Theme:
6. Material culture studies and societies
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
Who Were the First Potters? Current Research in Early Pottery Production in Western Eurasia. Part 1
Content:
Pottery appeared throughout this huge territory, between Western Siberia, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean, between c. 8000 and 4000 cal BC, following different trajectories, cultural choices and needs.
We are interested in how the first pottery was made throughout western Eurasia, and particularly in links between technological, morphological and decorative traditions in different regions. We welcome contributions based on interdisciplinary research, using archaeological evidence, ethnoarchaeology and archaeological science, and addressing questions including:
Was the first pottery always technologically unelaborated?
Was the chaîne opératoire of the first pottery determined by environmental constraints, economic and demographic factors, or the historical trajectory of the spread of pottery?
Were early pottery forms based on existing container shapes or new functional requirements?
How significant is decoration in explaining the spread of the earliest pottery in Eurasia?
How were different aspects of ceramic production (technology, morphology and decoration) changed or maintained while pottery was dispersed?
Keywords:
chaîne opératoire, cultural transmission, pottery technology, Neolithic, spread of pottery
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:
No
Main organiser:
Michela Spataro (United Kingdom) 1
Co-organisers:
Ekaterina Dolbunova (Russia) 2
Liudmila Mylnikova (Russia) 3
Affiliations:
1. The British Museum
2. The State Hermitage Museum
3. Siberian Branch Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences
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