Colloque UISPP Paris, session XXXIV-3, Contribution: le fer en Grèce, 1200-500 (original) (raw)
Related papers
An Iron IIA Iron and Bronze Workshop in the Lower City of Tell es-Safi/Gath
Tel Aviv, 2020
An iron and bronze workshop in the lower city of Tell es-Safi/Gath, dated to the mid-late Iron IIA, contributes new data on the chronology, organization, and practice of metal production in the urban Philistine setting. Analyses show that iron objects were likely produced and maintained on a large scale, alongside bronze, employing regionally unique forms of crucibles and tuyères. The material culture of metalworking is discussed in relation to contemporaneous iron production sites in the region, building a more robust picture of the adoption of iron metallurgy in the Levant versus the status of bronze and iron.
Living in Iron, Dressed in Bronze: Metal Formulas and the Chronology of the Ages
Brolly. Journal of Social Sciences, 2018
Names of important metals such as gold, silver, iron, and bronze occur many times in the Homeric Epics. We intend to look at them within the framework of oral poetry, with the purpose to determine if they form a more or less coherent set of “formulas”, in the sense defined by Milman Parry and the Oral Poetry Theory2, and to test a possible link with the stages in the evolution of humankind. Though several specialists criticized some excess in Parry’s and Lord’s definitions of the formula, we deem the theory still valuable in its great lines, and feel no need to discuss it for the present study3. The frequent use of bronze in epical formulas for arms, while the actual heroes fight their battles with iron equipment, and the emphasis of gold in descriptions of wealth may reflect a deep-seated linguistic memory within the archaic mind-set of the Ages of Mankind. With Homer’s language as our best witness, metal formulas testify to the importance of the tradition of the Ages of Mankind in understanding the thought patterns and value- systems, as well as some linguistic usages of the Homeric Epics.
Living in Iron, Dressed in Bronze: Metal Formulas and the Chronology of Ages
2018
Names of important metals such as gold, silver, iron, and bronze occur many times in the Homeric Epics. We intend to look at them within the framework of oral poetry, with the purpose to determine if they form a more or less coherent set of “formulas”, in the sense defined by Milman Parry and the Oral Poetry Theory2, and to test a possible link with the stages of the evolution of humankind. Though several specialists criticized some excess in Parry’s and Lord’s definitions of the formula, we deem the theory still valuable in its great lines and feel no need to discuss it for the present study3. The frequent use of bronze in epical formulas for arms, while the actual heroes fight their battles with iron equipment, and the emphasis of gold in the descriptions of wealth may reflect a deep-seated linguistic memory within the archaic mindset of the Ages of Mankind. With Homer’s language as our best witness, metal formulas testify to the importance of the tradition of the Ages of Mankind ...
This chapter illustrates the main fields of craft production in the area characterized by the Villanovan culture (Etruria and adjacent areas) from the points of view of typological and technological developments. The sociopolitical and economic framework is that of incipient or embryonic urbanization, the “proto-urban phenomenon,” that occurred between the late tenth and late eighth centuries BCE. Ceramics include handmade vessels (chiefly biconical funerary urns and their lids) ornamented with geometric patterns in the Villanovan style, as well as more specialized vessels decorated with metal stripes. Only in the advanced Early Iron Age 2 (eighth century) were wheel-made ceramics introduced under the influence of immigrant Greek potters. The best-known handicraft in Iron Age Etruria is bronze working, a productive field that encompasses a broad range of artifact classes and shapes. Indirect evidence from the study of artifacts attests to specific stages in the metalworking process, demonstrating a high level of specialization and complexity in the organization of labor. The great variability of formal features and techniques, and the different levels of elaboration in Villanovan bronze production are exemplified by cast objects, such as fibulae and weapons (swords), and by hammered items such as sheet bronze armor and vessels. Sheet bronze production is considered particularly representative of the high level of Villanovan craftsmanship and of the close connection between metalwork and the display expressions of new elites within the proto-urban communities. It is also pointed out how iron production, though giving the name to the period, did not become especially important in local economies before the mid eighth century. Other minor materials, especially amber, gained great importance in the framework of elite consumption and trade, which led to a highly sophisticated production of ornaments and symbolic items in the latest stages of this period.