This edited volume investigates knowledge networks based on materials and associated technologies in Prehistoric Europe and the Classical Mediterranean. It emphasises the significance of material objects to the construction, maintenance, and collapse of networks of various forms – which are central to explanations of cultural contact and change. Focusing on the materiality of objects and on the way in which materials are used adds a multidimensional quality to networks. The properties, functions, and styles of different materials are intrinsically linked to the way in which knowledge flows and technologies are transmitted. Transmission of technologies from one craft to another is one of the main drivers of innovation, whilst sharing knowledge is enabled and limited by the extent of associated social networks in place.
Archaeological research has often been limited to studying objects made of one particular material in depth, be it lithic materials, ceramics, textiles, glass, metal, wood or others. The knowledge flow and transfer between crafts that deal with different materials have often been overlooked. This book takes a fresh approach to the reconstruction of knowledge networks by integrating two or more craft traditions in each of its chapters. The authors, well-known experts and early career researchers, provide concise case studies that cover a wide range of materials. The scope of the book extends from networks of craft traditions to implications for society in a wider sense: materials, objects, and the technologies used to make and distribute them are interwoven with social meaning. People make objects, but objects make people – the materiality of objects shapes our understanding of the world and our place within it. In this book, objects are treated as clues to social networks of different sorts that can be contrasted and compared, both spatially and diachronically.
Author(s): Katharina Rebay-Salisbury, Ann Brysbaert, Lin Foxhall
Series: Routledge Studies in Archaeology 13
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2014
Language: English
Pages: x+214
Knowledge Networks and Craft Traditions in the Ancient World: Material Crossovers
Contents
List of Figures
1 Material Crossovers: Introduction
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
REFERENCES
2 Material and Craft Networks in the Prehistory of Asia Minor: Transformations in Values and Societies
INTRODUCTION
OBSIDIAN EXCHANGE NETWORKS IN PREHISTORIC ASIA MINOR
THE RISE OF CRAFT PRODUCTS EXCHANGE NETWORKS: THE KULAKSIZLAR CASE
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
NOTE
REFERENCES
3 Buildings That Wrap Objects and Objects That Wrap Buildings
INTRODUCTION
BUILDINGS THAT WRAP OBJECTS
OBJECTS THAT ARE A PART OF BUILDINGS
OBJECTS THAT WRAP BUILDINGS
MATERIAL CROSSOVERS AND SITUATED KNOWLEDGE
CONCLUDING REMARKS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
NOTES
REFERENCES
4 Talking Shop: Multicraft Workshop Materials and Architecture in Prehistoric Tiryns, Greece
INTRODUCTION
TOURNAVITOU’S MYCENAEAN WORKSHOP MODEL
TIRYNS’S WORKSHOPS IN THE LOWER CITADEL NORTH
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
The Workshop Model Part I
The Workshop Model Part II
CONCLUSIONS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
NOTES
REFERENCES
5 Temporality, Materiality and Women’s Networks: The Production and Manufacture of Loom Weights in the Greek and Indigenous Communities of Southern Italy
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
NOTES
REFERENCES
6 Cloth Worth a King’s Ransom: Textile Circulation and Transmission of Textile Craft in the Ancient Mediterranean
INTRODUCTION
PRODUCTION AND CIRCULATION OF TEXTILES
Traded Commodities
Gifts
Dowry
Dedications at Sanctuaries
Ransom and Booty
Prizes
CIRCULATION OF TEXTILE TOOLS
CIRCULATION OF WOMEN
INFORMATION EXCHANGE
CIRCULATION THROUGH IMITATION
CONCLUSION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
REFERENCES
7 Interactions between Basketry and Pottery in Early Iron Age Attica, Greece
INTRODUCTION
BASKET IMPRESSIONS
BASKET IMITATIONS
BASKET IMITATIONS IN LATE GEOMETRIC ATTICA
Basket Replicas
Ceramic Imitations of Plaited Carrier Baskets
Other Vase Types Imitating Baskets
DISCUSSION
CONCLUSION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Appendix
CATALOGUE OF ATTIC LATE GEOMETRIC BASKET REPLICAS
CATALOGUE OF ATTIC LATE GEOMETRIC IMITATIONS OF PLAITED CARRIER BASKETS
NOTES
REFERENCES
8 Craftsmanship at Athens in the 11th Century BCE: Improvisation, Networking and Pottery Making
INTRODUCTION
RETHINKING CHANGE AND INNOVATION
BECOMING SKILFUL
CROSS-CRAFT INTERACTION AND SKEUOMORPHISM
DECORATING POTS AND THE PIVOTED MULTIPLE BRUSH
CONCLUSION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
REFERENCES
9 Skeuomorphic Pottery and Consumer Feedback Processes in the Ancient Mediterranean
INTRODUCTION
METAL FEATURES ON CERAMIC VESSELS
THE EVIDENCE FROM MORGANTINA
THE TRADITION OF SKEUOMORPHISM
DISPLAY AND PREFERENCE
CONCLUSION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
REFERENCES
10 Materials Make People: How Material Properties and Technologies Contribute to Figurine Shapes in Early Iron Age Central Europe
INTRODUCTION
CONVENTIONS OF HUMAN REPRESENTATIONS
Making Figurines
CERAMIC FIGURINES
BRONZE FIGURINES
LEAD FIGURINES
OTHER MATERIALS: SANDSTONE, BONE, IVORY, ANTLER AND WOOD
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
NOTES
REFERENCES
11 A Bronze Age Ornament Network? Tracing the Herzsprung Symbol across Europe
INTRODUCTION
THE SHIELDS
Leather Shield from Cloonbrin
Wooden Shield Formers and Shields
Bronze Sheet Shields of Type Herzsprung
Bronze Sheet Shields of Group Plzeň
Iberian Stelae
Eastern Mediterranean Votive Shields
ORIGIN AND MEANING OF THE SYMBOL
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
12 Concluding and Future Thoughts on Material Crossovers
REFERENCES
Contributors
Index
