Ritualized Technologies in the Aegean Neolithic? The Crafts of Adornment (original) (raw)

This paper considers prehistoric technology as a promising field of ritually encoded action, open to archaeological exploration. I focus on the rich record of craft production in the Late and Final Neolithic communities of the Aegaean, with special emphasis on adornment. In the absence of stratified hierarchies and rigidly codified belief systems from these societies, I propose that social and cultural knowledge was inscribed into the manufacture and use of important artifacts, and that such practices might have been elevated to ritual status. The archaeological record suggests that the contexts of technical performance were imbued with symbolism to become arenas of negotiation for power and identity.