No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
Chaîne opératoire, technological networks and sociological interpretations
... Valentine Roux (2019) distingue quatro etapas universais na sequência de produção das vasilhas: preparação da pasta, técnicas de manufatura, acabamentos de superfície e técnicas decorativas. Cada uma das etapas de confecção são variáveis suficientes para traçar redes tecnológicas e suas fronteiras, tomando os nós como tradições técnicas e as arestas como laços de pertença social (Roux, 2020). ...
Este artigo apresenta a cadeia operatória de vasilhas evidenciadas em sítios com estruturas de terra do estado do Acre, Brasil. A proposta é analisar as tecnologias cerâmicas, seus possíveis usos e padrões de descartes, buscando compreender os processos mais amplos de mudanças culturais na região. Esta pesquisa contribui para uma sistematização inicial das etapas de produção das vasilhas e avalia a relevância da Tradição Quinari nesse contexto. Os resultados apontam que uma série de características tecnológicas das cerâmicas encontradas nesses sítios, longe dos grandes rios, convergem para modelos arqueológicos ribeirinhos que explicam a movimentação de grupos, objetos e ideias que dominaram a planície aluvial.
... Above all, the conservatism of pottery-forming techniques is stressed (e.g. Nicklin 1971;Arnold 1985;Gosselain 2000;Wallaert-Pêtre 2001;Mayor 2011;Roux 2019bRoux , 2020). An interdependence of the individual phases of the technological process is another aspect contributing to the stability. ...
This study focuses on the introduction of pottery-forming methods employing rotational motion in relation to social and economic conditions and their transformations during the La Tène period in Central Europe. It explores the diversity of technological practices on a broader geographical scale in several regions of the Czech Republic with various demographic, social, and environmental conditions during this period. The study is based on the idea that a technological process is a cultural trait whose adoption is the result of a cultural selection. These interactions are facilitated by the performances of the technological process and its products. The technological analysis relies on a recently developed quantitative analytical technique based on calculating the orientation of components of the ceramic body supplemented by qualitative classification of diagnostic features observed on X-ray images and CT reconstructions. By applying the methodology to an extensive collection of pottery samples, we have obtained a robust picture of the adoption and spread of different variants of the application of rotational motion. Based on this evidence, we proposed evolutionary scenarios that show the unique interplay of the performances of the individual variants of this general innovative idea with specific local socio-cultural conditions.
... As sequences of technical gestures reflect deeply anchored facets of producers' identities, evidence for discontinuity or, on the contrary, continuity, is always very consequential with regard to socio-cultural dynamics. Indeed, diachronic continuity in technical traditions shows the local permanence of producers' social group over time through an intergenerational transmission of knowledge (Roux, 2020). Discontinuity raises the question of the nature and origin of the new way of doing to determine whether the changes observed in technical practices are related to endogenous or exogenous factors. ...
Research on the European Neolithisation agrees that a process of colonisation throughout the sixth millennium BC underlies the spread of agricultural ways of life on the continent. From central to central-western Europe, this colonisation path is characterised by one single cultural entity, the so-called Linear Pottery Culture (LBK). At the transition between the sixth and fifth millennia BC, the LBK breaks apart into a mosaic of "post-LBK" cultural groups through mechanisms that are not entirely understood. To contribute to a better understanding of the social processes underlying this transition, here we conduct an integrated analysis of the lithic and ceramic technical subsystems attributed to the LBK and post-LBK in Middle Belgium, a region with unrivalled material evidence. We use the technical gestures carried out by the early farmers to produce their lithic tool blanks and ceramics as proxies to shed light on (i) the modalities of technical know-how intergenerational transmission, (ii) the possible exogenous influences within the technical system, (iii) the trajectories of the social groups involved in the LBK-Blicquy/Villeneuve-Saint-Germain (BQY/VSG) transition. Our results reveal that several overlapping mechanisms were at work during this cultural transition. While lithic and ceramic general technical trends are clearly transmitted from one period to another attesting to a clear filiation between the LBK and post-LBK, both the lithic and ceramic detailed sequences of technical gestures tend to hybridize after the transition. This reveals close and prolonged interactions between groups of producers from different learning networks, most likely stemming from population mobility during the cultural transition.
... The striking differences which could be identified along the Impressa expansion paths from Southern Italy to Southern France thus affect all stages of the pottery production sequence, i.e. raw material selection, forming, shapes and decoration. In this respect, we argue that at least two "communities of practice" (see Lave and Wenger, 1991;Knappett 2011, Roux 2020, and thus two distinct social networks, characterised the Early Neolithic emergences in the Western Mediterranean. ...
