Paper short abstract:

Over the last 30 years, interpretive archaeology has developed in leaps and bounds – sometimes leaping and bounding past and beyond the realities of the archaeological record. This paper will review new avenues for engaging in groundbreaking, theory-led archaeological research that embraces rather than ignores the fragmentation and incompleteness of the archaeological record.

Paper long abstract:

TAG has been remarkably successful in promoting a theorised, nuanced approach to interpreting the past. Archaeological landscapes—social, technological, architectural and geographical—are now written about as subtle mixes of human life, human choices and agents, both inert and alive. However, criticisms of the interpretive approach to archaeology continue to be articulated, particularly with regard to the use (or lack thereof) of large amounts of archaeological data grounding our elegant theories. The archaeological record is, by its nature incomplete and fragmented. Yet, over the last 100 years, archaeologists working with powerful scientific and interpretive tools have managed to flesh out the landscape of the past. However, the information they collected goes by many different names—legacy datasets, grey literature, Historic and Environmental records—and is often divorced from self-consciously "theoretical" interpretation.

This paper will present a middle-way: a pragmatic approach to data collection and data utilisation that is explicitly interpretive. We will discuss the advantages and problems of using the vast amounts of legacy data collected in various databases, publications and museums. Furthermore, we will suggest that, in synthesising large quantities of fragmented data from different sources we can draw a more nuanced picture of the past than in writing biographies of single, exceptional objects or sites. In introducing the session People-Things-Places, this paper will try to define new avenues for engaging in groundbreaking, theory-led archaeological research that embraces rather than ignores the fragmentation and incompleteness of the archaeological record and the variety of archaeological specialisms which have developed in recent decades.

Paper short abstract:

Pattern-welding has long been understood in terms of functionality and aesthetics. Looking beyond material science approaches, this study adopted an experimental and iconographic approach. Here it is proposed that pattern-welded swords were perceived as more than weapons, but instead as individual entities, beasts of war.

Paper long abstract:

Weapons and warfare in past cultures have largely been understood in terms of modern perceptions of weapon categories and classification systems. This paper proposes that we should revise our approach to weapons by understanding them in terms of the world in which they were embedded.

Traditionally, the purpose of pattern-welding has been discussed with reference to 'functionality' and 'aesthetics' by investigation of their microstructure. During an experimental and iconographic investigation into Anglo-Saxon pattern-welding, it became very apparent that it was inappropriate to approach these weapons using current terminology.

The iconographic study revealed that pattern-welded swords in Anglo-Saxon art were not represented in any naturalised form. Instead, it appears that they may have been represented how they were considered conceptually. By drawing on aspects of materialisation and embodiment, this paper contests the notion of 'sword', and instead suggests that these items were perceived as agents of war. They could be regarded as powerful, magical entities, with their own will, personified (or anthropomorphised) as conceptually individual and separate from the beholder.

A study of the distribution and manufacture process of pattern-welded swords revealed the importance of 'distance', as perceived of geographically and conceptually, in defining their perceived and believed qualities. The results provide an interesting insight into the functional and symbolic qualities of pattern-welding, as well as a world view interpretation of Anglo-Saxon weapons and warfare.

Paper short abstract:

The paper proposes building a semi-fictional reconstruction of the metallurgical process as means of presenting ritual aspects of ancient metallurgy, based on the Ghassulian culture of the Southern Levant (c. 4500-4000) and ethno-historic parallels.

Paper long abstract:

The Ghassulian culture of the Southern Levant (ca. 4500-4000), the earliest well-documented metalworking culture in the region, gives us a chance to explore development of a new technology. Extensive research has been done on the Ghassulian metallurgy, mostly on its technical properties, with fewer contributions on cultural and ritual aspects.

