A. Hellmuth Kramberger (ed.), Iron Age Kids (Budapest 2018). (original) (raw)
Ceramic Ethno-archaeology and its Applications
anistor.gr
Ethnoarchaeology includes a joint approach of archaeology and anthropology to understand the past and present cultures. It is a branch of ethnography, which deals with the behavioral correlates of material remains. termed it as 'living archaeology defines it as 'action archaeology'. Stiles defines ethnoarchaeology in more comprehensive perspective as, 'encompassing all the theoretical and methodological aspects of comparing ethnographic and archaeological data, including the use of ethnographic analogy and archaeological ethnography ' (1977, p.88). In other words, it is a living archaeology in which archaeologist does his field work among living communities for the analysis of unearthed artifacts and material remains. It is assumed that contemporary primitive societies represent examples of past stages of human culture. Analogies between living societies and ancient societies can yield important information to construct realistic models of ancient societies and their functions. The practice of this discipline provides a great understanding about ancient artifacts and the people who made them. It is not only the recording of material remains but also the interpretation of them by quantitative analysis, sampling strategies and observations (London 2000, pp.1-2). Therefore, this approach gives extremely valuable insight into prehistoric and protohistoric human behavior. In this respect Ethnoarchaeology makes a live link between human and their artifacts (David1992, p.352). This approach is mainly used by archaeologists for the explanation of pottery, stone tools and architectural remains, but it is also useful for the reconstruction of cultural system.
Since the existence of mankind on earth, imagery had an important role in creating art. And the figure was one of the main expressions for realizing the imagery. Since ancient times until now ceramic is a material for main activities of life, like production of everyday life goods, religions, artistic expression. Ceramic which was discovered in Neolithic Period is an important material that mankind used for artistic expression. It has played a great role in formation of civilization, culture and art. Ceramic figures which were produced starting from the discovery of this material until today evolutes and develops in technical and expressional manner. At this stage of mentioned evolution (today) the ancient pieces are references for some of the contemporary artists. Some of the contemporary artists who live in the same physical geography of these ancient civilizations and make figurative artwork have the traces of ancient ceramic figures in their work.
Archaeology is the study of past cultures through the material (physical) remains people left behind. These can range from small artifacts, such as arrowheads, to large buildings, such as pyramids. Anything that people created or modified is part of the archaeological record.
Science First Hand, 2015
Times destroys everything. The more surprising it is when something living-things made of organic materialscomes to us from high antiquity. It can take years to speculate about what the discovered "decorations" served for and what they decorated or, driven to despair by the failure to solve this riddle, to refer to the enigmatic thing as "an object with an unknown function"-and only organics can establish connections between scattered findings. Fabrics and fur, felt and leather, threads and pelts, and sometimes, lo and behold, the human body itself, carefully embalmed and preserved against all odds, dot the i's and cross the t's, and you are heart-struck by what you've seen… For the first time this happened in Ukok. After we came across the "frozen graves" of the Pazyryk culture, archaeology for us split into the archaeology we had known before 1990 and the one that we knew after. I think this is a different archaeology
Use Traces on Crucibles and Tuyères? An Archaeological Experiment in Ancient Metallurgy
To what extent can we identify sites where metallurgy has been conducted by studying the ceramic residue found at the site? Ceramic tools used for metal casting, such as crucibles, clay moulds and tuyères—so called 'technical ceramics'—are often used as indicators of metalcrafts. Their often vitrifi ed and sintered appearance is, on many occasions, used as traits of identifi cation. This article discusses a crucible and a tuyère that show no clear traces of vitrifi cation, and whether or not the objects should be disregarded as technical ceramics. By building reconstructions of these two objects and testing them in an archaeological experiment, we have been able to study the traces of use on the reconstruction and compare them to the two artefacts. In this article we argue that signs of use, such as vitrifi cation and sintering, are not always present on used tuyères and crucibles and that we should also try to look for other signs of use when classifying archaeological materials as technical ceramics.
Technology and Experimentation in Archaeology
The technological process for obtaining a ceramic material capable of resisting the use requires, in essence, the domain of a broader process which is divided into several chains of operations. In this logic the study of experimental archaeology used to ceramic technology, allows us to understand various stages of the production process and advance into new studies ranging from the behavior of the material during the use to the analysis of the fragments, and all the associate forms, composition of the paste and surface finishes with the function of the piece. This article is based on experimentation in Guarani ceramic from the southern Brazil with real possibilities of application in any context involving ceramics within what is known as earthwear, as is the case in progress, the Iberian Neolithic ceramics. On this base, it is built technological parallel by applying a common methodology.