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Author : Ben A. Nelson
ISBN : STANFORD:36105037833725
Genre : History
File Size : 31.12 MB
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Within a very short time there have been remarkable changes in the practice of ceramic analysis in the United States. Although technical changes such as the growing use of quantitative methods are widespread, of perhaps more importance is an array of propositions that deals with the cultural causes of ceramic variation, and it provides the focus of this book. The first section of the book, with chapters by Graves, Kintigh, Washburn and Matson, Brunson, and Braun, is focused on “ceramic sociology.” The papers by Stark and Feinman in the second part treat the organization of ceramic production. The third part, with papers by Froese, Plog, Smith, and Nelson, is concerned with problems of measurement and classification in an effort to understand the systematic role of pottery In part four, entitled “Further Lessons from Ethnoarchaeology,” Loungacre, DeBoer, and Hardin continue the use of ethnoarchaeological observations established in earlier chapters to provide us with fresh prospects for understanding ceramics through ethnoarchaeology.
Author : Mar’a Nieves Zede–o
ISBN : 0816514550
Genre : Social Science
File Size : 25.30 MB
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For decades archaeologists have used pottery to reconstruct the lifeways of ancient populations. It has become increasingly evident, however, that to make inferences about prehistoric economic, social, and political activities through the patterning of ceramic variation, it is necessary to determine the location where the vessels were made. Through detailed analysis of manufacturing technology and design styles as well as the use of modern analytical techniques such as neutron activation analysis, Zede–o here demonstrates a broadly applicable methodology for identifying local and nonlocal ceramics.
Author : Carla M. Sinopoli
ISBN : 9781475792744
Genre : Social Science
File Size : 38.1 MB
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More than any other category of evidence, ceramics ofters archaeologists their most abundant and potentially enlightening source of information on the past. Being made primarily of day, a relatively inexpensive material that is available in every region, ceramics became essential in virtually every society in the world during the past ten thousand years. The straightfor ward technology of preparing, forming, and firing day into hard, durable shapes has meant that societies at various levels of complexity have come to rely on it for a wide variety of tasks. Ceramic vessels quickly became essential for many household and productive tasks. Food preparation, cooking, and storage-the very basis of settled village life-could not exist as we know them without the use of ceramic vessels. Often these vessels broke into pieces, but the virtually indestructible quality of the ceramic material itself meant that these pieces would be preserved for centuries, waiting to be recovered by modem archaeologists. The ability to create ceramic material with diverse physical properties, to form vessels into so many different shapes, and to decorate them in limitless manners, led to their use in far more than utilitarian contexts. Some vessels were especially made to be used in trade, manufacturing activities, or rituals, while ceramic material was also used to make other items such as figurines, models, and architectural ornaments.
Author : William A. Longacre
ISBN : UVA:X001979246
Genre : History
File Size : 55.65 MB
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Ethnoarchaeology, the study of material culture in a living society by archaeologists, facilitates the extraction of information from prehistoric materials as well. Studies of contemporary pottery-making were initiated in the southwestern United States toward the end of the nineteenth century, then abandoned as a result of changes in archaeological theory. Now a resurgence in ethnoarchaeology over the past twenty-five years offers a new set of directions for the discipline. This volume presents the results of such work with pottery, a class of materials that occurs abundantly in many archaeological sites. Drawing on projects undertaken around the world, in the Phillipines, East Africa, Mesoamerica, India, in both traditional and complex societies, the contributors focus on identifying social and behavioral sources of ceramic variation to show how analogical reasoning is fundamental to archaeological interpretation. As the number of pottery-making societies declines, opportunities for such research must be seized. By bringing together a variety of ceramic ethnoarchaeological analyses, this volume offers the profession a much-needed touchstone on method and theory for the study of pottery-making among living peoples.
Author : Prudence M. Rice
ISBN : 1574980262
Genre : Technology & Engineering
File Size : 71.92 MB
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Application of heat to clay transforms it into a ceramic, and thus the history and technical features of structures supplying that heat - kilns - are of considerable importance. The 14 chapters in this volume discuss ancient and historic kilns from the viewpoint of their excavation, their operational principles, and their contributions to an understanding of ceramic production within ancient economies.