In this paper we develop a framework for building a semi-fictional reconstruction of smelting and casting process, from ore acquiring to finished artifacts and their subsequent use. This reconstruction will be in accordance with all the available technical, typological and experimental evidence we have. The semi-fictional part of the reconstruction will add aspects of ritual performance, based on examples for ritualized metallurgy from ethno-historical records. We argue that the Ghassulian metallurgy was ritualized: it was a new practice that transformed rock into a previously unknown material, used to produce ritual and symbolic artifacts. Ample evidence indicates that prior to modern industrialization, metallurgy was a ritualized practice.

The reconstruction will describe the same events from different perspectives: from master smiths to bystanders. This would give us a possibility to explore several different ways in which the process might have been understood. Those accounts are to be accompanied by detailed explanations on why things are reconstructed the way they are.

Our aim is to bring to life individuals involved in the process and to create a vivid presentation of the ritualized technology, pervious to archaeologists and to wider audiences alike.

Paper short abstract:

During the 5th millenium BC axes made from flint are produced by tell sites belonging to the KGKVI-complex. Considering morphological and spatial data from ongoing excavations and comparisons with ethnographic data, I conclude that they were used as status symbols.

Paper long abstract:

The KGKVI-complex (ca. 4600-4000) in South-eastern Europe is especially well known for the rich burials at Varna including gold and copper axes.

Even though metal was known, the settlements still produced a number of stone axes. One type made from silex is not known in the preceding Late Neolithic. Its size and weight as well as its morphology differ drastically from contemporary stone axes and finds comparisons only in copper types. They were made from the same raw-material as the super blades commonly found in many rich graves.

Axes of that type however are not produced in all contemporary settlements although the traceable activities of the inhabitants do not show great differences. By referring to ethnographical data, the axes are interpreted with special focus on their social uses as gifts during exchanges, marriages etc.

When copper axes had an impact on Neolithic societies, as it is commonly accepted, then they must have provoked either a substitution of axes used as status signs or lead prehistoric societies to refuse copper entering the cycle of prestige good exchange. By showing that the contexts and find numbers of silex and copper axes are mutually exclusive in certain regions, I argue that some communities seemed to be aware of the danger, that the addiction to copper would bring. They chose instead to take on in flint mining and produce a similar axe that was mainly used as a means of showing off one's status and forge alliances via exchanging the axes.

Paper short abstract:

This paper uses a chaîne opératoire approach to Neanderthal hearths in order to understand them as material culture. It is suggested that exploration of non-lithic forms of material culture of this period may help to change still-dominant views of Neanderthal technology as static and homogeneous

Paper long abstract:

The largely unavoidable lithocentrism of Middle Palaeolithic archaeology is perhaps partly responsible for the unwillingness on the part of Palaeolithic archaeologists to engage data with theory, an issue which is compounded by the problems resulting from the extreme time depth of the period. However, a way to surmount this problem might be to move the focus to other forms of material culture. In this paper, the possibility of considering the hearth as material culture is raised: hearths are almost ubiquitous features of Neanderthal sites, yet they remain largely undefined, both functionally and theoretically. In an effort to alter this bias, an explicitly social approach to Neanderthal pyrotechnology is made, through use of the chaîne opératoire framework. This approach allows consideration of the production and use of these objects, enabling understanding of what the hearth meant to Neanderthals. In other words, by exploring what the hearth does, it is possible to understand what it is. By compiling and comparing chaînes opératoires of hearth use at multiple Neanderthal sites, it becomes apparent that during the Middle Palaeolithic, material culture meanings were not always fixed and unchanging, as is often suggested for this period, but rather dynamic and active, unique to every context. Through examination of the hearth as material culture across the Neanderthal world, it becomes evident that Neanderthal pyrotechnology must be understood as skilful and based on an in-depth engagement with the material possibilities offered by different landscapes and environments.

Paper short abstract:

This paper will examine the use of experimental archaeology, field survey and GIS analysis to develop an embodied and contextualised overview of the use of hot stone technology in Bronze Age Shetland.

Paper long abstract:

Until recently the study of burnt mounds has focussed its attention on finding a definitive output for the technologies involved in their creation. This paper aims to overcome the objectification of these sites by exploring them, not as a number of potential outcomes, but as a series of interlinking and transformative processes, through which people, places and things combine.

