2 results
Bronze Age Ceramic Economy: The Benta Valley, Hungary
- Timothy Earle, Attila Kreiter, Carla Klehm, Jeffrey Ferguson, Magdolna Vicze
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- Journal:
- European Journal of Archaeology / Volume 14 / Issue 3 / 2011
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 25 January 2017, pp. 419-440
- Print publication:
- 2011
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- Article
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We describe the Bronze Age ceramic economy of the Benta Valley in Hungary. In the Bronze Age, long-distance trade in metals, metal objects, and other specialty items became central to expansive prestige goods exchange through Europe. Was that exchange in wealth, however, linked to broader developments of an integrated market system? The beginnings of market systems in prehistory are poorly understood. We suggest a means to investigate marketing by studying the changing ceramic economy of a region, rather than at a single site. Analysis of the ceramic inventory collected as part of the Benta Valley Project strongly suggests that, although ceramic production was quite sophisticated and probably specialized, exchange was highly localized (mostly within 10 km) and conducted through personalized community networks. Our ceramic study used three progressively finer-scaled analyses: inventorying ceramic forms and decoration to evaluate consumption patterns, petrographic analysis to describe manufacturing sequences, and instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) to describe exchange. We conclude that, based on present evidence, market systems had not developed in Hungary during the Bronze Age.
7 - Technology and Craft
- Edited by Timothy Earle, Northwestern University, Illinois, Kristian Kristiansen, Göteborgs Universitet, Sweden
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- Book:
- Organizing Bronze Age Societies
- Published online:
- 05 June 2012
- Print publication:
- 30 August 2010, pp 185-217
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Summary
Investigations of technology and crafts have resulted in well-understood technological trajectories, particularly for the development of prehistoric metalworking (Tylecote 1987; Craddock 1995; Ottaway 1994). The frequent emphasis on metalworking, however, has often been to the detriment of other crafts. The bringing together of different materials specialists, and the comparative approach taken by the Emergence of European Communities Project, allow us to explore contrasting, regionally distinct attitudes to a range of crafts at specific historical moments. Although craftspeople's technical decisions are affected by differential access to resources, their choices are not solely confined to the environment, raw materials, and tools; decisions are also socially and culturally defined (Lemonnier 1992; van der Leeuw 1993; Dobres 2000) and the investigation of such choices informs on regional social relations.
The most significant craft activities at our sites provided the material culture to support daily life: ceramic production, the manufacture of chipped and ground stone objects, and the construction of houses – the latter involving woodworking, stonemasonry, and clay manipulation. In addition, Százhalombatta had a substantial corpus of worked bone. Detailed excavation, recording, and use of modern scientific techniques, including petrology, micromorphology, archaeobotany, and use–wear analysis, along with experimental archaeology, illuminate these crafts. Interestingly, despite the frequent emphasis on metal technology in Bronze Age social models, at Thy and Monte Polizzo, our work has revealed little direct evidence for metalworking. At Százhalombatta, fragments of bronze, moulds, and slag attest to metalworking from the Early Bronze Age (Horváth et al 2000; Poroszlai 2000; Sørensen and Vicze in press), but are relatively few. With little substantial to add to knowledge about metal technology, we do not consider it here.