Session: #408

Content:

Breaking habits, innovating, changing a gesture or a material may be a matter of moments, but change comes from maintaining the decision and persevering in that change. When it comes to studying the production of Iron Age societies, change is the defining feature of typological and chronological studies. Archaeology was built on the classification and ordering of change; it marks the time or different cultures. But with the development of methods, it is now possible to perceive other changes, technological changes in the chaîne-opératoire or the specialisation of craftsmen, changes in materials and their origins. From style to creativity, from technology to typology, how do we recognise the changes that Iron Age craftsmen chose or went through? And if we detect a change in production, how can we identify its causes and its impact on past societies?

By looking at changes in the production of iron, bronze, precious metals, textiles, glass, amber, ceramics, bone, ivory, lithics, wood or black stone, this session will shed light on the choices made by the men and women who made and wore artefacts, creating their cultural and social identity. Creativity, technology and morphological variations reflect a range of choices resulting from changes at different levels: at the level of craftsmen, workshops, consumers and sometimes the whole society itself. By combining technological, morphological and contextual analysis and their variability within a broad socio-anthropological gender perspective, we can highlight the minimal or invisible changes behind common traditions and, through this approach, examine socio-cultural idiosyncrasies and ideological legitimation.

By bringing together researchers working on production process during the Protohistory, we hope to compare our views on the transformations that shaped cultures and societies.

Session: #408

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