Regional Integration and Ceramic Consumption in the Border Region of Bolivia and Argentina (ca. AD 1000–1450)

This article investigates the mechanisms by which different communities were articulated during the Late Intermediate period (ca. AD 1000–1450) in the Río Grande de San Juan Basin, also called the Chicha Region, located in the border region of Bolivia and Argentina. Through analyses of systems of pottery production, circulation, and consumption, we examine interaction networks, social integration, and alliance building at a regional level. Yavi-Chicha pottery from two sites in the Chicha Region—Chipihuayco, in the Talina Valley (Bolivia), and Finispatria, in San Juan Mayo (Argentina)—provide key insights into regional integration and constellations of practice through their localized technological style and shared consumption strategies. This study reveals that people of Finispatria incorporated the entire Yavi-Chicha-style household assemblage—partly produced in Chipihuayco, partly in Finispatria, or partly at some unknown location—into their everyday lives. We argue that the entire household ceramic repertoire of the study region played a fundamental and socially integrative role as it circulated across the region.

Emerging distribution networks of Roman pottery in the Ancient Mediterranean: the sigillata clay lamps of Proconsular Africa

This paper surveys the use of Network Science, especially the role of ArchaeologicalNetworks to the study of Archeology and Ancient History. Networkthinking and network science are valuable methodologies and analytical techniquesto apply to the study clay lamps in the framework of Roman economy.The recent application of network analysis in Antiquity and Archaeology hasdemonstrated that there are a variety of approaches to recognizing networkpatterns or thinking about phenomena as products of networked processes.Provincial connectivity is one of the most debated aspects of Roman economics,and ceramic consumption patterns in the interior and coastal regions ofAfrica Proconsularis have proven to be very different. The dominant tendencyto turn to the communities formed and structured around native identities,especially those based in the major urban centers and larger areas, seems toestablish itself as an argument for the economy and exchanges of the RomanEmpire. This types of networks helped to spread ideas and religious symbolsthrough clay lamps. Africa Proconsular demonstrates evidence that the ceramicworkshops emerged as networks in order to established themselves seekingto meet the Mediterranean demand and religious consumption.

EM I chronology and social practice: pottery from the early palace tests at Knossos

This article presents a stylistic assessment of the pottery from early tests (1900–1905) at Knossos that may be assigned to EM I. There follows a discussion of the problems of ceramic phasing of EM I Knossos and the relative chronology of Central Crete with the South Aegean in EB I. Finally, the social context of ceramic consumption at EM I Knossos and North-Central Crete is explored, and the possible evidence this may provide for ritualised social practice at Knossos and emergent social differentiation and power.