Wheel of Fortune: Ceramic Analysis and the Study of Technology, Exchange, and Sociopolitical Change in the Mediterranean and Greater Near East

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

The ubiquity of ceramics in excavation renders them one of the most productive types of data for the study of social, economic, and political processes in ancient societies. Advances in digital and scientific techniques have supplemented traditional methods of analysis, opening new avenues for exploring larger anthropological questions through ceramic study. The aim of this session is to survey the diverse methods available for the use of ceramics data in research examining economic and political changes and socio-cultural phenomena. Topics addressed will include the adoption of new dining customs, the transference of technological knowledge between master potter and apprentice, change and disintegration of political economies, imperial integration of consolidated regions, and the nature of trade systems and their governing political structures. A variety of analytical approaches will be employed within session papers, ranging from chemical and petrographic studies of clay sourcing and production technique, functional use and contextual analyses, and distributional and network approaches to object mobility. This session will incorporate datasets from broad regions of the Mediterranean and Greater Near East from prehistory to the Roman period.

Other Keywords
Ceramics • Ceramic Analysis • Pottery • Trade • Empire • Geochemistry • Foodways • Continuity And Change • Levant • entanglement

Geographic Keywords
Republic of Turkey (Country) • Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (Country) • Republic of Iraq (Country) • State of Israel (Country) • Lebanese Republic (Country) • Syrian Arab Republic (Country) • West Bank (Country) • Republic of Cyprus (Country) • Arab Republic of Egypt (Country) • Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Country)

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  • Documents (7)
Documents
  • Consumption Preferences at the Collapse of Empire: The Case of New Kingdom Jaffa (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jacob Damm.

    The site of Tel Yafo (modern Jaffa, Israel) provides unique insight into the tenure of the Egyptian New Kingdom empire in the Levant (ca. 16th - 11th centuries BCE). As attested to in both ancient documents and by the presence of Egyptian monumental architecture, Jaffa functioned as an important imperial center. As the empire waned, Jaffa persisted as one of the last Egyptian holdings in the region. Recent excavations by the Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project (JCHP) have opened this final period to...

  • A Finer View of Regional Socio-political and Economic Change in the Southeast Aegean: Ceramic Production along the Datça Peninsula (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Megan Daniels. Justin Leidwanger. Elizabeth Greene. Numan Tuna.

    Situated along the dramatic Datça Peninsula in southwest Anatolia, the port-town of Burgaz provides a flourishing landscape of ceramic production and valuable case study for investigating the intersection of local dynamics and larger Mediterranean social, political, and economic shifts. During the Archaic and Classical periods Burgaz developed into a thriving commercial and cultural center by virtue of its proximity to fertile land and centrality within the Gulf of Hisarönü. From the mid-fourth...

  • Keepers of Tradition, Harbingers of Change: Tracing Communities of Practice through Archaeological Ceramics (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Sonali Gupta-agarwal.

    Traditions are transmitted through teaching and learning. The manner in which knowledge relating to craft production gets transmitted can help us in understanding the causes behind cultural continuity and change. In this paper, I use an anthropological approach to discern teaching and learning patterns. I investigate the role of potters in modern-day pottery workshops of Egypt and India in the transmission of knowledge relating to pottery production. Employing video footage using a video...

  • Provenance and Distribution of Neo-Punic Ceramics at Zita, Southern Tunisia, and Beyond. (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Dennis Braekmans. Brett Kaufman. Hans Barnand. Ali Drine.

    The site of Zita is an urban mound located in southern Tunisia and situated along an ancient trade route from Carthage to Tripoli. It is the highest point on a peninsula jutting into the Mediterranean Sea across from the Island of Djerba, often identified as the Island of Calypso of the Lotus-Eaters from the Odyssey. Established as a Carthaginian settlement around 500 BCE, the city became a Roman regional center in the 1st century CE. Zita still has industrial features such as ceramic kilns and...

  • Reinventing by the Wheel: Ceramic Networks and New Approaches to the Study of Political Economies (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Christine Johnston.

    This paper explores the value of network analysis as a method for the quantitative assessment of trade systems with the aim of profiling the structural nature of their associated political institutions. This study will focus on trade in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1700 to 1200 BCE), and includes a network analysis of Cypriot and Mycenaean pottery circulated throughout Egypt, Cyprus, and the Levant. The analysis of ceramic distribution networks demonstrates a high...

  • Transport Stirrup Jars in Context: Post-palatial Politics and Social Resilience in Late Bronze Age Greece (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Trevor Van Damme.

    Entanglement theory highlights the dynamic relationship between actors and the objects they create. Recent application of entanglement theory within the framework of post-collapse societies holds much promise for highlighting the role of human actors as agents of resilience. Following the collapse of the palace system in Late Bronze Age Greece (c. 1200 BCE), there were shifts in the overall settlement pattern as a result of increased mobility and innovative technologies (e.g., iron). Within...

  • You Are How You Eat: Changes in Dining Style and Society at Late Bronze I Alalakh (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Mara Horowitz.

    Ceramics are intimately tied to both foodways and normative behavior within a culture. The appearance of a new shape or the long-term persistence of an old shape must be contextualized by first investigating the use to which the vessel was put, a use that can be inferred through multiple lines of evidence and explored using a variety of approaches. Recent excavations at Alalakh have illuminated the site’s Late Bronze I period, especially the troubled 17th-16th century BC transition from the...