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In this paper I investigate the impact of writing on styles of pottery painting in the ancient Near East. I analyze geometric and animal line compositions typical of the Ubaid and Susa I period - preceding the invention of writing (in the late fourth millennium BC). I compare them tonarrative scenes on Mesopotamian and Elamite scarlet ware of the early
Dynastic period - after the invention of writing. I propose that, by borrowing strategies of writing, art increased its capacity to communicate information, namely pottery paintings went beyond mere symbolic evocation to become narrative.