Continuity and Discontinuity in the Shephela (Israel) between the Late Chalcolithic and the Early Bronze I: The Modi’in “Deep Deposits” Ceramic assemblages as a case study

Paléorient ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentine Roux ◽  
Edwin C. M. van den Brink ◽  
Sariel Shalev
Keyword(s):  
Late Chalcolithic ◽  
Ceramic Assemblages ◽  
Continuity And Discontinuity

scholarly journals Approaching the Unification and Diversity of Pottery Assemblages

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
pp. 522-535
Author(s):  
Aleksandr Diachenko ◽  
Iwona Sobkowiak-Tabaka ◽  
Sergej Ryzhov
Keyword(s):  
Complex Systems ◽  
Dynamic Behaviour ◽  
Subsequent Time ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
Ceramic Assemblages ◽  
Tripolye Culture

This paper questions the cycling nature of the unification and diversity of pottery forms through a case study of ceramics of the Western Tripolye culture in the Southern Bug and Dnieper interfluve in modern Ukraine. We identified the cultural cycle representing the transition from more unified ceramic assemblages to more diverse ones, and then back to more unified assemblages. This cultural cycle is disturbed by the increase in the diversity of pottery sets at three of ten subsequent time periods we have analysed. The obtained results are discussed in frames of deterministic explanations and the dynamic behaviour of complex systems.

An Analytic Strategy for Studying Assemblage-Scale Ceramic Variation: A Case Study from Southeast Missouri

1993 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 530-543 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrice A. Teltser
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Properties ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Simple Classification ◽  
Southeast Missouri ◽  
Analytic Strategy ◽  
Ceramic Assemblages

For ceramic assemblages composed exclusively of sherds, inferences at the scale of artifact are often problematic. Drawing on information provided by experimental studies, observations can be made such that technology and use are expressed at the scale of assemblage. A simple classification is used to describe variation in paste composition for an assemblage of shell-tempered ceramics from southeast Missouri. Using these classes as a set of analytic units, variables reflecting on technology and use are examined. The analytic results suggest that while some coarse-shell ceramics may have been used preferentially for cooking vessels, the distinction between coarse and fine shell is not as straightforward as cooking vs. noncooking, and that coarse-shell pastes were used to manufacture vessels used in a wider range of contexts than fine-shell pastes. Furthermore, not all variation can be understood in terms of the mechanical or thermal properties usually emphasized in experimental studies.

Ambiguity, Ambivalence, Multiplicity: A Case Study of Late Pottery Neolithic Ceramic Assemblages from the Southern Levant

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 629-645
Author(s):  
Assaf Nativ
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Development ◽  
Southern Levant ◽  
Structural Order ◽  
Ceramic Assemblages ◽  
The One

This paper presents an experiment. Can a typologically inarticulate assemblage be accounted for by other means? What might such an articulation look like? What prospects would it offer? Focusing on three small late Pottery Neolithic assemblages from the southern Levant, the paper argues that they are typologically inarticulate, primarily because they possess considerable morphological fluidity that is at odds with the segmented structure demanded by this mode of classification. The paper presents an attempt to formulate an account of these assemblages that incorporates their morphological fluidity and ambiguity. Allowing for differential quantitative emphases across the assemblage, it is suggested that certain forms may be specified as types. In turn, the relations among these types are shown to constitute a structural order. Yet the assemblages are also fundamentally ambivalent, both constituting and de-constituting their order and logic. For the types are constituted in relative (rather than absolute) terms and the orderly structures are accompanied by elements that are incommensurable with it. Acknowledging these conflicting qualities, it is proposed that they are multiple, that the one assemblage is several. Finally, the paper explores some implications this understanding of the ceramic assemblages might have for the discussion of temporal development.

scholarly journals Re-assessing the notion(s) of craft standardization through diversity statistics: A pilot study on Late Chalcolithic pottery from Arslantepe in Eastern Anatolia

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. e0245660
Author(s):  
Pamela Fragnoli
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Geochemical Data ◽  
Eastern Anatolia ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
Labor Division ◽  
Late Chalcolithic ◽  
End Products ◽  
Economic Specialization

This paper proposes a new range of diversity indexes applicable to ceramic petrographic and geochemical data and potentially to any archaeological data of both metric and non-metric nature in order to assess the degree of craft standardization. The case study is the Late Chalcolithic pottery from Arslantepe in eastern Anatolia, ideal to test the standardization hypothesis, i.e. the assumed correspondence between craft standardization and increased rates of production, which in turn correlate with economic specialization. The results suggest that the procurement and processing of raw materials are more sensible indicators of standardization than vessel shape variability. Higher standardization is connected with the scale of production rather than with the use of the wheel or its rotational speed. The socio-economic centralization marks a process of labor division within the operational sequence and, more generally, a shift from communal to more segregated potting practices. As a result, the variability of both technical procedures and end products increases. In contrast univocal trends towards standardization can be found in coeval contexts from northern Mesopotamia, where the incipient urbanization served to create bonds between vessel makers, favoring the transmission of models and practices regardless of the centralized power.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document