Mix, Mold, Fire! An Exploration of the Chaine Operatoire through the Eyes of an Apprentice Potter

Summary

Pottery manufacturing in Early Bronze Age (EBA) Anatolia witnessed a host of technical innovations that transformed what had been a small-scale domestic activity into a specialist craft. At the proto-urban village of Seyitömer Höyük, dedicated pottery workshops appeared in the EBIII period (ca. 2250-2200 BCE), along with a suite of technical innovations, such as pottery molds, clay mixing pits, and clusters of pottery kilns. These advances allowed potters to manufacture more vessels with less effort, and represent a fundamental shift in the chaine operatoire, which is indicative of broader social and economic changes in the EBA. This poster presents the archaeological evidence for various stages of standardized pottery production, in comic book style. Sequential illustrations tell the story of an apprentice potter learning her craft under the tutelage of a seasoned corporate group of specialists. These fictional characters perform activities that are empirically attested at Seyitömer Höyük, and offer an approachable way for general audiences to engage with real archaeological data.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20938