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Papers by Katherine I. (Karen) Wright
Questions about the early Near Eastern Neolithic include whether domestic groups were autonomous ... more Questions about the early Near Eastern Neolithic include whether domestic groups were autonomous and self-sufficient; whether they had access to similar goods; whether households were competitive; whether specialization existed; and how domestic units articulated with corporate groups. Feasting models emphasize household competition and complexity, but wide-ranging ethnographic studies show that hoe-farming societies in areas of land abundance are usually egalitarian, with little material wealth, little inequality, and little wealth transmission (inheritance). This paper explores inequality at Çatalhöyük East (Turkey), via ground stone artefacts, which were central to food preparation and craft production. Analysis of 2429 artefacts from 20 buildings and 9 outdoor yards reveals a mix of egalitarian features and emerging social complexity. Households had private property and relatively equal access to cooking features and some ground stone tools, but ground stone toolkits do not indicate self-sufficiency. In particular, large millstones (querns) were expensive to procure and were possibly shared between households. Most were deliberately destroyed, suggesting taboos on transmission (inheritance). Lorenz curves for features and ground stone artefacts suggest that storage units, unbroken querns and unfinished quern roughouts were the most unequally distributed food preparation facilities. There are indications of subsistence intensification, craft specialization, and emerging factional competition.
. Trapezoidal axes/celt, showing manufacturing traces* indicating chaines operatoires. Diabase/me... more . Trapezoidal axes/celt, showing manufacturing traces* indicating chaines operatoires. Diabase/metabasalt/dolerite only, with 2 colour variants. Use wear traces** shown for bit Traces are shown in stratigraphic order of their occurrence on the artefact from earliest (left) to latest (right). Unbroken artefacts only.
bone beads follow a similar layout and focus on data and sampling, followed by preliminary observ... more bone beads follow a similar layout and focus on data and sampling, followed by preliminary observations regarding methods of manufacture and, finally, by a discussion of production, use and discard contexts.
What social groups were involved in Neolithic craft production? What was the nature of early form... more What social groups were involved in Neolithic craft production? What was the nature of early forms of craft specialization, long before urban economies evolved? One way to look at this is to investigate manufacture of Neolithic prestige goods. Seasonal camps in Wadi Jilat (eastern Jordan) revealed unusually detailed evidence for manufacture of stone beads: debris, blanks, finished beads, and tools for drilling, sawing and abrasion. The material is 'Dabba Marble', a metamorphic rock of which the major source is nearby. This article describes lapidary technology at Jilat 13 and Jilat 25, equivalent in age to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic C (PPNC). Mineral-chemical characterization data on Dabba Marble are presented. These sites raise issues about early craft specialization. These beadmakers seem to have been master craftsmen/women. We suggest that these sites illustrate a particular form of 'site specialization', namely sites located in remote territories and focused on special materials and intensive production of prestige goods. However, these craft activities were also embedded in hunting, herding and, perhaps, ritual, as suggested by figurines and pillars.
All righs reserved. No pan of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, o... more All righs reserved. No pan of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmicted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, witiout the prior permission of the publisher. ISBN 978-I -5987 4-223 -7 hardcover ISBN 978-1 -5 987 4-22+-4 paperback Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data: Archaeology and women / Sue Hamilton, Rurh D. whitehouse, Karherine I. wright, editors. p.cm.-(Publications of the Institute of Archaeology, universiry college, London) lncludes biographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-l-59874-223-7 Qtard,cover : alk. paper) ISBN-I0: l-5987 4-223-X (hardcover : alk. paper)
From their research in Jordan, the authors show that the appearance of early farming and herding ... more From their research in Jordan, the authors show that the appearance of early farming and herding communities in western Asia coincided with a large expansion in stone bead production. This reflects a new social role for personal ornament.
This pdper explores social customs of cooking and dining as farming emerged in tbe earliest uilla... more This pdper explores social customs of cooking and dining as farming emerged in tbe earliest uillages of Palestine and Jordan (12,650-6850 cal ac). Tbe dpprodch is a spatial analysis of in siru bearths, pits, bins, benches, platforms, actiuity areas, caches, and ground stone artefacts. Mortars, pestles, and bouls ffust appear in significant numbers in base camps of semi-sedentary Natufian hunter-gatherers. Elaborate and decorated, these artefacts imply a newly formal socidl etiquette of food-sharing. Tbey uere used within bouses, near heartbs, and in outdoor areas. The earliest farmers of the Khiamian and Pre-Pottery Neolithic A used simple, mostly undecorated, ground stone tools. One-room houses were often fitted u.,itb a hearth and a small mortar in tbe centre, featules tbat also occur in outtloor areas. In tbe Early and Mildle Pre-Pottery Neolitbic B, firepits, rnilling stations, and storage features were placed on porches and outdoor areas near house doors, These areas formed a transition zone between house and community, where food preparation prouided opportunities for social contacts. The most priuate rooffis in houses were supplied with benches, platforms, and decorated hearths, and probably sbebered bousehold meals. In the Late PPNB, uben some uillages gretu to unprecedented sizes, storage, and cooking facilities were placed in constricted, priuate spaces comparatiuely hidden from community uiew. Numerous milling tools and muhiple milling stations in indiuidual houses suggest intensific!1tion of production of prepared foods. It is drgued that adub women bore tbe brunt of the increased labour and that these actiuities placed tbem under new restrictions of daily actiuity and uisibility in relation to uillape communities. 9Z
Questions about the early Near Eastern Neolithic include whether domestic groups were autonomous ... more Questions about the early Near Eastern Neolithic include whether domestic groups were autonomous and self-sufficient; whether they had access to similar goods; whether households were competitive; whether specialization existed; and how domestic units articulated with corporate groups. Feasting models emphasize household competition and complexity, but wide-ranging ethnographic studies show that hoe-farming societies in areas of land abundance are usually egalitarian, with little material wealth, little inequality, and little wealth transmission (inheritance). This paper explores inequality at Çatalhöyük East (Turkey), via ground stone artefacts, which were central to food preparation and craft production. Analysis of 2429 artefacts from 20 buildings and 9 outdoor yards reveals a mix of egalitarian features and emerging social complexity. Households had private property and relatively equal access to cooking features and some ground stone tools, but ground stone toolkits do not indicate self-sufficiency. In particular, large millstones (querns) were expensive to procure and were possibly shared between households. Most were deliberately destroyed, suggesting taboos on transmission (inheritance). Lorenz curves for features and ground stone artefacts suggest that storage units, unbroken querns and unfinished quern roughouts were the most unequally distributed food preparation facilities. There are indications of subsistence intensification, craft specialization, and emerging factional competition.
