In the Twilight of a Brave New World: From Multimedia Work Areas to Material Transformations in the Late Chalcolithic and Neolithic in Bulgaria and North Greece

Summary

Putting together gold and graphite to decorate a pot for example, has not become a widespread practice in the Balkan later prehistory but a mark of an intriguing entanglement of innovation and tradition, materials and images. This paper considers evidence of specialist production according to Costin's model as it can be surmised on the basis of data from Chalcolithic and Late Neolithic contexts in Bulgaria and north Greece. It reflects on how mixing materials and techniques in search for a particular visual effect imbues familiar shapes with transformative agency in possible efforts not only for maintaining but also expanding existing social networks. While pursuing innovations within regional symbolic repertoires of prestige, traditional forms such as graphite decorated ware and other kinds of elaborated objects likely specialists created conduits of technological advances in multiple media. By studying the dynamics of specialized crafts, we can learn eventually how the later prehistoric societies in the Balkans operated and ultimately transformed into a mosaic of various forms of sociopolitical organization and cultural expression at the onset of the historical epochs.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage