Ina Berg | The University of Manchester (original) (raw)
Books by Ina Berg
The Entangled Sea, 2020
Introduction to the 'Entangled Sea' JEMAHS issues 3-4, 2020
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The Cyclades and the Aegean islands in prehistory, 2019
This textbook offers an up-to-date academic synthesis of the Aegean islands from the earliest Pal... more This textbook offers an up-to-date academic synthesis of the Aegean islands from the earliest Palaeolithic period through to the demise of the Mycenaean civilization in the Late Bronze III period. The book integrates new findings and theoretical approaches whilst, at the same time, allowing readers to contextualize their understanding through engagement with bigger overarching issues and themes, often drawing explicitly on key theoretical concepts and debates. Structured according to chronological periods and with two dedicated chapters on Akrotiri and the debate around the volcanic eruption of Thera, this book is an essential companion for all those interested in the prehistory of the Cyclades and other Aegean islands.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The book explores the history of interaction between Crete and the Cycladic islands from the late... more The book explores the history of interaction between Crete and the Cycladic islands from the late Middle to Late Bronze II periods when Minoan influence was at its peak. Based on a thorough investigation of pottery assemblages from Phylakopi, Ayia Irini, Paroikia and Mikre Vigla, the book advocates a rethink of established acculturation scenarios (such as "Minoanisation"). Openness or closure towards outside influences was not predetermined by cultural, geographical or ecological variables but was socially constructed and, in some cases, might even be considered a conscious social strategy. As such, the book contrasts static and deterministic models of insularity and contact with complex, flexible and culturally determined perspectives which acknowledge the ability of island communities to consciously fashion their worlds and make choices about the nature and degree of interaction with their neighbours.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
This book presents the proceedings of an international pottery conference held at the University ... more This book presents the proceedings of an international pottery conference held at the University of Manchester in 2006. Over 50 delegates from Britain, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Sweden, Italy and the Republic of Macedonia presented papers on interdisciplinary ceramics research across the globe. The contributions fall into three themes: 1) advances in methodology, 2) issues of identity and 3) the contribution of the sciences. True to the theme of the conference, all the papers exemplify how careful analysis of the social, technological, economic and political context allows us to extract much information about how ceramics fit into the social matrix of a society and advance our interpretations.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Papers by Ina Berg
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2022
The activity of wheel-throwing a ceramic vessel is governed by a number of physical forces. These... more The activity of wheel-throwing a ceramic vessel is governed by a number of physical forces. These are the rotational kinetic energy (expressed in terms of angular velocity and the moment of inertia) and manual pressures.Given the importance of the potter’s wheel worldwide, and the frequently postulated socio-cultural meaning of wheel-throwing in particular, foundational research on the physics behind wheel-throwing has
been under-represented, and there is a lack of understanding of the relationship between speed of wheel rotation, lifting speed and the orientation of clay pores or inclusions. The speed of rotation is highly relevant as different wheels can achieve different speeds. Thus, knowing the speed during manufacture may allow scholars to reconstruct the original device, manufacturing technique, and perhaps even the potter’s level of skill. Two contrasting views can be found in the literature: a) there is a direct positive relationship between these variables, and that the angle of the inclusions/voids can therefore tell us about the wheel’s speed at the time of making the pot and hence the device used; b) because pots are never thrown in one single motion, the angle of inclusions/voids is an averaging of all actions executed by the potter, and thus cannot provide meaningful inferences about speeds or device. Experiments with professional potters were devised to explore the relationship between these variables. They show that the interaction between the various physical forces, clay and potter is complex, leading to a large variance even within the work of a single potter, with finger pressure recognized as a major influencing variable. It is clear that angles of inclusions or voids cannot be used to project backwards to the wheel speed, lifting speed, skill level or device used.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The Oxford Handbook of Archaeological Ceramic Analysis, 2017
This chapter summarizes the history, theory and methodology of ceramic X-radiography. Particular ... more This chapter summarizes the history, theory and methodology of ceramic X-radiography. Particular emphasis is placed upon the two most common uses of ceramic X-radiography, namely the identification of forming techniques and the characterization of clay fabrics. Practical considerations are offered for the choice of X-ray set-ups, exposure parameters, digitization, image enhancement, analysis and interpretation of the resulting X-ray. The chapter concludes with three case studies that demonstrate the great value of this technique and its potential to help illuminate many socio-cultural dimensions of ancient pottery production. The authors emphasize that deep understanding of the theoretical and practical dimensions of this technique are an essential foundation for subsequent interpretation.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies, 2020