The series of actions carried out by the first farmers during the manufacturing of their pottery, an essential part of their economic package, can act as a powerful proxy of their spatial and temporal trajectories. This proxy is based on the demonstration in social anthropology of an unequivocal link between the chaîne opératoire of a ceramic and the social identity of its producer. Based on the reconstruction of pottery forming practices from seventeen sites associated with the emergence and early diffusion of Neolithic ways of life in the Western Mediterranean (Impressed Ware, c. 6050-5600 BCE), the present study reveals the co-occurrence of two distinct technical entities in Impressed Ware contexts: (1) one identified to the east of the Apennine Mountains, which implements a chaîne opératoire already observed in Balkan early agricultural contexts around 6100 BCE (pottery formed by superimposed coils); (2) the other identified to the west of the Apennines Mountains, which implements a chaîne opératoire that had never been identified in other archaeological contexts (pottery formed by juxtaposition of “spiralled patches”). The anthropological significance of this major technical frontier in Impressa contexts is assessed in the light of new Bayesian date modelling and of an array of recent economic and bio-archaeological data. Our results strongly support the coexistence of two different social networks in Impressed Ware contexts, and consequently, of two distinct groups of farmers, one of which shows filiations with the Balkan Early Neolithic, whereas the filiations of the other yet remain unknown. The clear spatial exclusion, over the long term, of these two social groups deeply questions the concept of a continuous migration path of early farmers in the Western Mediterranean.
Traditionally, rock engravings were studied through their visual characteristics. They have been analyzed with comparative and interpretative methodologies of iconography and iconology. However, there has been a recent shift towards identifying production processes, allowing reconstruction of operational characteristics through various methods. Nevertheless, the studies of the technological aspects typically focus on the operational and the mechanical, often omitting the visuality of the outcome. In the current paper, we are using ArchCUT3-D software for computational analysis of 3-D data acquired from various rock engravings located in Timna Park, southern Israel. We show how micro-morphological evidence, extracted from the engraved lines, can decode technical trends and variabilities in a technique’s particular implementation. Then, we conduct a focused examination of one group of engraved figures in order to establish a link between execution techniques and visual considerations. Based on our results and the following discussion, we suggest the term Techné to indicate the choice of technique that goes beyond the instrumental or purely operative perspectives. We highlight the intentional choice, which designs the visual rhetoric of the engraved marks and suggests cultural concepts that contrived the procedural processes.
This article presents the results of the analysis of the manufacturing macrotraces on the LBK pottery from Cząstków Polski, Site XII, Czosnów commune. It is a small, highly fragmented, and eroded assemblage and the usefulness of such material for the study of pottery production was tested. Different lines of evidence could be combined and led to the recognition of various vessel forming methods and to the reconstruction of distinct chaînes opératoires and even individual traits within them, indicating the occupation of the site by one community of practice with multiple manufacturers. Pottery production at Cząstków Polski followed general LBKpotting standards but also shows some peculiarities indicating some degree of idiosyncrasy within this community of practice.
Izdevumā publicēti 19 raksti, kuru pamatā ir 2022. gada 24. un 25. novembrī Latvijas Universitātes (LU) Latvijas vēstures institūta un Valmieras muzeja sadarbībā ar Vītauta Dižā Universitāti Kauņā, Lietuvas Vēstures institūtu un Tartu Universitātes Vēstures un arheoloģijas institūtu klātienē un interneta vidē rīkotajā konferencē “Jauno vēsturnieku zinātniskie lasījumi VIII” nolasītie referāti. Krājumu izdod LU Latvijas vēstures institūts sadarbībā ar Valmieras muzeju. Tā sastādīšanu finansē LU Latvijas vēstures institūta bāzes finansējuma projekts Nr. ZD2015/AZ85 “Latvijas teritorija kā dažādu kultūrtelpu, reliģiju, politisko, sociālo un ekonomisko interešu saskarsmes zona no aizvēstures līdz mūsdienām”, bet izdošanu – LU projekts Nr. ZDA 2023/6 “Rakstu krājuma “Jauno vēsturnieku zinātniskie lasījumi VIII” izdošana” un Valmieras muzejs.
In the paper, the technological aspects of the pottery production at the Balka Kantserka settlement are considered. In particular, the reconstruction of the process of manufacturing of three-handed gray-ware jars which were mass-produced at the settlement is carried out. They were constructed from separately manufactured parts: body, neck, handles and spout. At the same time, in some cases, handles and knob-shaped decorative elements were attached to already dried and even decorated vessels. The presence of different types of the same structural parts, decorative elements and their technical solutions indicates that the jars were not made by one craftsman, but by a group of craftsmen who had different skills and tastes. The fact that the vessels of different masters were found in a complex associated with one particular kiln indicates that it was used simultaneously by a group of potters. For other technological groups (hand-built pottery, amphorae and fragments with individual technological features), it was possible to reliably determine only the composition of the paste. It was found out that the hand-built pottery at the settlement are represented by five recipes, of which at least three can be associated with the Penkivska culture, which surrounded Balka Kantserka. Fragments of amphorae are characterised by a natural admixture that made up to 1/5 of limestone and about 1/7 of sand. As for the recipes represented by individual fragments, it is difficult to interpret them for sure at the moment. The fact that the ceramic complex obtained by the excavations does not contain physically or archaeologically complete vessels, currently makes it difficult to quantify the types of structural elements of the vessels and their decoration, which would allow judging the possible number of potters who used the kiln.
