” Kershaw Lecture in Near Eastern Archaeology, Central Pennsylvania Society of the Archaeological Institute of America, University Park, PA, 2023

“Beer and brewing in ancient Mesopotamia,” Friends of ASOR Symposium, American Society of Overseas Research, Research Triangle Park, NC, 2023

“Where the beer flowed like wine: Beer and brewing in Bronze Age Mesopotamia,” North Alabama Society of the Archaeological Institute of America, Huntsville, AL, 2023

“Where the beer flowed like wine: Beer and brewing in Bronze Age Mesopotamia,” Timothy S. Y. Lam Museum of Anthropology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, 2023

“Where the beer flowed like wine: Beer and brewing in Bronze Age Mesopotamia,” San Joaquin Valley Society of the Archaeological Institute of America, Fresno, CA, 2021

“Where the beer flowed like wine: Beer and brewing in Bronze Age Mesopotamia,” North Carolina Chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America, Chapel Hill, NC, 2019

“Where the beer flowed like wine: Beer and brewing in Bronze Age Mesopotamia,” Harald Ingholt Lectureship in Near Eastern Archaeology, Cincinnati Society of the Archaeological Institute of America, Rhinegeist Brewery, Cincinnati, OH, 2018

“Where the beer flowed like wine: Beer and brewing in Bronze Age Mesopotamia,” Springfield Archaeology, Mother Stewart’s Brewing Co., Springfield, OH, 2018

“Beer and brewing in Mesopotamia,” Dr. Craig’s Office Hours, Grad Center Bar. Providence, RI, 2017

“Where the beer flowed like wine: Beer and brewing in Bronze Age Mesopotamia,” Western Illinois Society of the Archaeological Institute of America, Augustana College, Rock Island, IL, 2017

“Inebriation and the early state: The transformative power of beer in Bronze Age Mesopotamia,” Frederick R. and Margaret B. Matson Lecture, Western Illinois Society of the Archaeological Institute of America, Monmouth College, Monmouth, IL, 2017

“Beer and brewing in Mesopotamia,” Archaeology on Tap, American Society of Overseas Research, Cornwall’s Pub, Boston, MA, 2016

“Beer and brewing in Mesopotamia,” Sip Like a Sumerian, Martha, Philadelphia, PA, 2016

“Beer and brewing in Mesopotamia,” From the Tigris to the Nile: A Sumerian-Egyptian Beer Dinner, Barley’s Smokehouse & Brewpub, Columbus, OH, 2014

“Beer and brewing in Mesopotamia,” A Toast to Ninkasi: Sipping Sumerian Beer, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 2014

“Beer and brewing in Mesopotamia,” Sumerian Beer Dinner, The Gage, Chicago, IL, 2014

“Beer and brewing in Mesopotamia,” A Toast to Ninkasi: Sipping Sumerian Beer, Fountainhead, Chicago, IL, 2013

“Beer and brewing in Mesopotamia,” Sumerian Beer Dinner, Great Lakes Brewing Company, Cleveland, OH, 2013

“Wine in Mesopotamia: a tour of the Edgar and Deborah Jannotta Mesopotamian Gallery,” Uncorking the Past, Oriental Institute Museum, Chicago, IL, 2012

Advising

Current MA students

Luke Basile
Joshua Thomas

MA theses completed

Ashley Hunter, “Death and Diplomacy: Colonial Interactions during Roman Expansion into Temperate Europe” (MA, History, 2024)

Jordan Brady, “City of Thunder: Numismatics, Space, and Civic Identity in Seleucia-Pieria” (MA, History, 2023)

Michelle Guy, “Enchanting, Banishing, and Confusing: Clay Execration Figurines in the Egyptian Old Kingdom” (MA, History, 2022)

Rachel Webberman, “Performing Danger: Bulls, Swords, and the Acrobatic Body in the Ancient Near East” (MA, Public History, 2021)

Current undergraduate honors students

Shane Bright

Undergraduate honors theses completed

Ashley Benson, “The Fabric of the Republic: The Interplay of Roman Citizenship, Patriotism, and Nationalism in the Roman Republic” (BA, History, 2024)

Zaccheri Morra, “Love, Hatred, and Women: An Exploration of Ancient Greek Cultural Gender Norms” (BA, History, 2024)