The sea tends to shape people’s lives in a myriad of practical and symbolic ways. This paper argu... more The sea tends to shape people’s lives in a myriad of practical and symbolic ways. This paper argues that it is therefore unsurprising that the sea also impacted on copper workers in the Southern Aegean during the Early Bronze Age. Here, the sea was an integral element of the copper production which is characterised by movement of metal across the sea from one manufacturing stage to the next – often over considerable distances requiring lengthy absences of the workers from their home communities, making metal workers true maritime specialists alongside the more ‘typical’ traders, fishermen and seafarers. The distances travelled magnified the symbolic value of the raw materials as the object’s geographic distance became converted into a symbolic value-added ‘exotic’ distance. This value was further enhanced thanks to the mastery of skills required to traverse the sea, an element very different from land and intimately associated with forgetting, disposal and death.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, 2020
The potter’s wheel was invented in the 5th millennium BC in the Near East and spread across the M... more The potter’s wheel was invented in the 5th millennium BC in the Near East and spread across the Mediterranean into southern and eastern Europe during the Late Bronze and early Iron Ages before also reaching Asia and, finally, the American continent. The potter’s wheel utilized new technological principles, namely rotational kinetic energy (RKE) combined with manual force, to shape vessels. Initially, however, it seems that the wheel was only used to make small shapes, or medium-sized and larger pots in stages, and was not typically used for wheel-throwing but hybrid techniques. It remains a mystery why ethnographic studies consistently show that the potter’s wheel is almost exclusively associated with male potters.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Technology in Crisis. Technological changes in ceramic production during periods of trouble (Aegis 16), 2018
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The Transmission of Technical Knowledge in the Production of Ancient Mediterranean Pottery
Much is known about the potter’s wheel in Bronze Age Crete, but less well developed remains our u... more Much is known about the potter’s wheel in Bronze Age Crete, but less well developed remains our understanding of
how pottery production was organized locally, how skills were acquired, advanced, and transmitted, and how interaction
between different potting communities was structured. Using experimental archaeology, ethnographic case studies,
cognitive psychology, and macroscopic analyses of Cretan Bronze Age pottery, this article makes a first tentative attempt
to explore how Cretan Bronze Age potters learned to use the potter’s wheel and expanded their skill set through
time. Based on the homogenous application of forming techniques across the island, it will be argued that Cretan potters
constituted a highly interactive ›community of practice‹ where regular sharing of knowledge resulted in common potting
practices and a common understanding of how a particular shape should be conceptualized.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of Maritime Archaeology, 2013
Like most cultures, prehistoric Greek communities had an ambiguous relationship with the sea and ... more Like most cultures, prehistoric Greek communities had an ambiguous relationship with the sea and the creatures that inhabit it. Positive and negative associations always co-existed, though the particular manifestations changed over time. By drawing together evidence of consumption of marine animals, seafaring, fishing, and iconography, this article unites disparate strands of evidence in an attempt to illuminate the relationship prehistoric Greeks had with marine creatures and the sea. Based on the marked reduction in seafood consumption after the Mesolithic and the use of marine creatures in funerary iconography in the post-palatial period, it becomes apparent that the sea—then as now—is an inherently ambiguous medium that captures both positive and negative emotions. On the one hand, the sea and the animals residing in it are strongly associated with death. On the other hand, the sea’s positive dimensions, such as fertility and rebirth, are expressed in conspicuous marine consumption events.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The Seascape in Aegean Prehistory, 2011
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Mediterranean Crossroads, 2007