Following renewed excavations at Boker Tachtit (2013–2015), a revised study of the lithic assemblage techno-typological characteristics was conducted placing it within a regional context. The growing number of archaeological sites in the Levantine desert regions assigned to the Initial Upper Paleolithic calls for an updated perspective regarding technological affinities and social interaction. Combining the techno-typological data from the new and old excavations at Boker Tachtit with previously published material suggest a transitional continuum within the sequence. The techno-typological shift seen within the Boker Tachtit sequence and its comparison to other assemblages from penecontemporaneous sites in the region indicates that the Initial Upper Paleolithic technological practices evolved through incremental processes resulting in novel technological traits and innovative technological systems.
The Cambridge Manual to Archaeological Network Science provides the first comprehensive guide to a field of research that has firmly established itself within archaeological practice in recent years. Network science methods are commonly used to explore big archaeological datasets and are essential for the formal study of past relational phenomena: social networks, transport systems, communication, and exchange. The volume offers a step-by-step description of network science methods and explores its theoretical foundations and applications in archaeological research, which are elaborately illustrated with archaeological examples. It also covers a vast range of network science techniques that can enhance archaeological research, including network data collection and management, exploratory network analysis, sampling issues and sensitivity analysis, spatial networks, and network visualisation. An essential reference handbook for both beginning and experienced archaeological network researchers, the volume includes boxes with definitions, boxed examples, exercises, and online supplementary learning and teaching materials.
The chaînes opératoires underlying the manufacture of objects are good proxies for studying social groups and how cultural traits are transmitted and modified through the learning process. With the rise of evolutionary archaeology, the evolution of ceramic vessels can be modeled by using cladistics to elaborate kinship relationships between different taxa on the basis of shared derived character states. Here the modeling applies to ceramic fashioning from the European Middle Bronze Age (France and the United Kingdom). The aim is to assess the nature of the evolution and the relationships between three main cultures—in southern England, Normandy, and in the center-west of France. The cladistics analysis highlights that the ceramic traditions largely result from a process of phylogenesis—a result of descent with modification from an ancestral assemblage—rooted in the Early Bronze Age, suggesting a common origin for the Trevisker/Deverel-Rimbury and French Atlantic technical traditions. On the other hand, the Norman appears to be related to the Duffaits tradition, but to the exclusion of the Trevisker/Deverel-Rimbury traditions. This study supports the theoretical premise that some technical sequences are more stable than others. The evolution of sequences requiring motor habits, such as shaping, stabilized fairly quickly, unlike the finishing operations that continued to diverge throughout the Bronze Age. This study suggests that cladistics based on the description of the ceramic material in terms of chaînes opératoires is a useful tool for studying cultural change.
En 1934, Marcel Mauss exposait devant la Société Française de Psychologie (SFP), sa réflexion sur les techniques du corps, invitant son auditoire à les appréhender de manière pluridisciplinaire (déjà !) à partir d’un triple point de vue « physio-psycho-sociologique ». Une décennie plus tard, André Leroi-Gourhan (1943) dans un admirable travail de classification des « faits techniques » proposait de considérer le geste technique en termes « de moyens élémentaires
d’action sur la matière », prenant comme unité d’analyse non plus l’outil ou le produit perçus comme entités isolées, mais l’interface entre l’acteur manipulant l’outil et son milieu.
Où en sommes-nous 70 ans plus tard ? De nombreux travaux l’anthropologie abordent la question du geste technique de l’expert ou de l’apprenti. Le geste expert est souvent décrit comme incorporé, fluide, automatique (Marchand 2010, Sigaut 1994, Sola 2007, Warnier 2001), nécessitant un engagement avec la tâche, un corps à corps avec la matière, une synergie d’intention et de performance, un couplage de l’acteur et du dispositif technique, une incorporation de
l’outil (Naji 2009, Portisch 2009), ou encore relevant de la construction d’algorithmes moteurs (Warnier 2001). Ce qui pourrait être résumé par l’intéressante formule de Martine Mille et Joëlle Petit dans un article intitulé « La vie du geste technique » : « Il fait corps avec la matière
apprivoisée et domptée » (2014 : 44).
