Paper short abstract:

Stamps are some of the most visually striking yet enigmatic tools found at Neolithic settlements across the Balkans. This paper explores the vibrancy of image making that stems from stamps' and imprints' material properties, and from human entanglements with them.

Paper long abstract:

Stamps, stamp-seals or pintaderas are some of the most visually striking yet enigmatic tools found at Neolithic settlements across the Balkans: while many have been preserved across different sites in SE Europe, their imprints remain absent from archaeological records. Previous studies on stamps have focused on their typological classification and a stylistic comparison of their geometric motifs, while at the same time speculating on their functional significance, origins and chronologies. The analysis of material processes associated with imprinting, on the other hand, has been thoroughly overlooked.

In the light of new research on processual understanding of materials, "thing-power", and the symmetrical relationship between image making and world making (e.g. Bennett 2010; Conneller 2011; Ingold 2013; Jones 2012; Jones & Alberti 2013), this paper explores the vibrancy of image making that stems from stamps' and imprints' material properties, and from human entanglements with them. In doing so, it demonstrates a dynamic relationship between tools, imprints and people, and shows that the meaning of stamps and their imprints may be found in the constant flux of becoming, changing and negotiating; through distinct performative processes in which people and tools were engaged as one functional unit.