Search Results

Pottery: The Visual Ecology of the Everyday

Peter S. Wells

in How Ancient Europeans Saw the World: Vision, Patterns, and the Shaping of the Mind in Prehistoric Times

This chapter analyzes the pottery of late prehistoric Europe. Jars, bowls, and cups were the three main categories of pottery vessels that were in use in the Early Bronze Age. Bowls and cups were ... More

This chapter analyzes the pottery of late prehistoric Europe. Jars, bowls, and cups were the three main categories of pottery vessels that were in use in the Early Bronze Age. Bowls and cups were decorated differently from jars, and their surfaces were finished differently. Jars are the only category that had a purposely roughened surface. Bowls and cups were polished smooth. And jars are the only category within which each individual vessel was distinguished from every other by the pattern of its ornament. From the latter fact, it is argued that jars in the Early and Middle Bronze Age were individualized in a way that bowls and cups were not; each was deliberately made different from all others in order that the household that owned it could mark it as its own, and perhaps even use it to display to others in the community that it had abundant stores of grain.Less

Frame, Focus, Visualization

Peter S. Wells

in How Ancient Europeans Saw the World: Vision, Patterns, and the Shaping of the Mind in Prehistoric Times

This chapter first discusses the concept of the frame and how it helps us to understand the visual patterning of space in late prehistoric Europe. Frames, whether they are wooden picture frames that ... More

This chapter first discusses the concept of the frame and how it helps us to understand the visual patterning of space in late prehistoric Europe. Frames, whether they are wooden picture frames that hold paintings on museum walls or boundary ditches around prehistoric sites, perform the important function of establishing for the viewer the boundaries of that which is to be viewed. The frame tells the viewer what is inside and therefore to be considered and what is outside and therefore can be ignored. The things that prehistoric Europeans placed within frames, their foci of attention, can be understood as diagrams. The chapter then considers some of the visual patterns that persist from the Early Bronze Age through the Late Iron Age, before turning to the character of the changes that took place in ways of seeing in later prehistoric Europe.Less

The Visual Worlds of Early Europe

Peter S. Wells

in How Ancient Europeans Saw the World: Vision, Patterns, and the Shaping of the Mind in Prehistoric Times

This chapter discusses the visual world of late prehistoric Europe. It first uses Teniers's painting of the interior of an inn at the beginning of the chapter in order to introduce the topic of light ... More

This chapter discusses the visual world of late prehistoric Europe. It first uses Teniers's painting of the interior of an inn at the beginning of the chapter in order to introduce the topic of light as an important issue in any consideration of seeing in times previous to the ready availability of electric light. It then describes changes in the landscape, in the character of settlements, houses, and in other aspects of the visual environment during the two millennia between the beginning of the Early Bronze Age and the end of the Iron Age. These changes were most often gradual. A number of significant trends are recognizable in the environmental evidence pertaining to changes in the landscape; and there is archaeological evidence pertaining to changes in tool use, the digging of ditches, the building of walls, and the construction of settlements and houses.Less

The Civilization Machine in the Early Bronze Age

Adam T. Smith

in The Political Machine: Assembling Sovereignty in the Bronze Age Caucasus

This chapter examines the role of things in the reproduction of a public—the first condition of sovereignty defined in Chapter 2—during the Early Bronze Age in the South Caucasus. “A public” here ... More

This chapter examines the role of things in the reproduction of a public—the first condition of sovereignty defined in Chapter 2—during the Early Bronze Age in the South Caucasus. “A public” here means a self-recognizing community that is not maintained exclusively through face-to-face interaction. It is thus in large part an assembly of strangers who are made familiar to one another through an assemblage of publicity—forms of mass mediation and sites of encounter, such as those Benedict Anderson described as fundamental to the imagination of modern nations. The suggestion that material things are critical to the creation of a public follows closely Hannah Arendt's conception of humanity as Homo faber.Less

Theories as actants: Translating mortuary practice

Chris Fowler

in The Emergent Past: A Relational Realist Archaeology of Early Bronze Age Mortuary Practices

