ΚΑΤΑΣΚΕΥΗ ΤΩΝ ΚΟΙΝΟΤΗΤΩΝ ΑΠΟ ΠΗΛΟ: ΝΕΑ ΑΠΟΔΕΙΞΗ ΑΠΟ ΤΟ ΑΚΡΩΤΗΡΙ ΓΙΑ ΤΗΝ ΜΕΤΡΗΣΗ ΤΗΣ ΜΕΤΑΦΟΡΑΣ ΤΕΧΝΟΛΟΓΙΑΣ ΚΑΙ ΤΗΣ ΑΛΛΗΛΕΠΙΔΡΑΣΗΣ ΟΜΑΔΩΝ ΣΤΟ ΝΟΤΙΟ ΑΙΓΑΙΟ


ΚΑΤΑΣΚΕΥΗ ΤΩΝ ΚΟΙΝΟΤΗΤΩΝ
ΑΠΟ ΠΗΛΟ:

ΝΕΑ ΑΠΟΔΕΙΞΗ ΑΠΟ ΤΟ ΑΚΡΩΤΗΡΙ
ΓΙΑ ΤΗΝ ΜΕΤΡΗΣΗ
ΤΗΣ ΜΕΤΑΦΟΡΑΣ ΤΕΧΝΟΛΟΓΙΑΣ
ΚΑΙ ΤΗΣ ΑΛΛΗΛΕΠΙΔΡΑΣΗΣ ΟΜΑΔΩΝ
ΣΤΟ ΝΟΤΙΟ ΑΙΓΑΙΟ

CONSTRUCTING COMMUNITIES FROM CLAY:
NEW EVIDENCE FROM AKROTIRI FOR CONSIDERING TECHNOLOGY TRANSMISSION AND GROUP INTERACTION WITHIN THE SOUTHERN AEGEAN


Του JILL HILDITCH

An exciting theme to emerge from recent material culture theory, in particular debates on materiality and agency, is that human-object/artefact engagement is active, reflexive, and dynamic: in other words, we should move beyond a ‘people make pots vs pots make people’ dichotomy. Yet the implications of such an approach have made little impact upon the traditional domain of archaeological science. Within the Aegean, however, a new way of approaching changes in material culture and social practice is now emerging. Over the past 30 years, systematic and sustained ceramic analyses within this region have enabled archaeologists to anchor characterization data within theoretical approaches to material culture change. This is particularly relevant for investigating, for want of a better word, the process of ‘Minoanization’, that is the perceived increase in Minoan influence beyond the island of Crete during the later MBA and LBA periods, as seen in the material record. Using the later MBA ceramic assemblage from the Cycladic site of Akrotiri, I outline how traditionally scientific approaches have been integrated within recent theoretical frameworks.
A key feature of this approach is to acknowledge that material culture change must be addressed not only at the micro-scale of pot production, but from a wider community perspective (meso-scale) and at the regional macro-scale too. This multi-scalar methodology has enabled us to reconstruct not only the dynamic interactions between potter, raw materials, and environment, but also those interactions that characterize community engagement with, or rejection of, Cretan ways of ‘doing things’.
The notion that humans construct their ‘self’ – who they are and their wider social relations – through constant engagement with the material world in the production, use, and distribution of material culture lies at the heart of agency theory in archaeology. However, the role of agency and the individual in the production, transformation, and negotiation of material culture is the issue that archaeologists return to most. Within that question we must also consider the locus of agency: who is engaging with what and what effect does this have on the individual, group, or even society dynamic? We must also consider how technology is transmitted and adopted through the interactions taking place between agents, i.e. craftsperson, raw material, environment, and consumer. Studying these communities in the periods immediately preceding significant shifts in material culture patterning can help determine platforms from which decisions on novelty and change can be made, i.e. we must identify the range of choices and behaviours taking place within a community before the transmission of a new technology to truly understand in what way that new technology changes or transforms the community which chose to adopt it.
Mechanisms of technology transfer involve both short- and long-term interactions, focused at multiple scales of analysis. When we talk about the introduction of a new ceramic technique to an area, such as the potter’s wheel, we are considering the different ways and social contexts in which potters learn their technical skills. The Aegean case study discussed uses a methodology that acknowledges that modes of transmission, the social contexts of learning craft skills, and the materiality of artefacts create a mutually reinforcing relationship with their producers and consumers. Also, by defining the relevant scales at which activities and behaviours pertinent to the MBA ceramic assemblage at Akrotiri can be addressed, and by using appropriate conceptual tools and analytical techniques that help us move between processes at different scales of analysis, this research contributes to the study of wider organizational dynamics within the Cycladic arena throughout the later Bronze Age. In other words, archaeologists really do have the ability to reconstruct past communities and their interactions out of clay.

5.12.2012

ΠΗΓΗ: 128 BICS-57-1 – 2014
© 2014 Institute of Classical Studies University of London.

ΛΕΞΕΙΣ-ΚΛΕΙΔΙΑ: ΑΚΡΩΤΗΡΙ, ΘΗΡΑ, ΣΑΝΤΟΡΙΝΗ, ΚΥΚΛΑΔΕΣ, ΠΗΛΟΣ, ΚΡΗΤΗ, ΜΙΝΩΙΚΟΣ ΠΟΛΙΤΙΣΜΟΣ, ΑΙΓΑΙΟ, ΝΟΜΟΣ ΚΥΚΛΑΔΩΝ


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