<font face="georgia,serif"><div>Liebe Freunde und Freundinnen des Zentrums für Mittelmeerstudien,</div><div><br></div><div>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: </div>
</font><b><br>"The Distribution of Technological Knowledge in the Production of Ancient Mediterranean Pottery"</b><br><br>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.<b><br><br></b>
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.<br><br>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.<br clear="all"><br><br>Mit freundlichen Grüßen,<br>Marcus Nolden.<br><br>-- <br><font face="tahoma, sans-serif" size="1">Marcus Nolden<br><br>Ruhr University Bochum<br>
Center for Mediterranean Studies<br>Konrad-Zuse-Straße 16<br>44801 Bochum<br><br>Tel.: +49 (234) 32 - 29717</font><div><font face="tahoma, sans-serif" size="1">Mobile: +49 (177) 5641849<br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:marcus.nolden@ruhr-uni-bochum.de" target="_blank">marcus.nolden@ruhr-uni-bochum.de</a><br>
Homepage: <a href="http://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/mittelmeerstudien/" target="_blank">www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/mittelmeerstudien/</a><br><font size="1">Facebook: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/marcus.nolden" target="_blank">http://www.facebook.com/marcus.nolden</a></font><br>
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