This chapter examines various interpretations of Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age mortuary practices in North-East England. More specifically, it considers the key conceptual frameworks in ... More

This chapter examines various interpretations of Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age mortuary practices in North-East England. More specifically, it considers the key conceptual frameworks in circulation and their relational emergence in archaeology. It also explores how specific anthropological or sociological concepts affect the interpretations of antiquarians and archaeologists, as well as the kinds of references produced based on those foundations, including ethnic and cultural groups, elites and chiefs, prestige, and social differentiation based on age and sex. Furthermore, it analyses the patterns in deposition and monumentalisation of burial grounds founded in religious belief, along with the co-emergence of different relations, different materials and persons, things, and places. Finally, the chapter describes mortuary practices as transformations effected through rites of passage.Less

Daily Activity and Lower Limb Modification at Bab edh-Dhra̓, Jordan, in the Early Bronze Age

Jaime M. Ullinger, Susan G. Sheridan, and Donald J. Ortner

in Bioarchaeology and Behavior: The People of the Ancient Near East

The cemetery of Bab edh-Dhra' spans from Early Bronze IA to IV (ca. 3150–2200 BC). There are no settlement remains dating to the EB IA (3150–3050 BC). Sometime during EBII-III (2850 BC–2300 BC), ... More

The cemetery of Bab edh-Dhra' spans from Early Bronze IA to IV (ca. 3150–2200 BC). There are no settlement remains dating to the EB IA (3150–3050 BC). Sometime during EBII-III (2850 BC–2300 BC), people erected a large, walled town supported by increased agriculture and secondary product use near the EBIA cemetery. Mortuary practices also shifted, and people were buried in large, above-ground charnel houses rather than shaft tombs. Both archaeological and skeletal/dental evidence indicate an increasingly sedentary lifestyle with a greater reliance on agriculture from EB IA through EB II-III. This study suggests that daily activity changes affected the ankles and feet of people at Bab edh-Dhra', but that stresses on the knee remained similar over time.Less

Pursuing the Penumbral: The Deposition of Beaker Pottery at Neolithic and Ceremonial Monuments in Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Scotland

Neil Wilkin

in The Neolithic of Mainland Scotland

This is a comprehensive review of all instances of the discovery of Beaker pottery in Neolithic contexts. A brief history of the study of this phenomenon is presented. This is followed by an analysis ... More

This is a comprehensive review of all instances of the discovery of Beaker pottery in Neolithic contexts. A brief history of the study of this phenomenon is presented. This is followed by an analysis of the forms of Beaker found in contexts as varied as chambered tombs, henge monument ditches and cursus monument interiors. Stylistic traits and deposition context are explored in some detail, and explanations for this phenomenon discussed. The paper concludes with a comprehensive appendix listing all Beakers found in Neolithic contexts in Scotland.Less

The Hafit/Umm an-Nar Transition of the Third Millennium BC: Evidence from Architecture and Mortuary Ritual at Al Khubayb Necropolis

Kimberly D. Williams and Lesley A. Gregoricka

in Mortuary and Bioarchaeological Perspectives on Bronze Age Arabia

The shift between Hafit (ca. 3100–2700 BC) and Umm an-Nar (ca. 2700–2000 BC) mortuary traditions on the Oman Peninsula is poorly understood, primarily because the semi-nomadic communities of this ... More

