Substances in Transition: Tell Construction in Chalcolithic Bulgaria

Summary

Tells are living places continuously constructed and transformed by their inhabitants through their actions on the matter and objects constituting these places. In effect, the accumulation of clay, rubble and refuse on which houses are built and lives lived reflects daily actions, cultural events happening on longer cycles as well as environmental considerations. Therefore, the blend of things and matter that transited from the riverbed to houses, pots, and aggregated rubble and rubbish requires a special consideration: in this blend, things are not things and clay is no natural matter either. However, the breaking down of aggregates needs to be a means to understand their formation as the aim is to consider the lump of clay and objects as a whole, a tell being more than the sum of its parts. In order to investigate the intricate and flowing matter of the Chalcolithic tell of Petko Karavelovo, this paper focuses on the input of micromorphology. This approach allows comparing matter and its accumulation inside and outside the village’s limits along with the natural soils. Artefacts belonging to the houses are also considered since dirt alone cannot tell the story of the tell people and their interactions with things and matter.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21246