Theme:
1. Networks, networking, communication: archaeology of interactions
Session format:
Session with presentation of 6 slides in 6 minutes
Title:
Tiny Talks on Tiny Things: Networks Encapsulated in Minute Objects
Content:
This session explores networks encapsulated in tiny objects and tiny objects within networks. We invite participants in the session proposed here to reflect on the issues surrounding the crafting of prehistoric tiny objects by focusing on particular examples. Susan Stewart’s On Longing looks at the miniature (she uses dollhouse furnishings and tiny books for examples) as powerful embodiments of all the characteristics of the object represented because of, rather than in spite of, their diminutive scale. We suggest that this line of thought can be applied as well to tiny objects from the archaeological record both in and of themselves and as participants in other networks. Little objects may be viewed as microcosms of networks. A single item, by the material from which it is made, the skill required to produce it and the context in which it was found. can give us a route into understanding the world in which it was produced, used and deposited. Following Stewart’s lead, we ask how that network of relationships is embodied in the object. Tiny objects also can provide evidence of otherwise unseen networks, surprising the excavator by the context in which the item appears. How did this particular item, or the artisan who made, it end up here? What networks of trade, political relationships, and behavior brought it to its final resting place or led to its creation? In the format chosen for this session – six minute long papers with a maximum of six slides - participants are invited to reflect on how tiny objects - from miniature bronze axes to bone pins to ceramic thumb pots - may be enmeshed in and help create a variety of networks.
Keywords:
crafting, networks, trade, artisan
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
Main organiser:
Emily Miller Bonney (United States) 1
Co-organisers:
Sophia Adams (United Kingdom) 2
Miriam Luciañez Triviño (Spain) 3
Affiliations:
1. California State University Fullerton
2. SUERC,University of Glasgow
3. University of the Basque Country, UPV / EHU
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