The Potter's Wheel at Phylakopi, Melos
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Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26 (2007) 234–252 www.elsevier.com/locate/jaa Meaning in the making: The potter’s wheel at Phylakopi, Melos (Greece) Ina Berg ¤ Department of Archaeology, University of Manchester, School of Arts, Histories and Cultures, Humanities Bridgeford Street Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK Received 24 February 2006; revision received 28 September 2006 Available online 12 December 2006 Abstract It is now commonly accepted that technology is, to its very core, a social product through which we can explore cultural choices. This cultural dimension of technology will be examined with reference to the introduction and use of the potter’s wheel at Phylakopi on Melos (Greece) during the Late Bronze Age. At this site, the co-existence of two diVerent manufac- turing techniques was so deeply embedded that, despite the presence of hybrid vessels, many aspects of the pottery produc- tion had become linked to either a local (hand-built) or Minoanising (wheel-thrown) tradition. It will be argued that the traditional hand-building technique was associated with individual and rooted facets of the Melian identity (such as kin- ship, social class, or gender). Reasons for the initial stimulus for adoption of the potter’s wheel are considered to lie in its potential for competitive social practice through association with exotic, symbolically laden technologies, craft products and consumption rituals. The gradual application of the technology to ever more complex vessels, on the other hand, corre- sponds to the apprenticeship sequence outlined by Roux and Corbetta and may indicate an incomplete learning process or a certain lack of practice opportunities among local potters. © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Cyclades; Technology; Cultural choices; Potter’s wheel; Apprenticeship; Identity; Late Bronze Age Technology: ‘Meaning in the making’ cumulative progression over time; taking Darwin- ism as a metaphor, it is assumed that those tech- It is now commonly accepted that technology nologies best adapted to satisfy the relevant is, to its very core, a social product through which functional needs will be selected and propagated. we can explore cultural choices. This outlook, Consequently, technological factors are directly however, is in stark contrast to what PfaVenberger related to the artefact’s function while social (1992) has called the ‘Standard View’ according to meaning is seen to reside in function-less stylistic which technologies emerge and develop as a features that are often added to the surface (Bin- response to environmentally driven needs in a ford, 1965; Dunnell, 1978). Central to this view is the assumption that manufacturing sequences are constrained by natural and physical parameters * Fax: +44 161 2753331. whereby each decision is seen to predict to a larger E-mail address: [email protected] or smaller extent the next step within the sequence 0278-4165/$ - see front matter © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jaa.2006.10.001 I. Berg / Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26 (2007) 234–252 235 (Franken, 1971; SchiVer and Skibo, 1987, 1997; interaction between the social and material spheres SchiVer et al., 1994; Steponaitis, 1983, 1984). Such follows a causal, linear trajectory whereby cultural a techno-functionalist approach leaves no space views are easily translated into material expression; for the expression of socio-political meaning, such instead, this interaction is best visualized as “mutu- as identity, learning networks, kinship relations, ally reinforcing socio-material practices” whose or social stratiWcation. This technology-society dynamic creates a “meaningful arena in which duality has, in the case of ceramic studies, often humans simultaneously engage with each other and led to an emphasis on investigations of physical with their material world” (Dobres and HoVman, properties, such as strength, resistance to thermal 1999, p. 2). The dynamic qualities of the interaction shock or abrasion, porosity, and heating eVective- between material, corporeal and meaningful experi- ness (Hughes, 1981; Plog, 1980; Rice, 1984; Skibo, ence are perfectly captured by Dobres’ expression 1992; for a recent summary see Rice, 1996). ‘meaning in the making’ (Dobres, 2001). Change in manufacturing processes was explained as performance orientated evolution towards a So many ways of making a pot technological ‘best-Wt’. Social meaning, on the other hand, was seen to reside exclusively in deco- If we accept that technological activities are rative features. meaningful social practice then one would expect to Over the last three decades, the techno-function- see great variety of outcomes