La question que tente d’approfondir ce texte est la suivante : qu’expriment ces différentes formulations ? Un ressenti, une sensation personnelle de l’acteur ou de l’observateur ? Si elles relèvent d’une dimension d’introspection, certes importante psychologiquement, que disent-elles du « geste expert » proprement dit, de sa forme, de sa structure, de sa dynamique d’exécution, de son efficacité fonctionnelle, de son résultat ? Nous renseignent-elles sur les mécanismes en jeu dans l’apprentissage ou l’expertise ? Répondre à ces questions n’est pas chose aisée et requiert une double démarche, un va-et-vient de la tâche technique vers l’acteur et inversement.
In this paper, I focus on two issues: (1) the variables for modeling the relational structure of a society and (2) the use of models for explaining evolutionary processes. I argue first that, contrary to stylistic traits which are the main attributes analyzed by models exploring changes in material culture through time, technological traditions are meaningful variables for linking sites over space and time and therefore for bringing to light the relational structures of societies. Indeed, at the difference to stylistic traits, their transmission requires social learning with a tutor usually selected within one’s social group, signaling thereby individuals belonging to the same social group and local network. Once the relational structure of a society is highlighted, I argue that explanation of evolution processes requires reference sociological models. The validation of the archeological interpretation lies in both the analogical operation and the founding of the reference model. These points are illustrated with a case study, the Late Chalcolithic of the southern Levant (4500–3900 cal. BC).
This study examines Ghassulian ceramic assemblages from sites located in various parts of the southern Levant using the chaîne opératoire approach. The goal is to assess whether the Ghassulian communities were loosely integrated or, on the contrary, closely connected to each other. Results show that a single chaîne opératoire was shared at the level of the whole of the southern Levant testifying to its transmission within the same social group. They also suggest interactions between the different communities, arguing in favor of a dense social network from which new shared norms may have emerged. In conclusion, we suggest that this highly connected society could be linked phylogenetically to the previous local groups—which would explain both the embeddedness at the population level and the regional
differences developed over time.
Formal network analyses have a long history in archaeology but have recently seen a rapid florescence. Network models drawing on approaches from graph theory, social network analysis, and complexity science have been used to address a broad array of questions about the relationships among network structure, positions, and the attributes and outcomes for individuals and larger groups at a range of social scales. Current archaeological network research is both methodologically and theoretically diverse, but there are still many daunting challenges ahead for the formal exploration of social networks using archaeological data. If we can face these challenges, archaeologists are well positioned to contribute to long-standing debates in the broader sphere of network research on the nature of network theory, the relationships between networks and culture, and dynamics of social networks over the long term.
This article draws upon ethnographic accounts of female potters’ movement and intermarriage into multi-ethnic Pueblo communities in the U.S. Southwest to illustrate how marriage networks created opportunities for innovation through the production, distribution, and consumption of boundary objects. These objects did not define boundaries but facilitated boundary crossing or bridging by potters. I argue that the concept of boundary objects is more useful than hybridity for understanding the processes of culture contact and material culture diffusion. Archaeological evidence for late twelfth through thirteenth century migrations from the Four Corners to the southern Colorado Plateau is used to make a case for a high degree of intermarriage and post-marital movement of women. Such patrilocality challenges normative views of post-marital residence, including those employed by early ceramic sociologists working in the same area of the Southwest and even at the same sites. The case that I discuss provides a contrast to other Southwest examples in which conformist transmission was more common, and helps to solve a paradox in explanations of the Southwest Pueblo Sprachbund. I conclude that the concept of boundary objects complements formal social network approaches in archaeology by bringing out the active role of objects in linking social actors.
In this article, we question how new technological traits can penetrate cohesive social groups and spread. Based on ethnographic narratives and following studies in sociology, the hypothesis is that not only weak ties are important for linking otherwise unconnected groups and introducing new techniques but also that expertise is required. In order to test this hypothesis, we carried out a set of field experiments in northern India where the kiln has been adopted recently. Our goal was to measure the degree of expertise of the potters distributed between early and late adopters of the kiln. Our results are discussed in the light of oral interviews. Our conclusions suggest that expertise is a necessary, albeit not sufficient, condition for weak ties to act as bridges and thereby for new techniques to spread. As an example, they explain how turntables could have been adopted by potters from the northern Levant during the third millennium BC.
This short introduction briefly recalls how sociological theories and formal methods for social networks can help to interpret diffusion processes of ancient cultural traits. It also provides a presentation of the selected papers. These papers focus not on the ways archaeological data can be represented in a relational format, but on the potential of specific sociological network-related models to gain insights into the underlying mechanisms of diffusion processes. The necessity to develop more fine-grained information to reconstruct ancient local social networks is underlined while three aspects of the diffusion process are explored: (a) situations in which cultural practices are not borrowed in spite of contact between groups; (b) situations in which cultural practices are adopted; and (c) situations in which cultural practices in one group are copied by people from another group. All of them take inspiration from sociological studies of diffusion processes through networks, although to different extents.
