[Mediterraneanstudies] Workshop: The Distribution of Technological Knowledge in the Production of Ancient Mediterranean Pottery

[Marcus Nolden]

Liebe Freunde und Freundinnen des Zentrums für Mittelmeerstudien,

wir möchten Sie  auf eine unsere kommenden Veranstaltungen hinweisen, die
das Zentrum für Mittelmeerstudien gemeinsam mit dem Österreichischen
Bundesministerium für Wissenschaft und Forschung sowie dem Österreichischen
Archäologischen Institut in Athen zwischen dem 23. - 25. Nov. veranstalten
wird:
*
"The Distribution of Technological Knowledge in the Production of Ancient
Mediterranean Pottery"*

Pottery is generally considered as one of the most important and fruitful
sources of archaeological research. But it is often merely confined to a
categorization in terms of shape, function, and origin, thus reducing
pottery to a marker of chronological sequences or trade. In this way
pottery is hardly connected to human practise and human-ceramic-interaction
and its implications are rarely considered. In the last twenty years or so,
technological studies of pottery have flourished but the social dimensions
of its production (and its links to circulation and consumption) are still
underdeveloped. By tracing changes in technological knowledges and choices,
a praxis-oriented study of pottery can allow significant insights into
non-material aspects of the different life worlds, mutual influences, and
interactions.*

* The conference aims to examine closely the dynamic
object-human-interaction in the production and consumption of pottery by
tracing changes of technological choices in the archaeological record. We
believe that more light can be thrown on the human actor behind the pot by
analysing the use of knowledge necessary to manufacture pottery (e.g. the
acquisition of appropriate raw materials or the accomplishment of certain
procedures), or by reconstructing habitualized processes and their implicit
knowledge in production and consumption. On the basis of concrete examples
from the ancient Mediterranean and beyond we want to discuss how and by
whom knowledge is distributed and adopted, under which political,
ideological, social, cultural, and economic conditions such a process can
happen or is rejected, to what extent the diverse corpora of knowledge may
have influenced each other, and how changes may or may not be related to
external inspirations. Change, emulation or modification should hereby not
be viewed only in light of evolutionary-progressive or functionalistic
profit-orientated paradigms. Only under specific conditions changes in the
technological choice or habitualized consumption depend on factors such as
efficiency or competitive capability, while social and cultural concepts
and needs often play a far more essential role. An interaction of social,
ecological, economic, and political parameters, therefore, has to be taken
into account. The analysis of specific case studies will hopefully
illustrate how technological innovations in pottery production were dealt
with in the specific contexts and whether uniform patterns or general
schemes exist, bridging geographical, chronological or political boundaries.

By a balanced presentation of theoretical aspects and a critical
examination of case studies, we hope to better understand the dynamics and
the settings of changes of technological knowledge in the pottery
production, the way potters were dealing with external or internal
inspirations, and how local corpora of pottery knowledge might have
interacted in the world of the Ancient Mediterranean and beyond.


Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Marcus Nolden.

-- 
Marcus Nolden

Ruhr University Bochum
Center for Mediterranean Studies
Konrad-Zuse-Straße 16
44801 Bochum

Tel.: +49 (234) 32 - 29717
Mobile: +49 (177) 5641849

Email: marcus.nolden at ruhr-uni-bochum.de
Homepage: www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/mittelmeerstudien/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/marcus.nolden
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