The shift between Hafit (ca. 3100–2700 BC) and Umm an-Nar (ca. 2700–2000 BC) mortuary traditions on the Oman Peninsula is poorly understood, primarily because the semi-nomadic communities of this liminal period left little to the archaeological record, with the exception of monumental tombs. Because of the ambiguity surrounding this transition, tombs from this time are typically classified as either ‘Hafit’ or ‘Umm an-Nar’ without regard for the considerable geographic and temporal variation in tomb structure and membership throughout southeastern Arabia. Recent survey and excavation of a Bronze Age necropolis at Al Khubayb in the Sultanate of Oman have revealed Transitional tombs that—far from exhibiting a simplified dichotomy—represent a blurring of the traditionally discrete boundaries dividing the Hafit and Umm an-Nar periods. Bioarchaeological analyses of tombs at Al Khubayb further enable researchers to make a distinction between tomb types and elucidate the process by which mortuary treatments changed. Over the late fourth and into the early third millennium BC, these entombment practices changed from (a) relatively small, roughly-hewn limestone tombs known as Hafit-type cairns to (b) Transitional tombs displaying features intermediary to both Hafit and Umm an-Nar period mortuary structures to (c) large, expertly-constructed Umm an-Nar communal tombs.Less

Exploring Continuity and Discontinuity from the Early to the Middle Bronze Age in Central Oman: The Graveyards of Adam

Guillaume Gernez and Jessica Giraud

in Mortuary and Bioarchaeological Perspectives on Bronze Age Arabia

This chapter presents new results of the excavations and surveys at Adam, Central Oman. The funerary landscape of the Early Bronze Age (3rd millennium BC) is characterized by collective burials in ... More

This chapter presents new results of the excavations and surveys at Adam, Central Oman. The funerary landscape of the Early Bronze Age (3rd millennium BC) is characterized by collective burials in tower-tombs located on the crests and then large collective multi-compartment graves. From the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age (2nd millennium BC), a complete change is observed: the Wadi Suq graveyards show an important concentration of single burials in new forms of tombs (cists and cairns), all of which are located on the plain. Using the graveyards of Adam as an example, these two practices are compared in order to understand the evolution, continuity, and change of settlement patterns, material culture and society in the "longue durée."Less

Changing places, changing communities

Chris Fowler

in The Emergent Past: A Relational Realist Archaeology of Early Bronze Age Mortuary Practices

This chapter examines Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age mortuary practices in North-East England and their relationship with places and landscapes. In particular, it considers the sites chosen for ... More

This chapter examines Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age mortuary practices in North-East England and their relationship with places and landscapes. In particular, it considers the sites chosen for mortuary activity, including the funerary transformation of the recently deceased, burial, intercession with the dead, and production of cemeteries and mounds. It first looks at the key features of landscapes of North-East England that became intertwined with mortuary activity before turning to an analysis of patterns where the dead were buried. It then discusses the changing character of places where the dead were assembled, including cemeteries, cairns, barrows, henges, sites with isolated burials, and rock shelters. Finally, the chapter explores the composition of and evidence for other activities at some of these locales to place the treatment of the dead within the context of other practices.Less

Relational realism and the nature of archaeological evidence

Chris Fowler

in The Emergent Past: A Relational Realist Archaeology of Early Bronze Age Mortuary Practices

This chapter examines the relational nature of archaeological evidence by drawing key concepts from relational theories. More precisely, it considers different concepts that can be used in ... More

This chapter examines the relational nature of archaeological evidence by drawing key concepts from relational theories. More precisely, it considers different concepts that can be used in constructing a relational yet realist view of the world, particularly within the context of the ongoing chain of relationships that have produced both the corpus of Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age mortuary remains from North-East England and the interpretations of such remains. To this end, important terms used in relational thinking are defined and their usefulness and limitations are outlined. The theories discussed in this chapter largely reject a classical positivism and a ‘correspondence theory of truth’. After outlining the key theoretical and practical tenets of an archaeological relational realism, the chapter compares the many different ways that the relational nature of archaeological entities can be appreciated, with particular reference to assemblage, network, meshwork, entanglement, and phenomenon.Less

Materials and Scale

Andrew Meirion Jones

in Prehistoric Materialities: Becoming Material in Prehistoric Britain and Ireland

This chapter examines the issue of scale and materials. It presents two case studies. The first examines how both the gigantic and the miniature were deployed in the passage tombs of Neolithic ... More

