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This edited volume investigates knowledge networks based on
materials and associated technologies in Prehistoric Europe and the
Classical Mediterranean. It emphasises the significance of material
objects to the construction, maintenance, and collapse of networks
of various forms - which are central to explanations of cultural
contact and change. Focusing on the materiality of objects and on
the way in which materials are used adds a multidimensional quality
to networks. The properties, functions, and styles of different
materials are intrinsically linked to the way in which knowledge
flows and technologies are transmitted. Transmission of
technologies from one craft to another is one of the main drivers
of innovation, whilst sharing knowledge is enabled and limited by
the extent of associated social networks in place. Archaeological
research has often been limited to studying objects made of one
particular material in depth, be it lithic materials, ceramics,
textiles, glass, metal, wood or others. The knowledge flow and
transfer between crafts that deal with different materials have
often been overlooked. This book takes a fresh approach to the
reconstruction of knowledge networks by integrating two or more
craft traditions in each of its chapters. The authors, well-known
experts and early career researchers, provide concise case studies
that cover a wide range of materials. The scope of the book extends
from networks of craft traditions to implications for society in a
wider sense: materials, objects, and the technologies used to make
and distribute them are interwoven with social meaning. People make
objects, but objects make people - the materiality of objects
shapes our understanding of the world and our place within it. In
this book, objects are treated as clues to social networks of
different sorts that can be contrasted and compared, both spatially
and diachronically.
This edited volume investigates knowledge networks based on
materials and associated technologies in Prehistoric Europe and the
Classical Mediterranean. It emphasises the significance of material
objects to the construction, maintenance, and collapse of networks
of various forms - which are central to explanations of cultural
contact and change. Focusing on the materiality of objects and on
the way in which materials are used adds a multidimensional quality
to networks. The properties, functions, and styles of different
materials are intrinsically linked to the way in which knowledge
flows and technologies are transmitted. Transmission of
technologies from one craft to another is one of the main drivers
of innovation, whilst sharing knowledge is enabled and limited by
the extent of associated social networks in place. Archaeological
research has often been limited to studying objects made of one
particular material in depth, be it lithic materials, ceramics,
textiles, glass, metal, wood or others. The knowledge flow and
transfer between crafts that deal with different materials have
often been overlooked. This book takes a fresh approach to the
reconstruction of knowledge networks by integrating two or more
craft traditions in each of its chapters. The authors, well-known
experts and early career researchers, provide concise case studies
that cover a wide range of materials. The scope of the book extends
from networks of craft traditions to implications for society in a
wider sense: materials, objects, and the technologies used to make
and distribute them are interwoven with social meaning. People make
objects, but objects make people - the materiality of objects
shapes our understanding of the world and our place within it. In
this book, objects are treated as clues to social networks of
different sorts that can be contrasted and compared, both spatially
and diachronically.
Identities and social relations are fundamental elements of
societies. To approach these topics from a new and different angle,
this study takes the human body as the focal point of
investigation. It tracks changing identities of early Iron Age
people in central Europe through body-related practices: the
treatment of the body after death and human representations in art.
The human remains themselves provide information on biological
parameters of life, such as sex, biological age, and health status.
Objects associated with the body in the grave and funerary
practices give further insights on how people of the early Iron Age
understood life and death, themselves, and their place in the
world. Representations of the human body appear in a variety of
different materials, forms, and contexts, ranging from ceramic
figurines to images on bronze buckets. Rather than focussing on
their narrative content, human images are here interpreted as
visualising and mediating identity. The analysis of how image
elements were connected reveals networks of social relations that
connect central Europe to the Mediterranean. Body ideals, nudity,
sex and gender, aging, and many other aspects of women's and men's
lives feature in this book. Archaeological evidence for marriage
and motherhood, war, and everyday life is brought together to paint
a vivid picture of the past.
Identities and social relations are fundamental elements of
societies. To approach these topics from a new and different angle,
this study takes the human body as the focal point of
investigation. It tracks changing identities of early Iron Age
people in central Europe through body-related practices: the
treatment of the body after death and human representations in art.
The human remains themselves provide information on biological
parameters of life, such as sex, biological age, and health status.
