EAA 2023: Session #237

Title & Content

Title:
Pottery Beyond Typology. Prehistoric Vessel Biographies in the Domestic Sphere
Content:
In this session we want to go beyond the very important function of prehistoric pottery for chrono-typological and cultural differentiation as the common praxis in archaeology, and take a closer look at the vessel biography including its whole lifespan from the production to the final deposition and at its large implications for the understanding of prehistoric domestic lifeways. We aim at gathering researchers working on various aspects of prehistoric pottery to discuss its production, use and discard in reference to the domestic sphere as a key to understand social life in prehistory. We want to address research methods and discuss how we can recognise different stages of production and uses within houses and settlement structures. We also intend to discuss various interpretations: where is the pottery production happening and who is producing it within or beyond the domestic sphere? Who used the pottery and how producers and users related to each other? Is there a difference between the intended meaning and the different social values of pottery? Does pottery social value change over time? Conversely, we want to consider which implications these topics have for the typological analysis of pottery and its interpretation.
We welcome contributions focusing on the following issues:
1. The production and the producers of pottery,
2. The different “uses” and the multiple ways of functioning of pottery (from intention to praxis),
3. The many cycles of vessels and the many lives of pottery (from vessel to sherd),
4. Fragmentation and its different meanings,
5. Repairing and refunctioning of vessels – the value of pottery,
6. The ultimate abandonment of pottery.
Keywords:
prehistoric pottery, vessel biography, domestic sphere
Format:
Regular session
Downloads:

organisers

Main organisers:
Joanna Pyzel3
Co-organiser:
Louise Gomart1
Harald Stäuble2
Affiliations:
1 CNRS (UMR 8215 Trajectoires) & Université Paris 1
2 Heritage Office of Saxony, Germany
3 Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin

Abstracts

Abstract book ISBN:
These abstracts are part of this session:
What is a good shape? Comparing prehistoric vessels using geometric morphometric analysis
From bits and pieces. How statistical tools can help us better understand pottery assemblages
Understanding pottery - a prerequisite for typo-chronology
Through the Looking Glass: LBK pottery decoration
What ceramic can tell us about the (after)life of an LPC-house
The sense of pottery breakage: How broken pots shaped social practices in Early Neolithic Körös-Criș settlements
Potters and houses: from production cycles to settlement dynamics in the early Neolithic of the Paris basin
Old Habits Die Hard: Early and Middle Copper Age Ceramic Technical Traditions in the Budapest Region, Hungary
Tracking ceramic chaînes opératoires within everyday life spaces to bridge vessels’ and humans’ biographies. Some methodological reflections from West-Asian fieldworks
Pottery-making and use during the Early Iron Age: Development and validation of a functional typology in Ittenheim (Alsace, France)
Temper under control. Neolithic shell-tempered cooking pots
Life-cycles of Neolithic pottery: Use and secondary use vs. typology
Vessels on the floor - Pottery in the construction of the household
Cooking animal and plant substances among the first pottery-making societies in Southern Levant: an insight from charred residues of pottery
Broken pots, unbroken habits: traces of pottery use-alteration spanning through the first millennium of Neolithic in the western Carpathian Basin
Chronological trends in pottery use from the Neolithic to the Iron Age in Saxony (Germany) using lipid residue analyses
Rare insights into ceramic biographies: remarkable vessels from three Linear Pottery wells from Saxony, Germany
Flows, transformations, and temporalities in pots' life history: the case of neolithic Dispilio, North Greece
The biography of a Neolithic storage jar in Laconia, Greece
Designed for life or death? Pottery characterization study to assess cultural dynamics at the Bronze Age site of Torre Castelluccia
Domestic pottery in a funerary context. Understanding a specific life cycle of vessels