While network techniques are now used with some frequency in archaeology for tackling questions of connectivity and mobility at regional and inter-regional scales, they are still somewhat underexploited for more local scales. The considerable potential for multiscalar analysis has recently seen some progress, however, wedded to the idea of communities of practice. In this paper, I consider how this multiscalar approach could aid in the study of ancient globalizations, with the particular case of Minoanization from the Aegean Bronze Age. Although this specific problem has seen some network applications, they have mostly not been multiscalar in nature. I address some of the reasons for this state of affairs, using a distinction between “theory” and “data” models—and suggest some possible outcomes of a more explicitly multiscalar approach to Minoanization.
What any traveler can definitely notice is the incredible diversity of everyday skills due to the cultural diversity of tools, raw materials, physical environments, or local postural habits that set up the conditions for performing tasks. Do cultural environments influence motor skills? Are there "motor styles" common to members of a given cultural group? Focusing on instrumental everyday actions from a functional perspective, we propose four cases to illustrate in detail cultural variations in motor behavior. The first example explores the movement repertoire of expert potters from two cultural backgrounds when asked to produce pots of the same shape. A second example analyzes how a dance figure based on the same mechanical principles gives rise to different cultural aesthetics. The third example questions the adaptation of metabolic processes while performing the same load-carrying task in various physical environments. The last example brings up the issue of cultural choices of working and resting postures. Each case refers to a critical dimension of what generates the cultural diversity of motor skills: operational equivalence of movements, variation in the "weighing" of the parameters of the action, adaptation of metabolic processes, and adaptive benefit of specific posture. We conclude that if the countless diversity of cultural contexts and tasks give rise to an enormous diversity of movements and postures, this diversity is anchored in the many degrees of freedom of the organism. It is this profusion of degrees of freedom that sustains the endless variations of cultural motor skills giving ways to infinite manners of using one's own body.
From 500 BC to AD 200, cultural exchanges in the South China Sea were emphasized by the expansion and intensification of long-distance interaction networks. Various archaeological objects, exchanged or imitated, provide evidence of multiple contacts. Interactions in relation to ceramics are attested through the so-called Sa Huynh-Kalanay-related ceramics, whose decorations allow significant stylistic comparisons between sites of the Thai-Malay Peninsula, Vietnam, the Philippines, Borneo and Eastern Indonesia. This paper aims to explore the various modes of circulation of Sa Huynh-Kalanay-related pottery and to define whether they involved the movement of goods and/or of people such as merchants or craftsmen. The analysis focuses on pottery assemblages from fifteen sites recently excavated by the Thai-French archaeological mission in the Thai-Malay Peninsula. The reconstruction of various chaînes opératoires and the identification of pottery traditions reveal some Sa Huynh-Kalanay-related pottery were produced by local groups while others have an exogenous origin. Results highlight the socio-cultural and political complexity of groups in line with the production, circulation, and use of the pottery.
Is motor development influenced by cultural environment? Are there “motor styles” common to members of a given cultural group?
Archaeologists have regarded social networks as both the links through which people transmitted information and goods as well as a form of social storage creating relationships that could be drawn upon in times of subsistence shortfalls or other deleterious environmental conditions. In this article, formal social network analytical (SNA) methods are applied to archaeological data from the late pre-Hispanic North American Southwest to look at what kinds of social networks characterized those regions that were the most enduring versus those that were depopulated over a 250-year period (A.D. 1200–1450). In that time, large areas of the Southwest were no longer used for residential purposes, some of which corresponds with well-documented region-wide drought. Past research has demonstrated that some population levels could have been maintained in these regions, yet regional scale depopulation occurred. We look at the degree to which the network level property of embeddedness, along with population size, can help to explain why some regions were depopulated and others were not. SNA can help archaeologists examine why emigration occurred in some areas following an environmental crisis while other areas continued to be inhabited and even received migrants. Moreover, we modify SNA techniques to take full advantage of the time depth and spatial and demographic variability of our archaeological data set. The results of this study should be of interest to those who seek to understand human responses to past, present, and future worldwide catastrophes since it is now widely recognized that responses to major human disasters, such as hurricanes, were “likely to be shaped by pre-existing or new social networks” (as reported by Suter et al. (Research and Policy Review 28:1–10, 2009)).
