Theme:
3. The Carpathian Basin: Integration, Mobility and Diversity
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
The Social Role of Pottery and Potters in Neolithic and Copper Age Societies of the Balkans and Central Europe
Content:
The study of ceramic inventory is traditionally one of the key fields in research on Neolithic and Copper Age communities. The ceramic repertoire of the Balkans and Central Europe includes a great diversity of styles, which are chronologically and geographically clustered usually based on the variety of shapes and decorations. To date, however, only a few examples of analyses could be listed from the region that identifies pottery chaîne opératoire and integrates experimental- and ethnoarchaeological observations into interpretations, aiming specifically to assess the social embeddedness of pottery and the craftspeople’s social identity within the social web of their community network.
The session aims to integrate researchers who approach Neolithic and Copper Age societies through pottery, either through craft- or consumption analyses. Given that we may justifiably assume that technological behaviour, style, and function were influenced by partially differing social factors, a distinction between the potential range of meanings within the social context of production and consumption is particularly important. On one hand, presentations may certainly involve statistical analysis or mapping of morphology and decorations, possibly redrawing or reinterpret static boundaries anchored by the traditional typological method. On the other hand, the incorporation of complex technological analysis of pottery is essential to understand underlying patterns in material culture production. Such analyses ‘operate independently’ from the conventional archaeological categories such as „culture” or „phase” and provide a more fine-grained understanding on the social relationships of craftspeople and their social role within their local or cross-cultural social networks or even throughout generations. Questions regarding the functional evaluation of vessels, their secondary use, symbolic actions, fragmentation and deposition are also crucial both in terms of everyday practices and/or conveying messages on social status. Comprehensive presentation covering all of these aspects are also welcome.
Keywords:
Neolithic, Copper Age, Balkans and Central Europe, pottery style, technological behaviour, social network
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:
Tibor Marton (Hungary) 1
Co-organisers:
János Jakucs (Hungary) 1
Michela Spataro (United Kingdom) 2
Louise Gomart (France) 3
Attila Kreiter (Hungary) 4
Affiliations:
1. Eötvös Loránd Research Network, Research Centre for the Humanities, Institute of Archaeology
2. Department of Scientific Research, The British Museum
3. French National Centre for Scientific Research
4. Hungarian National Museum Laboratory of Applied Natural Sciences
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