. Trapezoidal axes/celt, showing manufacturing traces* indicating chaines operatoires. Diabase/me... more . Trapezoidal axes/celt, showing manufacturing traces* indicating chaines operatoires. Diabase/metabasalt/dolerite only, with 2 colour variants. Use wear traces** shown for bit Traces are shown in stratigraphic order of their occurrence on the artefact from earliest (left) to latest (right). Unbroken artefacts only.
bone beads follow a similar layout and focus on data and sampling, followed by preliminary observ... more bone beads follow a similar layout and focus on data and sampling, followed by preliminary observations regarding methods of manufacture and, finally, by a discussion of production, use and discard contexts.
What social groups were involved in Neolithic craft production? What was the nature of early form... more What social groups were involved in Neolithic craft production? What was the nature of early forms of craft specialization, long before urban economies evolved? One way to look at this is to investigate manufacture of Neolithic prestige goods. Seasonal camps in Wadi Jilat (eastern Jordan) revealed unusually detailed evidence for manufacture of stone beads: debris, blanks, finished beads, and tools for drilling, sawing and abrasion. The material is 'Dabba Marble', a metamorphic rock of which the major source is nearby. This article describes lapidary technology at Jilat 13 and Jilat 25, equivalent in age to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic C (PPNC). Mineral-chemical characterization data on Dabba Marble are presented. These sites raise issues about early craft specialization. These beadmakers seem to have been master craftsmen/women. We suggest that these sites illustrate a particular form of 'site specialization', namely sites located in remote territories and focused on special materials and intensive production of prestige goods. However, these craft activities were also embedded in hunting, herding and, perhaps, ritual, as suggested by figurines and pillars.
All righs reserved. No pan of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, o... more All righs reserved. No pan of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmicted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, witiout the prior permission of the publisher. ISBN 978-I -5987 4-223 -7 hardcover ISBN 978-1 -5 987 4-22+-4 paperback Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data: Archaeology and women / Sue Hamilton, Rurh D. whitehouse, Karherine I. wright, editors. p.cm.-(Publications of the Institute of Archaeology, universiry college, London) lncludes biographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-l-59874-223-7 Qtard,cover : alk. paper) ISBN-I0: l-5987 4-223-X (hardcover : alk. paper)
From their research in Jordan, the authors show that the appearance of early farming and herding ... more From their research in Jordan, the authors show that the appearance of early farming and herding communities in western Asia coincided with a large expansion in stone bead production. This reflects a new social role for personal ornament.
This pdper explores social customs of cooking and dining as farming emerged in tbe earliest uilla... more This pdper explores social customs of cooking and dining as farming emerged in tbe earliest uillages of Palestine and Jordan (12,650-6850 cal ac). Tbe dpprodch is a spatial analysis of in siru bearths, pits, bins, benches, platforms, actiuity areas, caches, and ground stone artefacts. Mortars, pestles, and bouls ffust appear in significant numbers in base camps of semi-sedentary Natufian hunter-gatherers. Elaborate and decorated, these artefacts imply a newly formal socidl etiquette of food-sharing. Tbey uere used within bouses, near heartbs, and in outdoor areas. The earliest farmers of the Khiamian and Pre-Pottery Neolithic A used simple, mostly undecorated, ground stone tools. One-room houses were often fitted u.,itb a hearth and a small mortar in tbe centre, featules tbat also occur in outtloor areas. In tbe Early and Mildle Pre-Pottery Neolitbic B, firepits, rnilling stations, and storage features were placed on porches and outdoor areas near house doors, These areas formed a transition zone between house and community, where food preparation prouided opportunities for social contacts. The most priuate rooffis in houses were supplied with benches, platforms, and decorated hearths, and probably sbebered bousehold meals. In the Late PPNB, uben some uillages gretu to unprecedented sizes, storage, and cooking facilities were placed in constricted, priuate spaces comparatiuely hidden from community uiew. Numerous milling tools and muhiple milling stations in indiuidual houses suggest intensific!1tion of production of prepared foods. It is drgued that adub women bore tbe brunt of the increased labour and that these actiuities placed tbem under new restrictions of daily actiuity and uisibility in relation to uillape communities. 9Z