Recent approaches to landscapes, islandscapes, and seascapes have highlighted the multivocal, int... more Recent approaches to landscapes, islandscapes, and seascapes have highlighted the multivocal, interactive, multi-sensorial, and, most of all, deeply social nature of human engagement with them. Unfortunately, due to a perceived or real lack of archaeological evidence, anthropological studies, oral histories and the more often than not land-based lifestyle of modern scholars, the maritime world of the Aegean has up to now experienced a certain neglect. It is thus the purpose of this work to draw out the potential of research into seascapes and to promote a new kind of survey that incorporates the maritime environment into its design. The final section reinvestigates common assumptions about mobility, direc- tionality, navigation and interaction in the Bronze Age Aegean and of- fers a perspective more in keeping with ethnographic, archaeological and experimental data. It will be argued that mobility, movement and in- teraction were essential factors of island life, that seafaring technology was well developed, and that, therefore, an isolationist tendency should be considered as socially constructed, rather than an inevitable conse- quence of island living.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Research into past and present islands and coastal communities in Greece has long remained steepe... more Research into past and present islands and coastal communities in Greece has long remained steeped in biogeographical concepts. An overview of relevant surface survey publications highlights their focus on landscape investigations, such as settlement patterns, mortuary landscapes, land use, soil analysis, botanical reconstructions and terracing. If mentioned, the sea occurs in the context of sea level changes or trade contacts. The new comprehensive agenda for an inclusive ‘island archaeology’ put forward by Broodbank (2000) and Rainbird (2007) has not yet been implemented. With the theoretical agenda clearly formulated, it is hoped that the potential of such a new, more outward-reaching survey design will soon be realised.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Especially from the late 18th century, islands have become ever-changing projection surfaces for ... more Especially from the late 18th century, islands have become ever-changing projection surfaces for a range of human longings. Like their Pacific and Atlantic counterparts, the Cycladic islands were first ignored before becoming paradisal or utopian locations. While islands combine several features that greatly appeal to visitors (boundedness, smallness and remoteness), these features are not unique to the Cyclades or to islands in general. The Cyclades have become special places, not because they are islands or because they are Greek, but because they offer a heady mix of sensorial and emotional encounters in a Mediterranean location far removed from daily stresses.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
T. Insoll (ed.), Belief in the Past. The Proceedings of the 2002 Manchester Conference on Archaeology and Religion (BAR International Series 1212), 2004
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Graziadio, G., Guglielmino, R., Lenuzza, V. and S. Vitale (eds.) Φιλικη Συναυλια. Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology for Mario Benzi (BAR International Series 2460), 2013
Except for vessels themselves and a small number of kilns, little evidence from mainland Greece h... more Except for vessels themselves and a small number of kilns, little evidence from mainland Greece has survived that provides clues about how vessels were formed. This lack of evidence is coupled with a scholarly focus on fabrics, shapes and illustrations in catalogues, resulting in a mere cursory treatment of forming techniques. Unfortunately, this lack of engagement with the specifics of pottery manufacture has allowed misconceptions to persist in scholarship. More importantly, the demonstrated association
of manufacture with specific facets of identity should encourage us to place forming techniques at the centre of our investigations.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Ancient Greek Technology. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Ancient Ceramic Technology, 2006
Analyses of Aegean Bronze Age pottery follow the standard dichotomy in dividing assemblages into ... more Analyses of Aegean Bronze Age pottery follow the standard dichotomy in dividing assemblages into wheelmade and handmade pots. This procedure causes two methodological problems. First, it ignores manufacturing methods that combined several techniques in the making of one vessel. And second, it assumes that all wheelmade pottery is made uniformly with the fast wheel. However, already in the 1950s did Foster draw our attention to the fact that unpivoted turntables can be used to reach rotation speeds sufficient for the making of small vessels or parts of large vessels (esp. rims) (1959a, b). Thus, this contribution intends to question our assumption of a uniform use of the potter's wheel across Minoan Crete and wishes to open up the debate to explore the great diversity of manufacturing processes employed by Bronze Age potters.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The Entangled Sea, 2020
Introduction to the 'Entangled Sea' JEMAHS issues 3-4, 2020
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The Cyclades and the Aegean islands in prehistory, 2019
This textbook offers an up-to-date academic synthesis of the Aegean islands from the earliest Pal... more This textbook offers an up-to-date academic synthesis of the Aegean islands from the earliest Palaeolithic period through to the demise of the Mycenaean civilization in the Late Bronze III period. The book integrates new findings and theoretical approaches whilst, at the same time, allowing readers to contextualize their understanding through engagement with bigger overarching issues and themes, often drawing explicitly on key theoretical concepts and debates. Structured according to chronological periods and with two dedicated chapters on Akrotiri and the debate around the volcanic eruption of Thera, this book is an essential companion for all those interested in the prehistory of the Cyclades and other Aegean islands.