at each step of the cha- alist approach has been strongly criticised for îne opératoire instead of a narrow range of predeter- upholding the dualism between technology and soci- mined sequential solutions. And indeed, a brief ety, for preserving the assumption that decisions at cross-cultural survey of ethnographic literature any level of the chaîne opératoire predetermine the demonstrates that the relationship between clay, next step in the sequence, and its reliance on non- temper, forming technique, shape and function is representative, lab-based experimental work impacted on more strongly by social rules, traditions whereby certain technological features are measured and taboos (often expressed in terms of ‘habits’) and speciWc characteristics assumed but rarely tested than by technological requirements: Cameroonian in ethnographic contexts (Livingstone-Smith, 2000; potters, for example, may add either sand or grog or Gosselain, 1998; van der Leeuw, 1993). It is now dung or no temper at all to clay from the same commonly accepted that the selection of raw materi- source (Livingstone-Smith, 2000, p. 28, 36). Since als and manufacturing techniques, for instance, function analysis has indicated that these clays do should be considered as carrying social meaning in not actually require reWnement or tempering and the same way as ‘stylistic features’; technical behav- could be used without any additional treatment, the iour is no longer perceived as merely a passive addition of (particular) tempering materials has to response to environmental or functional pressures be understood as an important social practice (Gos- but is acknowledged as being social practice itself selain, 1998, p. 89). Based on wide-ranging Weld- (Dobres, 1999, 2000, 2001; Dobres and HoVman, work, van der Leeuw unequivocally puts the myth 1999; Gosselain, 1992, 1998; Hosler, 1996; Ingold, of predisposed choices to rest by stating that 1999; Jones, 2002; Lemonnier, 1986, 1992, 1993; “virtually all known prehistoric techniques of pot- PfaVenberger, 1988, 1992; Roux, 2003; SchiVer, tery-making, and most ethnographically observed 2001; Sillar and Tite, 2000). All of the above scholars ones, have a rather wide tolerance for clays and emphasise the active role of technology in the con- other raw materials needed, so that almost any of struction and reproduction of social relationships. those techniques could probably be implemented Cultural choices are ‘made solid’ through prefer- almost anywhere, if need be by introducing a few ences for raw materials, tools, equipment, gestures minor modiWcationsƒ The non-availability of the and knowledge. As a result, technical actions can appropriate raw material(s) turns out to be only help us explore underlying religious, symbolic, eco- very rarely the limiting constraint in the manufac- nomic and political pressure(s) in relation to the ture of pottery” (1993, p. 239). expression of identity, ethnicity, gender, age, social boundaries, etc. Technology is hereby recognised as Great variation also exists in the conceptualisa- playing an important part in forging, reaYrming tion of the pot and its forming sequence. Potters and/or contesting relationships and traditions. How- may, for example, perceive a vessel as a single unit or ever, one should caution against the assumption that as a combination of individually layered horizontal 236 I. Berg / Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26 (2007) 234–252 or vertical additions; as a result, vessels can be built Rather we should regard these choices as Wrmly bottom-up, top-down, or in sections (uni-directional anchored in a much wider realm of experiences, or multi-directional) (Diaz, 1966; Krause, 1984, perceptions and conceptualisations of the potter— 1985; van der Leeuw, 1993). With regard to the what van der Leeuw has called his ‘mappa mundi’, forming techniques used, modern scholars normally his map of the world (van der Leeuw, 1993, p. 431). talk in terms of either hand-building techniques or Thus, alternatives are never true alternatives and wheel throwing. However, forming techniques are need to be considered in light of ‘cultural choices’ better understood as two points along a spectrum leading to a restricted number of culturally ranging from purely hand-built to purely wheel- acceptable variants (Gosselain, 1998, p. 82; see Sil- thrown vessels with most methods lying somewhere lar, 1997, pp. 11–12 for the social meaning of the in between these extremes or indeed utilising both at tempering material andesite). Interestingly, diVerent stages of the manufacturing process (Blan- despite being ultimately limited by cultural fac- dino, 2003; Bresenham, 1985; Courty and Roux, tors, rejection of alternative ways of doing is often 1995; Foster, 1959; Franken and Kalsbeek, 1975; rationalised in terms of technological