Objects associated with the body in the grave and funerary
practices give further insights on how people of the early Iron Age
understood life and death, themselves, and their place in the
world. Representations of the human body appear in a variety of
different materials, forms, and contexts, ranging from ceramic
figurines to images on bronze buckets. Rather than focussing on
their narrative content, human images are here interpreted as
visualising and mediating identity. The analysis of how image
elements were connected reveals networks of social relations that
connect central Europe to the Mediterranean. Body ideals, nudity,
sex and gender, aging, and many other aspects of women's and men's
lives feature in this book. Archaeological evidence for marriage
and motherhood, war, and everyday life is brought together to paint
a vivid picture of the past.
This volume grew out of an interdisciplinary discussion held in the
context of the Leverhulme-funded project 'Changing Beliefs in the
Human Body', through which the image of the body in pieces soon
emerged as a potent site of attitudes about the body and associated
practices in many periods. Archaeologists routinely encounter parts
of human and animal bodies in their excavations. Such fragmentary
evidence has often been created through accidental damage and the
passage of time - nevertheless, it can also signify a deliberate
and meaningful act of fragmentation. As a fragment, a part may
acquire a distinct meaning through its enchained relationship to
the whole or alternatively it may be used in a more straightforward
manner to represent the whole or even act as stand-in for other
variables. This collection of papers puts bodily fragmentation into
a long-term historical perspective. The temporal spread of the
papers collected here indicates both the consistent importance and
the varied perception of body parts in the archaeological record of
Europe and the Near East. By bringing case studies together from a
range of locations and time periods, each chapter brings a
different insight to the role of body parts and body wholes and
explores the status of the body in different cultural contexts.
Many of the papers deal directly with the physical remains of the
dead body, but the range of practices and representations covered
in this volume confirm the sheer variability of treatments of the
body throughout human history. Every one of the contributions shows
how looking at how the human body is divided into pieces or parts
can give us deeper insights into the beliefs of the particular
society which produced these practices and representations.
This volume offers new insights into the radical shift in attitudes
towards death and the dead body that occurred in temperate Bronze
Age Europe. Exploring the introduction and eventual dominance of
cremation, Marie-Louise Stig Sorenson and Katharina Rebay-Salisbury
apply a case-study approach to investigate how this transformation
unfolded within local communities located throughout central to
northern Europe. They demonstrate the deep link between the living
and the dead body, and propose that the introduction of cremation
was a significant ontological challenge to traditional ideas about
death. In tracing the responses to this challenge, the authors
focus on three fields of action: the treatment of the dead body,
the construction of a burial place, and ongoing relationships with
the dead body after burial. Interrogating cultural change at its
most fundamental level, the authors elucidate the fundamental
tension between openness towards the 'new' and the conservative
pull of the familiar and traditional.
Ages and Abilities explores social responses to childhood stages
from the late Neolithic to Classical Antiquity in Central Europe
and the Mediterranean and includes cross-cultural comparison to
expand the theoretical and methodological framework. By comparing
osteological and archaeological evidence, as well as integrating
images and texts, authors consider whether childhood age classes
are archaeologically recognizable, at which approximated ages
transitions took place, whether they are gradual or abrupt and
different for girls and boys. Age transitions may be marked by
celebrations and rituals; cultural accentuation of developmental
stages may be reflected by inclusion or exclusion at cemeteries, by
objects associated with childhood such as feeding vessels and toys,
and gradual access to adult material culture. Access to tools,
weapons and status symbols, as well as children's agency, rank and
social status, are recurrent themes. The volume accounts for the
variability in how a range of chronologically and geographically
diverse communities perceived children and childhood, and at the
same time, discloses universal trends in child development in the
(pre-)historic past.
The body is the main forum for learning about how to do, think and
believe and it is a starting point for the granting and forming of
many forms of meaning. Fourteen papers explore the relationship
between knowledge and the body through a series of historical and
archaeological case studies. More specifically, it considers the
concept of embodied knowledge by exploring some of the apparent
diverse and yet shared forms of what may be called embodied
knowledge. The papers share a focus on knowledge as it is implicit
and expressed through the human body and bodily action, and as it
formed through intentional practices. But what is this kind of
knowledge? Using specific case studies of knowledgeable actions,
the book explores embodied knowledge through a focus on practice.
It does so through two different, yet interconnected aspects of how
such knowledge expresses itself: belief and technology.
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