Following on from the work of writers such as Ingold (2000, 2007), this study focuses centrally on the concept of habitus (as defined by Bourdieu, 1977), and recognises the need for the creation of a practise based interpretation of these sites and their technologies. In particular it is argued that a detailed understanding of the materials encountered in these processes, and the affordances that they offer those who encounter them is key to understanding these sites.

Taking the burnt mounds of Shetland as a case study, a program of GIS analysis, landscape survey and experimental archaeology was devised. It is suggested that through these methods, by examining the processes involved in the creation and use of these sites we can achieve a greater understanding not only of the potential applications of hot stone technologies, but also how the people, places and things involved in this use interacted and were perceived.

Bourdieu, P. 1977[2008] Outline of a Theory of Practise. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Ingold, T. 2000 Perception of the Environment: Essays in livelihood, dwelling and skill. London: Routledge.

Ingold, T. 2007. Materials against materiality. Archaeological Dialogues. 14: 1-15.

Paper short abstract:

This paper will address the ways in which social network analysis and GIS can be used together to investigate the ways in which the material engagements forming the basis of social interaction relate to their real-world geographic contexts.

Paper long abstract:

The recent rise of 'relational' perspectives emphasises the continuum of social relations between not just humans, but also other animals, landscapes and material culture. Such a perspective demands a new way of thinking about such interactions in which social relations, economy and technology can be conceptualized as simply different facets of activities and performances that share many features. Social network analysis (SNA) is gaining a critical mass of archaeological interest as a new analytical technique with huge potential for investigating these more-than-human networks of interation. However, paradoxically, in emphasising the interconnectedness of human individuals and groups with other elements of their worlds, something of the rich specificity of those material, social, ecological and geographical engagements themselves is often lost.

The Epipalaeolithic and early Neolithic of the Near East (~20-7k cal BC) is a period likely to have been the locus of significant social and material culture change as some groups shifted from mobile, socially-flexible hunting and gathering lifeways to more settled, permanently co-resident aggregations. This paper presents a case study from this region and period which will investigate how to incorporate lessons learned from perspectives viewing technology and material culture as socially and historically constituted, and how placing these social ad material networks in their real-world geographic contexts using GIS might enrich SNA. The result is a much more informed description of social networks and the ways in which these change over time in this region than perspectives focusing narrowly on technological and/or economic change.

Paper short abstract:

This study of 300 Iron Age sites in and around Berkshire shows how, as the Iron Age progressed, there were changes in the types of structure and artefacts deposited on these sites and how, using agency theory, it is possible to identify distinct socio-economic communities and gain insights into the political development of this region.

Paper long abstract:

Over the last five years, a team of us have been reinterpreting the Iron Age evidence in a region of Southern Britain centred on Berkshire. Based on architectural features, pottery, coin, and other evidence found on some 300 sites we were able to use agency theory to identify eight distinct communities in an area stretching from Abingdon in the north, to Basingstoke in the south, and Marlborough in the west to Heathrow in the east.

These communities included a transhumance farming community on the Berkshire Downs which in the Earliest and Early Iron Age created a series of hillforts, in the Middle Iron Age rebuilt the hillforts and colonised the southern slopes of the Downs with banjo enclosures, and in the Late Iron Age established strong political links with the Atrebates to the south. Another community, dating from the Middle Iron Age, centred on the hillfort at Caesar's Camp, Bracknell; consisted of settlements specialising in iron production, sheep rearing and textile manufacture, cereal production, pottery production, and tanning.

This paper explains how as the Iron Age progressed there were changes in the types of structure and artefacts deposited on sites and how using agency theory it is possible to identify distinct socio-economic communities and to gain insights into the political development of the region.

This work is published in

Hutt, A. Goodenough, P. and Pyne, V. 2009. Living in the Iron Age in and around Berkshire, Berkshire Archaeological Journal 78: 1-193.

