Technical innovation and practice in Eneolithic and Bronze Age encrusted ceramics in the Carpathian Basin, Middle and Lower Danube
Technical innovation and practice in Eneolithic and Bronze Age encrusted ceramics in the Carpathian Basin, Middle and Lower Danube
This paper explores the relationship between technical innovation and social identity in the practice of making encrusted ceramics. The widespread use of white inlay as a means of decorating ceramics and of highlighting motifs suggests a shared aesthetic between cultural groups in the Carpathian Basin and along the Middle and Lower Danube. There were, however, several different primary materials and combinations of these used to make inlays including bone, crushed shell (aragonite), calcite, and quartz; there is a clear shift over time away from the use of calcite and shell to bone. Inlays were also prepared in different ways, resulting in different textures and light-reflecting qualities. In addition, there is variation in the tools and techniques of the body used to make the inlay beds, as well as methods of affixing inlay to vessels. These differences reveal contrasting practices and ways of engaging with materials that go beyond what might be expected in terms of variation between the production of individual batches of inlay. Nor are they related to associations with different kinds of contexts, for example settlements or cemeteries.
479-496
Sofaer, Joanna
038f9eb2-5863-46ef-8eaf-fb2513b75ee2
Roberts, Stephen
f095c7ab-a37b-4064-8a41-ae4820832856
2016
Sofaer, Joanna
038f9eb2-5863-46ef-8eaf-fb2513b75ee2
Roberts, Stephen
f095c7ab-a37b-4064-8a41-ae4820832856
Sofaer, Joanna and Roberts, Stephen
(2016)
Technical innovation and practice in Eneolithic and Bronze Age encrusted ceramics in the Carpathian Basin, Middle and Lower Danube.
Archaologische Korrespondenzblatt, 46 (4), .
Abstract
This paper explores the relationship between technical innovation and social identity in the practice of making encrusted ceramics. The widespread use of white inlay as a means of decorating ceramics and of highlighting motifs suggests a shared aesthetic between cultural groups in the Carpathian Basin and along the Middle and Lower Danube. There were, however, several different primary materials and combinations of these used to make inlays including bone, crushed shell (aragonite), calcite, and quartz; there is a clear shift over time away from the use of calcite and shell to bone. Inlays were also prepared in different ways, resulting in different textures and light-reflecting qualities. In addition, there is variation in the tools and techniques of the body used to make the inlay beds, as well as methods of affixing inlay to vessels. These differences reveal contrasting practices and ways of engaging with materials that go beyond what might be expected in terms of variation between the production of individual batches of inlay. Nor are they related to associations with different kinds of contexts, for example settlements or cemeteries.
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Technical Innovation in Encrusted Ceramics revised after referee comments.pdf
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Accepted/In Press date: 26 August 2016
e-pub ahead of print date: 2016
Published date: 2016
Organisations:
Ocean and Earth Science, Geology & Geophysics, Archaeology, Southampton Marine & Maritime Institute
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Local EPrints ID: 400338
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/400338
ISSN: 0342-734X
PURE UUID: 487d2982-e33b-4274-9b16-d1fe097fbf45
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Date deposited: 14 Sep 2016 14:48
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 05:53
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