Archaeological approaches to social boundaries are currently emphasizing the dynamic nature of processes thought which individuals construct, maintain, and negotiate their identity. Although the integration of such concepts has led to a more accurate reconstruction of past social boundaries, it has also revealed a need for more sophisticated ways of interpreting material culture. This paper is a step in that direction. Focusing on pottery chaînes opératoires and addressing questions about the salience and scale of particular behaviors, I seek to develop general propositions regarding the relationships between technological styles and aspects of social identity. To that end, I compare African pottery techniques at a subcontinental level and see whether there are recurrent patterns in their distribution and whether these can be related to specific social boundaries or historical processes of group formation.
The late pre-Hispanic period in the US Southwest (A.D. 1200-1450) was characterized by large-scale demographic changes, including long-distance migration and population aggregation. To reconstruct how these processes reshaped social networks, we compiled a comprehensive artifact database from major sites dating to this interval in the western Southwest. We combine social network analysis with geographic information systems approaches to reconstruct network dynamics over 250 y. We show how social networks were transformed across the region at previously undocumented spatial, temporal, and social scales. Using well-dated decorated ceramics, we track changes in network topology at 50-y intervals to show a dramatic shift in network density and settlement centrality from the northern to the southern Southwest after A.D. 1300. Both obsidian sourcing and ceramic data demonstrate that long-distance network relationships also shifted from north to south after migration. Surprisingly, social distance does not always correlate with spatial distance because of the presence of network relationships spanning long geographic distances. Our research shows how a large network in the southern Southwest grew and then collapsed, whereas networks became more fragmented in the northern Southwest but persisted. The study also illustrates how formal social network analysis may be applied to large-scale databases of material culture to illustrate multigenerational changes in network structure.
Recent discoveries at Tel Yarmuth (Early Bronze Age, c. 3500–2350 BC) enable us to revisit the question of the introduction of the potter's wheel in the Southern Levant. Two tournettes have been found which represent the typical potter's wheel of the 3rd millennium BC in the Southern Levant. Their technological analysis, as well as an analysis of the EB III ceramics, confirms that at Yarmuth, and other contemporary sites, potters did not throw ceramics on the wheel, but coiled roughouts which were then thinned and/or shaped on the tournette. Only a small range of vessels were fashioned on the tournette, suggesting that it was used by a limited number of potters. It is suggested that the potters using the tournette may have been specialists attached to the elite of a major city and occasionally shared out between several settlements within a region.
The Levant of the fourth millennium B.C. was scattered with numerous small farming communities. The agricultural activities were based on growing barley, wheat, lentils, and fruit trees. This was accompanied by raising sheep-goats, pigs, and cattle and occasionally using marine resources. The architecture and the thick accumulation of debris loaded with pottery refuse indicate that the sites were sedentary and occupied for long periods. The social organization of these communities does not seem to have been very complex. The evidence argues against the existence of hierarchies and high-status social units that had the power to dominate and permanently regulate production and distribution. The evidence of religious activities also indicates that a priesthood, if it existed, was not dominant in the regulation of social and economic activities. The rapid cultural changes in the Levant during the late fourth and early third millennium were probably caused by the impact of the events in Egypt and Mesopotamia. The local modifications were readjustments to the large-scale changes in the Near East which influenced the rural and provincial Levantine Chalcolithic societies.
In our “global village,” things and practices are currently diffused over such large areas that few, if any, relationships
seem to exist anymore between their spatial distribution and salient cultural boundaries. Global products, such as powder
milk, canned fish, or digital watches, are found everywhere, from the fringes of Greenland to the heart of the rainforest,
as are cities congested with Japanese cars, boys impersonating the football star of the day, or adults greeting each other
with a handshake. These elements have given rise to a form of “world cultural landscape,” so pervasive in our daily experience
that we do not pay attention to it anymore.
In the southern Levant, the late fifth millennium to mid-fourth millennium BC—traditionally known as the Chalcolithic period—witnessed
major cultural transformations in virtually all areas of society, most notably craft production, mortuary and ritual practices,
settlement patterns, and iconographic and symbolic expression. A degree of regionalism is evident in material culture, but
continuity in ceramic styles, iconographic motifs, and mortuary practices suggests a similar cultural outlook linking these
sub-regions. Luxury items found in group mortuary caves provide good evidence for at least some inequality in access to exotic
materials. The level of complexity in social organization, however, is still debated. Divergent interpretations of Chalcolithic
socio-economic organization suggest that, with the large amount of new information now available, a reevaluation of the debate
is due. In this article we synthesize the more recent evidence and weigh interpretations of processes that led to the widespread
fundamental changes witnessed during the late fifth to early fourth millennium BC.
