Session: #400

Regular session

Raw materials and resources studies have become a basic source of information to understand Prehistoric humans’ mobility and inter-group interactions. In Prehistoric Archaeology, just as nowadays and in historical times, the furthest raw material -representing the longest mobility, interchange or trade route- is often an argument to highlight archaeological sites, regions or periods as the most interesting, the most behaviourally complex, the most advanced or the most meaningful. However, archaeological and ethnographic data show that non-local artefacts are only a small portion of Prehistoric materiality, which is mainly made of quotidian actions using local resources. Therefore, why does the archaeological practice, regardless of the context, tend to stress allochthonous resources? And what are we considering local and what are we considering allochthonous? What are the narratives created after the classification of artefacts or resources as local?
The session “no movement, no trading, simply local: creating narratives about local resources in Prehistory” will discuss these questions from the perspectives given by the various disciplines that can tackle the autochthonous character of the raw materials. Case studies from all around the world working on stone and pottery artefact sourcing, anthracology, faunal studies or isotopic analyses, among other disciplines, are welcome to the session. Multiproxy and theoretical contributions about diverse and complex narratives on the management of local resources in Prehistory are also encouraged.

Raw material, local production, local consumption, sourcing, Prehistory

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Alejandro Prieto (Spain) ¹

Arturo de Lombera-Hermida (Spain) ²
Benjamin Gehres (France) ³
Alejandro Serna (United Kingdom) ⁴