This chapter examines the issue of scale and materials. It presents two case studies. The first examines how both the gigantic and the miniature were deployed in the passage tombs of Neolithic Ireland; the second focuses on the miniature cups of the Early Bronze Age of the south. It argues that materials offer a way of inhabiting the world that would be otherwise difficult to comprehend; and that physical scale provides the potential for articulating geographic scale and a way of articulating people.Less

Packing and unpacking black boxes: Pattern and diversity in Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age mortuary practices from North-East England

Chris Fowler

in The Emergent Past: A Relational Realist Archaeology of Early Bronze Age Mortuary Practices

This chapter examines the patterns and diversity in Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age mortuary practices from North-East England. In particular, it looks at the deposition of human remains along with ... More

This chapter examines the patterns and diversity in Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age mortuary practices from North-East England. In particular, it looks at the deposition of human remains along with various artefacts and materials. By identifying artefacts and burials as belonging to certain types, the chapter reproduces inversions or packs objects into black boxes so they can circulate productively in the rest of the study. It also considers the shift from the deposition of corpses to cremation prior to deposition, along with changes in the attendant furniture and architecture of mortuary deposits resulting in different effects, experiences, and identities. In addition, it traces the chronological patterns in mortuary practices such as the continuing and changing uses of pottery, cists, graves, and pits. Finally, the chapter analyses the inclusion of flint and bronze knives and daggers with the dead from c.2200 BC and the use of burnt or burning wood at the site of deposition.Less

Themes Emerging from Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Mortuary Practices in North-East England

Chris Fowler

in The Emergent Past: A Relational Realist Archaeology of Early Bronze Age Mortuary Practices

This chapter examines themes emerging from Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age mortuary practices in North-East England from a relational realist perspective. The discussion focuses on particular ... More

This chapter examines themes emerging from Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age mortuary practices in North-East England from a relational realist perspective. The discussion focuses on particular regions in the assemblage as well as the haecceities of certain burials, places, and landscapes, along with the transformations involved in becoming dead. The chapter considers change through time and differing articulations of past and present, together with connections across space generated by prehistoric mortuary practices. It also explores how places, things, bodies, materials, and graves changed and persisted in differing ways throughout the period. Finally, it analyses changing rituals of personal transformation.Less

A Trait-Based Analysis of Structural Evolution in Prehistoric Monumental Burials of Southeastern Arabia

Eugenio Bortolini

in Mortuary and Bioarchaeological Perspectives on Bronze Age Arabia

This work analyses change in prehistoric funerary structures and related material culture of Early Bronze Age eastern Arabia (Northern Oman and UAE, 3100-2000 BC) from the perspective of cultural ... More

This work analyses change in prehistoric funerary structures and related material culture of Early Bronze Age eastern Arabia (Northern Oman and UAE, 3100-2000 BC) from the perspective of cultural evolutionary theory. By observing decorative and structural elements in monumental tombs and pottery, new hypotheses about the underlying mechanisms of cultural transmission can be explored. The main objective is to transcend the traditional dichotomy between early and late tomb types by creating an explanatory framework that looks at diachronic variation for inferring cultural processes. The research develops a new systematic description of burials and ceramics. Diversity measures are used to investigate the role played by human interaction/isolation and demography in determining adoption, replication, and systematic preference and persistence of the examined cultural variants. Results confirm that, for both tombs and ceramics, specific mechanisms are at work in different moments of time. Starting to research the processes underlying structural change allows for a reassessment of the current interpretation of prehistoric funerary practices and generates new hypotheses on the movement of people and ideas in a still largely unexplored context.Less

Introduction

Chris Fowler

in The Emergent Past: A Relational Realist Archaeology of Early Bronze Age Mortuary Practices

This book investigates the archaeology of Early Bronze Age mortuary practices in North-East England from a ‘relational realist’ perspective. It shows how archaeologists undertaking regional synthesis ... More

