Space, Workforce, and Scale of Production: Ethnoarchaeological Approaches to Craft Workshops in Ancient Mediterranean

Summary

More than dots on a map, the craft production loci need to be examined for the space they occupy: their size, organization, and capacity. Spatial analysis can put constraints on workforce size and scale of production, allowing us therefore to reconstruct more accurate models of craft economy. We can also attempt to correlate space occupancy with scales of craft specialization. The "chaîne opératoire" can be examined parallel to the "espace opératoire" to establish what the spatial requirements use flexibility, and archaeological visibility are for different stages of craft production. Furthermore, the study of workshop space impacts discussions of structure and length of apprenticeships and ability to stockpile, to name a few. The paper will examine archaeological and ethnoarchaeological cases of craft workshops in the Mediterranean.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Spatial Approaches to Craft Production

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16222