Paper long abstract:

I started with a traditional data set, mudbricks, but I asked a different set of questions. In my research, I explored how can houses build people? I used standard geoarchaeology methods but my methodology was purely social. I approach mudbrick artifacts like ceramics, as the result of a complex series of socially informed choices. If houses are active material culture (McFadyen 2006; Parker Pearson and Richards 1994) and the physical, natural world is regarded as an active agent (Boivin 2004, 2008; Evans 2003), then the materials used in construction contribute to the affective properties of architecture. Approaching mudbrick assemblages with a multi-sensory approach enlivens the house by considering the active role of raw materials. In this paper I will detail how I used archaeological science to create a social interpretation of the architecture at Çatalhöyük, Turkey.

Paper short abstract:

This paper introduces the study of the domestic architectural remains of Neolithic Northern Greece as the end-products of specific construction practices. It is an attempt to integrate equally balanced technological and social perspectives in the analysis of the human built environment.

Paper long abstract:

Architectural practices constitute an appropriate field for the application of combined technological and social perspectives into the study of human action. Domestic buildings, rather than being examined as spatial and organisational products containing other materials and activities, can also be viewed as technological and cultural products or 'artifacts'. Stemming from this, the analysis of house construction may contribute to the understanding of certain choices, technological criteria, as well as the constellations of knowledge surrounding the whole process.

This paper introduces the study of the domestic architectural remains of Neolithic Northern Greece, by focusing on the construction practices in their wider social context. Selected case studies will be presented in order a) to reconstruct the different stages and ramifications of the building process, and b) to demarcate the multi-faceted aspects that influence the nature and degree of homogeneity or diversity in the architectural record. The former issue refers to the segmentation of certain sequences of activities (from the ways of processing building materials to the ways in which they are finally transformed) in time and space. The latter issue will address the determining or 'suggestive' role that specific variables play in the shaping of human built environments. These include external broad-limiting factors, such as physical environments and locally available materials (with their potentials and limitations), as well as social conceptions and constraints. Moreover, attention will be drawn to the role of tradition and social agency in house construction, as well as to the socialities involved.

Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the impact of creating and using extensive datasets for investigating cross-Channel interactions during Later Prehistory.

Paper long abstract:

The insularity of Britain is both a gift and a curse: a gift as it makes it a perfect laboratory for exploring any kind of interaction, a curse as it often acts as a justification for complacent archaeologists to ignore the other side of the Channel. Although acquiring some familiarity with continental archaeology is an arduous task, this process is now eased by the existence of well-informed syntheses, site gazetteers, and various archives. The first half of this paper will detail the preliminary results of such extensive data gathering, leading to the collection of information on, so far, a couple of thousand archaeological sites.

This dataset provides a snapshot of continental later prehistory and enables the exploration of cross-Channel interactions. Extraordinary discoveries have indeed triggered a renewal of interest, at least in Bronze Age studies, for long-distance contacts and their social implications. Yet, it will be argued that these studies have often focused on the top of the iceberg and failed to grasp the complexity and multi-layering of the available archaeological evidence. In this sense, by contrasting together different types of data for various regions of both continental Europe and Britain, it is possible to identify the movement of permanent waves of interaction between both sides of the Channel. The impact of these permanent waves on the creation and transformation of social landscapes will be outlined through selected case-studies.

Paper short abstract:

This paper will look at how different ways of thinking about the nature of the universe and its fundamental components relate to materials and technologies in the wider social world.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will look at the relationships between different ways of thinking about the nature of the universe and its fundamental components and how people use and manipulate materials and technologies in the wider social world. The aim is to explore how the impact of such ways of thinking, from, for example, Aristotle's theory of the four elements (earth, water, air and fire) to alchemical theories of transforming matter, might be assessed archaeologically. Using a set of short examples drawn from Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the modern world, the paper will propose a methodology for using technological analyses of material culture to look at the ideas and world views that might lie behind these technologies, or, equally, that might be generated from them. In so doing, it is hoped that it might be possible to get closer to understandings of how science and society are related in material ways.