Cultural traits have long been used in anthropology as units of transmission that ostensibly reflect behavioural characteristics of the individuals or groups exhibiting the traits. After they are transmitted, cultural traits serve as units of replication in that they can be modified as part of an individual's cultural repertoire through processes such as recombination, loss or partial alteration within an individual's mind. Cultural traits are analogous to genes in that organisms replicate them, but they are also replicators in their own right. No one has ever seen a unit of transmission, either behavioural or genetic, although we can observe the effects of transmission. Fortunately, such units are manifest in artefacts, features and other components of the archaeological record, and they serve as proxies for studying the transmission (and modification) of cultural traits, provided there is analytical clarity over how to define and measure the units that underlie this inheritance process.
In this introduction to the volume we argue that the later prehistory of the Mediterranean has much to contribute to current debates in the humanities on the subject of mobilities. Although often avoided or maligned for its association with migration as an outmoded explanation for culture change, mobility is belatedly finding its way back into archaeological interpretation. We propose that the papers assembled here effectively bring out the range of mobilities in later Mediterranean prehistory, with a particular focus on the circulation of technological knowledge at different scales.
In this paper, we address the question of the conditions for persistence of technological boundaries. We use field studies to test the predictions generated by a theoretical model in analytical sociology and examine the micro-processes at stake in the non-diffusion of techniques: to which extent techniques contributes to a sharp disagreement between groups and promote polarization? The ultimate goal is to provide archaeologists with an empirically tested model to explain spatial distribution of technological clusters and maintenance of technological boundaries. Field studies examine ethnographic situations in four countries where social groups using different ceramic techniques for making utilitarian vessels live in close geographical proximity. Two situations enable us to examine the conditions under which technological boundaries persist, while two others enable us to analyze, through a boundary-making perspective, how differences in craft techniques contribute to polarization. Our data suggest that in a context where different techniques are used for different types of object there is a cognitive bias which fosters technological polarization. This cognitive bias develops in the course of interactions between actors living in close geographical proximity. Polarization increases when technological standards are used by different social groups, thereby favoring negative influence and persistent technological boundaries.
https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1VxFl_6L9ZmkPJ
Khao Sek, a coastal settlement located in the Upper-Thai Peninsula and 80. km south of the early urbanized port of Khao Sam Kaeo in the Chumphon province, yielded an impressive quantity of glass waste and ornaments suggesting that glass bracelets and beads were manufactured at the site as early as the 4th c. BCE. This article discusses the glass material found at Khao Sek using typological observation but also elemental analysis with laser ablation - inductively coupled plasma - mass spectrometry. Beyond obvious morphological resemblance, compositional analyses of the glass confirm similarities between the glass industries at Khao Sam Kaeo and Khao Sek and the existence of a fairly standardized glass ornament production at an early period. This article provides new arguments to discuss the fashioning of a regional standardized craft system as early as the mid-first millennium BC and its role in participating in the production of a pan-regional style, the "Late Prehistoric South China Sea style". Finally, this study contributes to define the political developments that took place in the Upper-Thai Peninsula for the period 500 BCE-500 CE, hypothesizing the emergence of a ranked and complementary confederation of ports-of-trade.
Social network analysis (SNA) in archaeology has become important for a range of theoretical and methodological approaches that can more generally be characterized as relational. They are relational in that it is the ties between actors (or nodes) that define social connections. Archaeologists are currently employing a diversity of theoretical approaches to networks, and the perspective taken in this review is that SNA can provide insights into a number of different social processes using different theories. Following a brief historical overview, I discuss two aspects of SNA: the structural position of the actor or node, and characterizations of whole networks. I then summarize several broad classes of archaeological networks: historical, spatial, and material. I conclude with a call for more bridging approaches to span alternative theoretical and methodological approaches in the archaeology of networks. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Anthropology Volume 46 is October 21, 2017. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
The site of Tell Arqa, in Northern Lebanon, displays a continuous sequence covering the entire 3rd millennium, which attests major economic and socio-cultural changes affecting the entire plain of Akkar around 2500 BC. In order to understand whether these changes testify to a form of historical continuity or mark anthropological ruptures, related to sociological or population changes, the Bronze Age ceramic assemblages have been studied by combining morpho-stylistic and technological approaches. The results show that the same chaînes opératoires have been transmitted from one generation to the next for more than a millennium within a group
of specialized potters, reflecting irrefutable sociological continuity. However, morphological and stylistic changes, which thus occur against a background of technical stability, reflect a dynamics among consumers whose demand has evolved progressively in the course of the site’s history.