This book investigates the archaeology of Early Bronze Age mortuary practices in North-East England from a ‘relational realist’ perspective. It shows how archaeologists undertaking regional synthesis study an assemblage or entanglement along with prehistoric bones, objects, materials, and structures, as well as practices, materials, technologies, people, and ideas generated in subsequent periods. It also explores the mortuary deposits of human remains, materials and artefacts, together with the associated features and architecture, with emphasis on how each changed over time. In this introductory chapter, the value of relational realism in studying mortuary deposits from the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age North-East England (2500–1500 BC) is explained.Less

The Relationship between Intentional Dental Ablation and Hereditary Agenesis in Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age China

Christine Lee

in A World View of Bioculturally Modified Teeth

Dental ablation is a rare occurrence in ancient China. While previous studies have looked at cultural reasons for this practice this study examines possible biological causes for intentional tooth ... More

Dental ablation is a rare occurrence in ancient China. While previous studies have looked at cultural reasons for this practice this study examines possible biological causes for intentional tooth removal. Could a hereditary dental anomaly have been the original source for a cultural marker? The dentitions from 243 individuals were examined, representing five late Neolithic archaeological cultures. Each individual was scored for evidence of dental ablation, dental agenesis, and supernumerary teeth. Patterns of dental agenesis did not match regions with dental ablation. The one distinguishing trait among the Dawenkou was a higher frequency of supernumerary teeth. In conclusion, the Dawenkou sample had some biologically distinguishing features in their dentition, but their relationship with dental ablation is not supported.Less

Materials and Assemblages

Andrew Meirion Jones

in Prehistoric Materialities: Becoming Material in Prehistoric Britain and Ireland

This chapter examines the performance of material assemblage, focusing on the archaeology of the Early Bronze Age. It presents two case studies. The first deals with artefact hoards and burials in ... More

This chapter examines the performance of material assemblage, focusing on the archaeology of the Early Bronze Age. It presents two case studies. The first deals with artefact hoards and burials in southern England; the second considers the metalwork hoards, single finds, and moulds of northern Britain. It discusses how performance, assemblage, fluidity, and movement are all fundamental components of prehistoric metalwork and of the archaeology of the Early Bronze Age.Less

Materials and Categories

Andrew Meirion Jones

in Prehistoric Materialities: Becoming Material in Prehistoric Britain and Ireland

This chapter examines repetition and performance in relation to prehistoric pottery manufacture in two regions of Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Scotland. It considers two case studies. The first ... More

This chapter examines repetition and performance in relation to prehistoric pottery manufacture in two regions of Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Scotland. It considers two case studies. The first looks at potting traditions in three settlements in a restricted region of Neolithic Orkney. It discusses how the repetition of practices also performed rupture and change. The second case study examines potting traditions associated with the mortuary rituals of Early Bronze Age northeast Scotland. It discusses how the repetition of practices performed a recognizable continuity or tradition. The two case studies highlight the significance of improvisation and performance, the point that repetitive performances are improvisatory in nature; they are creative and excessive in character, with the potential for producing both change and regularity.Less

Tombs in Time and Towers in Space: Making Sense of the Hafit/Umm an-Nar Transition in North-Central Oman through Its Monuments

Charlotte Marie Cable and Clark Spencer Larsen

Kimberly D. Williams (ed.)

in Mortuary and Bioarchaeological Perspectives on Bronze Age Arabia

This chapter considers both Hafit Period monumental tombs and Umm an-Nar towers that were developed during the Early Bronze Age in North-Central Oman. The author considers these monuments as ... More

This chapter considers both Hafit Period monumental tombs and Umm an-Nar towers that were developed during the Early Bronze Age in North-Central Oman. The author considers these monuments as communicative to the local community rather than emphasizing the messages that monumental architecture may have served for non-locals. While both monuments may have marked access to resources, they did so in opposite ways. Participation in the mortuary ritual provided access to the living via resources marked by the dead, whereas the tower limited access to water through social and physical exclusion. Simultaneously, these different types of monuments signaled two disparate social ideologies: in one case, group members may have sought to access and leverage specific resource nodes; and in the other, group members may have sought to leverage access to specific resources in order to control access to an entire network of resources.Less