Ceramics and Society: A Technological Approach to Archaeological Assemblages

356 Pages·2019·28.84 MB·English

by  Valentine Roux

Valentine Roux
In collaboration with Marie-Agnès Courty
Ceramics
and Society
A Technological Approach to
Archaeological Assemblages
Ceramics and Society
Valentine Roux
Ceramics and Society
A Technological Approach to Archaeological
Assemblages
In collaboration with Marie-Agnès Courty
Valentine Roux
Préhistoire & Technologie, UMR 7055
French National Centre for Scientific Research
Nanterre, France
With thanks to Carole Duval (UMR 7055, CNRS) for preparation of infographics.
ISBN 978-3-030-03972-1 ISBN 978-3-030-03973-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03973-8
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018964910
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In memory of Jean-Claude Gardin, for his
invaluable epistemological contribution, his
visionary concept of human sciences, his
concern for the cumulativity of knowledge
and his taste for well-formed and well-
founded scientific constructs.
To Jacques Tixier, for establishing the bases
of technological analysis and promoting
technological studies to their current rank in
archaeology.
Acknowledgements
This handbook is a translation of the French manual “Des céramiques et des
hommes. Décoder les assemblages archéologiques.” (2016, Presses Universitaires
de Paris Ouest, Nanterre). It has benefitted from many encounters and experiences,
beginning with my arrival in the “Prehistory & Technology” laboratory in 1990,
marked by immediate and productive exchanges: lithic technology had made
considerable advances and had become at that time an approach adopted by the
majority of researchers. Those exchanges never ceased and were driven by a
common preoccupation, an anthropological approach to material culture based on
technology.
As a faithful disciple of the principles of empirical verification advocated by the
logicism of Jean-Claude Gardin, one of my main concerns was to elaborate reference
frameworks in order to enhance the interpretation of archaeological pottery. These
references have been built up during constant interactions between archaeology,
experimentation and ethnoarchaeology. The experimental section benefitted greatly
from several stays in Denmark at the Archaeological and Experimental Centre and
inestimable help from two remarkable potters, Lizbeth Tvede-Jensen and Inger
Hildebrandt. Ethnoarchaeological research took place in the north of India, in
Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, where I met with many potters who provided
the references proposed in this volume. Their contribution has also been invaluable,
in the same way as the time we spent together and our countless exchanges on
subjects extending beyond the scope of strict ethnographic investigations. The
archaeological component took place in the Levant, thanks to successive invitations
from Geneviève Dollfus, Pierre de Miroshedji and Jean-Paul Thalmann.† During
repeated field trips to Israel, funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, I received
a warm reception at the CRFJ (Centre de Recherche Français in Jerusalem) and
from many Israeli colleagues who made their collections available to me, enabling
me to progressively build up a history of pottery techniques in the Levant.
Pottery is a complex field necessitating pluridisciplinary collaboration.
Collaboration with Marie-Agnès Courty, researcher in soil sciences, is present
throughout this volume. She has made a major contribution to the development of
the methodology proposed here. I sincerely thank her, all the more so as I am aware
vii
viii Acknowledgements
that pottery is not her area of predilection. Our collaboration is above all, based on
a long-term friendship.
The writing up of certain chapters was enhanced by rereading and productive and
instructive discussions. I wish to thank, in particular, Blanche Barthélemy de
Saizieu, Bernard Bombeau, Blandine Bril, Jessie Cauliez, Alain Gallay, Catherine
Louboutin, Nava Panitz-Cohen, Patrick Pion and Yves Porter. I also thank the
C.R.E.P., UMR 7055 and CRFJ (USR 3132) for their financial support, with the
assistance of M.-L. Inizan, H. Roche, I. Sidéra and J. Loiseau. Lastly, thanks to
Aude Favereau, Alain Gallay, Agnès Gelbert and Sébastien Manem for passing on
indispensable photos for the illustration of certain themes, and thanks to Eloïse
Bombeau for editing the illustrations (e.g. translating the French text into English).
This volume came to fruition while I was teaching ceramic technology in Paris
Nanterre and while I was directing several PhD theses on ethnoarchaeological or
archaeological subjects relating to extremely diverse chrono-cultural periods. These
theses presented the opportunity to test the solidity of the approach developed in
this book. I wish to extend sincere thanks to the authors of these dissertations for
trusting me when I suggested new methodologies or a new approach to their
assemblages: Vincent Ard, Phaedra Bouvet, Claude Coutet, Laure Degoy, Agnès
Gelbert, Aude Favereau, Sokhna Gueye,† Sébastien Manem, Freda Nkirote
M’Mbogori, Marion Silvain, Hsiu-Chi Wu.
The translation was done by Louise Byrne.
Contents
1 Introduction to Ceramic Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2 Description of the Chaînes Opératoires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.1 Collection and Transformation of Clay Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Required Properties of the Clay Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Characteristics of Clay Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Preparation of the Paste: Modification of the Clay Materials . . . . . 30
Preparation of the Paste: Homogenization of the Paste . . . . . . . . . . 39
2.2 Fashioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Fashioning Techniques. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Fashioning Chaînes Opératoires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
2.3 F inishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Finishing Wet Paste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Finishing Leather-Hard Paste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
2.4 S urface Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Surface Treatments by Friction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Surface Treatment by Coating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
2.5 D ecoration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Surface Decorative Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Decorative Hollow and Relief Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
2.6 Drying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
2.7 F iring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Firing Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Firing Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
ix
x Contents
3 Identification of the Chaînes Opératoires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
3.1 Technological Interpretation of the Pastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Descriptive Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Characterization of the Petrofabrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Characterization of the Petrofacies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
3.2 F rom Fashioning to Firing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Descriptive Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Diagnostic Features of Fashioning Techniques and Methods . . . . . 158
Diagnostic Features of Finishing Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Diagnostic Features of Surface Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Diagnostic Features of Decorative Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Diagnostic Features of Firing Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Reconstruction of the Chaînes Opératoires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
4 C lassification of Archaeological Assemblages According
to the Chaîne opératoire Concept: Functional
and Sociological Characterization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
4.1 C lassification by Technical Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
4.2 Classification by Techno-Petrographic Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Sampling Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
4.3 C lassification by Morpho-Stylistic Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Morphological Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Classification of Decoration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
4.4 T echno-Stylistic Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
4.5 F unctional Versus Sociological Variability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Function of the Vessels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
4.6 S imple Variability Versus Complex Sociological Variability . . . . . . 245
Homogeneous Assemblages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Heterogeneous Assemblages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
4.7 C onclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
5 T echnical Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
5.1 T he Nature of Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
The Skills Involved in Wheel Throwing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
The Skills Involved in Modeling and Molding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
5.2 Expertise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Mechanical Constraints and Expertise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Skill Variability and Degrees of Skill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Skill Variability and Individual Signatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
Motor Habits and Standardization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
5.3 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Contents xi
6 Anthropological Interpretation of Chaînes Opératoires . . . . . . . . . . . 283
6.1 T he Socioeconomic Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
The Organization of Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Distribution and Circulation of Productions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
6.2 C ultural Histories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Cultural Lineages and Evolutionary Trajectories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Historical Scenarios: Innovation and Diffusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
6.3 E volutionary Forces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
The Order of Development of Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
Conditions for Technical Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Explanatory Mechanisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
6.4 C onclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325