1,721,130 research outputs found
Skilled people or specialists? Knowledge and expertise in copper age vessels from central Italy
Full text linkStudying craft specialisation in archaeology involves investigating and reconstructing how production was organised. This article focuses on prehistoric communities and asks who performed specific tasks. Ceramic specialisation is traditionally approached through models of production organisation that are largely based on ethnoarchaeological case studies and are usually difficult to link with the archaeological evidence. Based on these models, the economic framework plays a key role in associating the emergence of specialisation with the intensification of the demand for goods and identifying specialists by the amount of time required for production. This approach neglects the social value of products and the social context sustaining skills development. This article discusses surface treatments as a means to understand the skills of potters and the social values of specific ceramic products in Copper Age communities from central Italy. The methodology combines the analysis of technological traces and experimental archaeology used to infer craftspeople's expertise and reveals differences in the chaîne opératoire and skills involved in the production of domestic and funerary vessels. The results support a hypothesis of household specialisation that developed in these communities based upon differences in skills, knowledge and dedication among potters and the recurrent association of skilled productions with ritual contexts
A preliminary study of ceramic pastes in the copper age pottery production of the Rome area
No full textThis paper presents the preliminary results of an analytical study on domestic pottery samples originating from the Copper Age sites of Casetta Mistici, Tor Pagnotta, Osteria del Curato-Via Cinquefrondi, Torre della Chiesaccia and Valle dei Morti, all of which are located in the Rome area (Latium, Italy). The aim of this research is to define the compositional features of the ceramic pastes and to reconstruct the main technological choices characterising pottery production in these contexts. The importance of these archaeological sites lies in their geographic position, being located in an area bounded by the Tiber and Aniene rivers and the Colli Albani volcano, and in their stratigraphic sequence, spanning from the mid-fourth to the end of the third millennium bc. This research, based on a petrographic and chemical investigation of pottery samples, led to the distinction of eight petrographic groups that reflect specific choices in pottery production. Moreover, the analytical results provide indications about the prehistoric pottery production of the Rome area in relation to the ceramic recipes used, the pastes that were obtained and their sourcing areas
Traceological analysis applied to textile implements: An assessment of the method through the case study of the 1st millennium BCE ceramic tools in central Italy
No full textThis contribution focuses on the application of traceological analysis to ceramic textile tools. Traceological analysis has been rarely applied to the study of this specific category of artefacts. A dedicated reference collection needed to be created for a proper understanding of the development of both technological and use traces, on apparently simple artefacts that, nevertheless, are connected with very specific gestures highly constrained by cultural background of their users. Our experimental framework was based on the ceramic textile tools from the cemeteries of Cerveteri, Vulci, Narce and Falerii in Central Italy, dated to the 1st millennium BCE. The macroscopic analyses of archaeological and experimental ceramic textile tools allowed to define the technological features of production, such as the exploited ceramic pastes and the traces related to the various steps of tool production including modelling, surface treatment, decoration and firing techniques. Moreover, this investigation allowed to define the technological traces and to distinguish them from use wear traces and post-depositional alterations
Profiling the people behind clay figurines. Technological trace and fingerprint analysis applied to ancient Egypt (Lahun village, MBA II, c. 1800–1700 BC)
No full textClay figurines represent one of the ideal object categories for tracing the profile of their makers since they preserve traces of the maker’s gestures. The scope of the article is to reconstruct the different manufacturing steps of clay figurines, assess the complexity of the shaping sequences and study fingerprints to trace the profile of people who produced such artefacts in the ancient village of Lahun (Egypt, MBA II, c. 1800–1700 BC). The high number of production chains revealed that, despite an apparent roughness, clay figurine production was characterised by high stylistic and technological variability, indicating several levels of skill possessed by their producers. On this basis, Lahun clay figurines were not an extemporary or standardised product. A neat division can be established between anthropomorphic figurines and those representing animals, which show a lower degree of complexity and an attempt not to define clear shapes. Most of the figurines were revealed to be mainly shaped by adults, while children contributed in a marginal way to their production. However, the presence of sub-adult fingerprints on some of the clay figurines indicates that children were active agents producing material culture and integrating part of the adult production process through cooperation and/or playing
Analisi petrografica dei materiali argillosi non vascolari dal sito di Oratino - La Rocca
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From novices to experts. Skill development and knowledge transmission in prehistory
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Are optical tools suitable to manage phosphate and potassium fertigation in tomato crops?
No full textCooking traces on Copper Age pottery from central Italy: An integrated approach comprising use wear analysis, spectroscopic analysis and experimental archaeology
No full textThis contribution discusses the results of an integrated approach of use wear analysis, spectroscopic analysis and experimental archaeology, applied for the investigation of the actual use of selected ceramic vessels, taken from domestic Copper Age contexts in the modern Rome area. This study is based upon the consideration of a vessel as a tool, used during everyday life and thus reflecting human activities and social behaviours. To this end, the paper here presented proposes an interpretation of the actual use activities which led to the modification of prehistoric vessels. The methodology of this study integrates the traditional approach to ceramic use wear studies, based on experimental and ethnoarchaeological studies, with principles of tribology, along with the application of a dedicated experimental framework which enabled the development of a detailed collection of comparative use wear. Moreover, the application of spectroscopic analysis provided preliminary data related to the charred encrustations found inside the archaeological specimens. These data, when combined with use wear, palaeobotanical remains and archaeological preserved structures, aided interpretation of the archaeological ceramic vessels as cooking pots
Longitudinal injection schemes for the CERN PS Booster at 160 MeV including space charge effects
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