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The book explores the history of interaction between Crete and the Cycladic islands from the late... more The book explores the history of interaction between Crete and the Cycladic islands from the late Middle to Late Bronze II periods when Minoan influence was at its peak. Based on a thorough investigation of pottery assemblages from Phylakopi, Ayia Irini, Paroikia and Mikre Vigla, the book advocates a rethink of established acculturation scenarios (such as "Minoanisation"). Openness or closure towards outside influences was not predetermined by cultural, geographical or ecological variables but was socially constructed and, in some cases, might even be considered a conscious social strategy. As such, the book contrasts static and deterministic models of insularity and contact with complex, flexible and culturally determined perspectives which acknowledge the ability of island communities to consciously fashion their worlds and make choices about the nature and degree of interaction with their neighbours.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
This book presents the proceedings of an international pottery conference held at the University ... more This book presents the proceedings of an international pottery conference held at the University of Manchester in 2006. Over 50 delegates from Britain, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Sweden, Italy and the Republic of Macedonia presented papers on interdisciplinary ceramics research across the globe. The contributions fall into three themes: 1) advances in methodology, 2) issues of identity and 3) the contribution of the sciences. True to the theme of the conference, all the papers exemplify how careful analysis of the social, technological, economic and political context allows us to extract much information about how ceramics fit into the social matrix of a society and advance our interpretations.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2022
The activity of wheel-throwing a ceramic vessel is governed by a number of physical forces. These... more The activity of wheel-throwing a ceramic vessel is governed by a number of physical forces. These are the rotational kinetic energy (expressed in terms of angular velocity and the moment of inertia) and manual pressures.Given the importance of the potter’s wheel worldwide, and the frequently postulated socio-cultural meaning of wheel-throwing in particular, foundational research on the physics behind wheel-throwing has
been under-represented, and there is a lack of understanding of the relationship between speed of wheel rotation, lifting speed and the orientation of clay pores or inclusions. The speed of rotation is highly relevant as different wheels can achieve different speeds. Thus, knowing the speed during manufacture may allow scholars to reconstruct the original device, manufacturing technique, and perhaps even the potter’s level of skill. Two contrasting views can be found in the literature: a) there is a direct positive relationship between these variables, and that the angle of the inclusions/voids can therefore tell us about the wheel’s speed at the time of making the pot and hence the device used; b) because pots are never thrown in one single motion, the angle of inclusions/voids is an averaging of all actions executed by the potter, and thus cannot provide meaningful inferences about speeds or device. Experiments with professional potters were devised to explore the relationship between these variables. They show that the interaction between the various physical forces, clay and potter is complex, leading to a large variance even within the work of a single potter, with finger pressure recognized as a major influencing variable. It is clear that angles of inclusions or voids cannot be used to project backwards to the wheel speed, lifting speed, skill level or device used.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The Oxford Handbook of Archaeological Ceramic Analysis, 2017
This chapter summarizes the history, theory and methodology of ceramic X-radiography. Particular ... more This chapter summarizes the history, theory and methodology of ceramic X-radiography. Particular emphasis is placed upon the two most common uses of ceramic X-radiography, namely the identification of forming techniques and the characterization of clay fabrics. Practical considerations are offered for the choice of X-ray set-ups, exposure parameters, digitization, image enhancement, analysis and interpretation of the resulting X-ray. The chapter concludes with three case studies that demonstrate the great value of this technique and its potential to help illuminate many socio-cultural dimensions of ancient pottery production. The authors emphasize that deep understanding of the theoretical and practical dimensions of this technique are an essential foundation for subsequent interpretation.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies, 2020
The sea tends to shape people’s lives in a myriad of practical and symbolic ways. This paper argu... more The sea tends to shape people’s lives in a myriad of practical and symbolic ways. This paper argues that it is therefore unsurprising that the sea also impacted on copper workers in the Southern Aegean during the Early Bronze Age. Here, the sea was an integral element of the copper production which is characterised by movement of metal across the sea from one manufacturing stage to the next – often over considerable distances requiring lengthy absences of the workers from their home communities, making metal workers true maritime specialists alongside the more ‘typical’ traders, fishermen and seafarers. The distances travelled magnified the symbolic value of the raw materials as the object’s geographic distance became converted into a symbolic value-added ‘exotic’ distance. This value was further enhanced thanks to the mastery of skills required to traverse the sea, an element very different from land and intimately associated with forgetting, disposal and death.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, 2020
