The development of pottery production, specialisation and standardisation in the Late Neolithic and Transitional Chalcolithic periods in the Central Plateau of Iran

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 100325
Author(s):  
Armineh K. Marghussian ◽  
Robin A.E. Coningham ◽  
Hasan Fazeli Nashli
Keyword(s):  
Pottery Production ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Central Plateau

Technological adaptation in Grooved Ware pottery from the Ness of Brodgar, Orkney, or how to make your cordons stick

2015 ◽  
Vol 36-37 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy Towers ◽  
Nick Card
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Pottery Production ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Exterior Surface ◽  
Technological Adaptation ◽  
Reflectance Transformation Imaging

This paper describes a hitherto unidentified adaptation in Grooved Ware pottery at the Ness of Brodgar, Orkney ( Fig. 1 ). The technological technique adopted appears designed to cope with a common problem of Grooved Ware potters at the Ness: that of detached cordons, where applied decorative cordons on the exterior surface of the vessels are knocked off or simply fall off. The evidence shows that, in the case of one large pottery deposit from the site, some vessel exteriors were specially prepared in order to ensure cordon adhesion. The Ness of Brodgar site is introduced, issues surrounding pottery production and applied decoration in the Late Neolithic, particularly in Orkney, are noted and the problem-solving sherds are described. The paper is illustrated in part by the use of Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI).

Social organization in the Orcadian Neolithic: identification of elite domestic structures and settlements through analysis of excavation data

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
David MacInnes
Keyword(s):  
Social Organization ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Social Hierarchy ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Qualitative Evidence ◽  
Methods Of Analysis ◽  
The Subject

The nature of social organization during the Orcadian Neolithic has been the subject of discussion for several decades with much of the debate focused on answering an insightful question posed by Colin Renfrew in 1979. He asked, how was society organised to construct the larger, innovative monuments of the Orcadian Late Neolithic that were centralised in the western Mainland? There are many possible answers to the question but little evidence pointing to a probable solution, so the discussion has continued for many years. This paper takes a new approach by asking a different question: what can be learned about Orcadian Neolithic social organization from the quantitative and qualitative evidence accumulating from excavated domestic structures and settlements?In an attempt to answer this question, quantitative and qualitative data about domestic structures and about settlements was collected from published reports on 15 Orcadian Neolithic excavated sites. The published data is less extensive than hoped but is sufficient to support a provisional answer: a social hierarchy probably did not develop in the Early Neolithic but almost certainly did in the Late Neolithic, for which the data is more comprehensive.While this is only one approach of several possible ways to consider the question, it is by exploring different methods of analysis and comparing them that an understanding of the Orcadian Neolithic can move forward.

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