In 1976 the CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique) founded a laboratory for studying differents aspects of cultural technology. The work group « Techniques and culture » wich thus came into being laid down in its first research bulletin the general framework wich would be the cadre of its researches in the years to come. This article sums up the principal axes of that first text. The reasoning that explains and justifies, the grouping of techniques into two large divisions - those that « create » social relations, and those that mirror the architecture and the functioning of intra- and inter-relations within social groups - is analysed. After a short reminder of the epistemology and metholology obtaining in this domain wich among other things brings up the problems of innovation and evolution, a few examples from medieval Europe: the plough, the stirrup, iron shoes for animals, triennal crop rotatation, are examined from the point of view of their influence on social structure. The study of housing and urbanism (house grouping) as an imprinting of society on a geographical territory opens up news avenues of anthropological research. A final analysis compares the passage in, Ireland from horticulture with a spade to agriculture with harnessed animals, then from animals to tractors, from which it appears that social criteria are at least as important as purely technical ones as to the acceptance or denial of new vectors of change.
Network theory can be employed in two ways in archaeology: it can be used to analyse archaeological data, or it can be used to model a historical process for the purpose of simulating the data. This paper focuses on the first approach. In such analyses, similar archaeological contexts are often connected to form a similarity network. Similarity is treated as a proxy for social or causal relationships. Most often, similarity is defined by the presence of the same kind of find in two contexts. However, to detect relationships effectively, we have to allow any kind of similarity relation to be a criterion for connection, in which different kinds of attributes that characterise the contexts may be mixed. We discuss how such general similarity networks can be used to disclose relational patterns hidden in archaeological data. Statistical tests are necessary to distinguish significant patterns from random patterns. We argue that random permutation tests are well suited for this task, and we introduce appropriate tests of this kind. The methods outlined are compared to other kinds of quantitative data analysis, such as correspondence analysis. We discuss which approach is more suitable for which kind of data. The choice of approach also depends on the questions addressed to the archaeological material.
L'apprentissage de gestes techniques: ordre de contraintes et variations culturelles
- B Bril
BRIL, B. (2002): "L'apprentissage de gestes techniques: ordre de contraintes et variations
culturelles", Le geste technique. Réflexions
méthodologiques et anthropologiques (B. Bril
and V. Roux, eds.), Editions érès, Technologies/
Idéologies/ Pratiques, Ramonville Saint-Agne,
pp. 113-150.
Learning through and for practice: contributions from Francophone perspectives
- B Bril
BRIL, B. (2015): "Learning to use tools: A functional approach to action", Learning through and
for practice: contributions from Francophone
perspectives (L. Filletaz and S. Billet, eds.),
Springer International Publishing, New York,
pp. 95-118.
Ethnoarchéologie et histoire du peuplement au temps des empires précoloniaux
- A Mayor
MAYOR, A. (2010): Traditions céramiques dans la
boucle du Niger. Ethnoarchéologie et histoire
du peuplement au temps des empires précoloniaux, Africa Magna Verlag, Journal of African
Archaeology Monographs Series 7, Frankfurt
am Main.
Technological changes in ceramic production during periods of trouble
- V Roux
- S Gabbriellini
ROUX, V. and GABBRIELLINI, S. (2019): "Firing
Structures and Transition Period in Rajasthan
(India, 2005-2015). Unstable Choices before
Definitive Selection", Technology in Crisis.
Technological changes in ceramic production
during periods of trouble (C. Langhor and I.
Caloi, eds.), Presses Universitaires de Louvain,
AEGIS series, Louvain, pp. 35-44.
Le peuplement de la plaine du Akkar à l'âge du Bronze
- J.-P Thalmann
THALMANN, J.-P. (2000): "Le peuplement de la
plaine du Akkar à l'âge du Bronze", First international congress of the archaeology of the
Near East (Matthiae, P. et al., eds.), Universita
Degli Studi Di Roma "La Sapienza", Roma,
pp. 1615-1636.
Tell Arqa, 1. Les niveaux de l'âge du Bronze
- J.-P Thalmann
THALMANN, J.-P. (2006): Tell Arqa, 1. Les niveaux
de l'âge du Bronze, Institut français du Proche-Orient, Beyrouth.
The Early Bronze Age: Foreign Relations in the Light of Recent Excavations at Tell Arqa
- J.-P Thalmann
THALMANN, J.-P. (2009): "The Early Bronze
Age: Foreign Relations in the Light of Recent
Excavations at Tell Arqa", Interconnections in
the Eastern Mediterranean -Lebanon in the
Bronze and Iron Ages-. Proceedings of the
International Symposium (A.M. Affiche, ed.),
Ministère de la Culture, Direction Générale
des Antiquités, BAAL, Hors-Série, Beyrouth,
pp. 15-28.
Rapport Préliminaire sur les campagnes de 2008 à 2012 à Tell Arqa
- J.-P Thalmann
THALMANN, J.-P. (2016): "Rapport Préliminaire
sur les campagnes de 2008 à 2012 à Tell Arqa",
Bulletin d'Archéologie et d'Architecture Libanaises 16, pp. 15-78.