The potter’s wheel was invented in the 5th millennium BC in the Near East and spread across the M... more The potter’s wheel was invented in the 5th millennium BC in the Near East and spread across the Mediterranean into southern and eastern Europe during the Late Bronze and early Iron Ages before also reaching Asia and, finally, the American continent. The potter’s wheel utilized new technological principles, namely rotational kinetic energy (RKE) combined with manual force, to shape vessels. Initially, however, it seems that the wheel was only used to make small shapes, or medium-sized and larger pots in stages, and was not typically used for wheel-throwing but hybrid techniques. It remains a mystery why ethnographic studies consistently show that the potter’s wheel is almost exclusively associated with male potters.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Technology in Crisis. Technological changes in ceramic production during periods of trouble (Aegis 16), 2018
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The Transmission of Technical Knowledge in the Production of Ancient Mediterranean Pottery
Much is known about the potter’s wheel in Bronze Age Crete, but less well developed remains our u... more Much is known about the potter’s wheel in Bronze Age Crete, but less well developed remains our understanding of
how pottery production was organized locally, how skills were acquired, advanced, and transmitted, and how interaction
between different potting communities was structured. Using experimental archaeology, ethnographic case studies,
cognitive psychology, and macroscopic analyses of Cretan Bronze Age pottery, this article makes a first tentative attempt
to explore how Cretan Bronze Age potters learned to use the potter’s wheel and expanded their skill set through
time. Based on the homogenous application of forming techniques across the island, it will be argued that Cretan potters
constituted a highly interactive ›community of practice‹ where regular sharing of knowledge resulted in common potting
practices and a common understanding of how a particular shape should be conceptualized.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of Maritime Archaeology, 2013
Like most cultures, prehistoric Greek communities had an ambiguous relationship with the sea and ... more Like most cultures, prehistoric Greek communities had an ambiguous relationship with the sea and the creatures that inhabit it. Positive and negative associations always co-existed, though the particular manifestations changed over time. By drawing together evidence of consumption of marine animals, seafaring, fishing, and iconography, this article unites disparate strands of evidence in an attempt to illuminate the relationship prehistoric Greeks had with marine creatures and the sea. Based on the marked reduction in seafood consumption after the Mesolithic and the use of marine creatures in funerary iconography in the post-palatial period, it becomes apparent that the sea—then as now—is an inherently ambiguous medium that captures both positive and negative emotions. On the one hand, the sea and the animals residing in it are strongly associated with death. On the other hand, the sea’s positive dimensions, such as fertility and rebirth, are expressed in conspicuous marine consumption events.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The Seascape in Aegean Prehistory, 2011
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Mediterranean Crossroads, 2007
Recent approaches to landscapes, islandscapes, and seascapes have highlighted the multivocal, int... more Recent approaches to landscapes, islandscapes, and seascapes have highlighted the multivocal, interactive, multi-sensorial, and, most of all, deeply social nature of human engagement with them. Unfortunately, due to a perceived or real lack of archaeological evidence, anthropological studies, oral histories and the more often than not land-based lifestyle of modern scholars, the maritime world of the Aegean has up to now experienced a certain neglect. It is thus the purpose of this work to draw out the potential of research into seascapes and to promote a new kind of survey that incorporates the maritime environment into its design. The final section reinvestigates common assumptions about mobility, direc- tionality, navigation and interaction in the Bronze Age Aegean and of- fers a perspective more in keeping with ethnographic, archaeological and experimental data. It will be argued that mobility, movement and in- teraction were essential factors of island life, that seafaring technology was well developed, and that, therefore, an isolationist tendency should be considered as socially constructed, rather than an inevitable conse- quence of island living.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Research into past and present islands and coastal communities in Greece has long remained steepe... more Research into past and present islands and coastal communities in Greece has long remained steeped in biogeographical concepts. An overview of relevant surface survey publications highlights their focus on landscape investigations, such as settlement patterns, mortuary landscapes, land use, soil analysis, botanical reconstructions and terracing. If mentioned, the sea occurs in the context of sea level changes or trade contacts. The new comprehensive agenda for an inclusive ‘island archaeology’ put forward by Broodbank (2000) and Rainbird (2007) has not yet been implemented. With the theoretical agenda clearly formulated, it is hoped that the potential of such a new, more outward-reaching survey design will soon be realised.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Especially from the late 18th century, islands have become ever-changing projection surfaces for ... more Especially from the late 18th century, islands have become ever-changing projection surfaces for a range of human longings. Like their Pacific and Atlantic counterparts, the Cycladic islands were first ignored before becoming paradisal or utopian locations. While islands combine several features that greatly appeal to visitors (boundedness, smallness and remoteness), these features are not unique to the Cyclades or to islands in general. The Cyclades have become special places, not because they are islands or because they are Greek, but because they offer a heady mix of sensorial and emotional encounters in a Mediterranean location far removed from daily stresses.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
T. Insoll (ed.), Belief in the Past. The Proceedings of the 2002 Manchester Conference on Archaeology and Religion (BAR International Series 1212), 2004
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Graziadio, G., Guglielmino, R., Lenuzza, V. and S. Vitale (eds.) Φιλικη Συναυλια. Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology for Mario Benzi (BAR International Series 2460), 2013
Except for vessels themselves and a small number of kilns, little evidence from mainland Greece h... more Except for vessels themselves and a small number of kilns, little evidence from mainland Greece has survived that provides clues about how vessels were formed. This lack of evidence is coupled with a scholarly focus on fabrics, shapes and illustrations in catalogues, resulting in a mere cursory treatment of forming techniques. Unfortunately, this lack of engagement with the specifics of pottery manufacture has allowed misconceptions to persist in scholarship. More importantly, the demonstrated association
of manufacture with specific facets of identity should encourage us to place forming techniques at the centre of our investigations.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Ancient Greek Technology. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Ancient Ceramic Technology, 2006
Analyses of Aegean Bronze Age pottery follow the standard dichotomy in dividing assemblages into ... more Analyses of Aegean Bronze Age pottery follow the standard dichotomy in dividing assemblages into wheelmade and handmade pots. This procedure causes two methodological problems. First, it ignores manufacturing methods that combined several techniques in the making of one vessel. And second, it assumes that all wheelmade pottery is made uniformly with the fast wheel. However, already in the 1950s did Foster draw our attention to the fact that unpivoted turntables can be used to reach rotation speeds sufficient for the making of small vessels or parts of large vessels (esp. rims) (1959a, b). Thus, this contribution intends to question our assumption of a uniform use of the potter's wheel across Minoan Crete and wishes to open up the debate to explore the great diversity of manufacturing processes employed by Bronze Age potters.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 2007
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Proceedings of the 10th International Cretological Congress, Chania, 2006, 2011
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
From its first application to ceramics, X-radiography has been used successfully to identify manu... more From its first application to ceramics, X-radiography has been used successfully to identify manufacturing details. While many of the key parameters are well understood, several questions require further analysis. These include the radiographic distinction between wheel-thrown and wheel-shaped pots and an assessment of the impact of secondary forming techniques and surface treatments on inclusion orientation laid down during primary forming. To clarify these issues, controlled experiments were conducted. Results indicate that coiled and wheel-shaped vessels can be distinguished radiographically from fully wheel-thrown ones. As regards secondary forming and surface treatments, none of those in- vestigated could be shown to obscure traces of primary forming techniques. Overall, X-radiography is shown to be a valuable tool for under- standing forming techniques and sequences of ancient vessels. Assessing X-radiography’s contribution in characterising clay fabrics, experiments were conducted with regard to clay body and inclusion visibility. These experiments support Foster’s conclusions [Foster. G.V., 1985. Identification of inclusions in ceramic artefacts by xeroradiography. Journal of Field Archaeology 12, 373e376].
Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Archaeological Ceramics: A Review of Current Research, 2011
X-radiography is shown to be a suitable technique to enhance our understanding of the chaîne opér... more X-radiography is shown to be a suitable technique to enhance our understanding of the chaîne opératoire of ceramics, in particular in relation to assessing the fabric, identifying forming techniques, as well as visualising attachments and breaks. Its advantages are that it is non-destructive, able to assess the complete artefact, comparatively quick to produce and good value for money. A case study from Bronze Age Crete demonstrates its potential and offers new interpretation for our understanding of the emergence and use of the potter’s wheel.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 2007
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact